CENTRALIA — The final minute and 44 seconds played out like a movie script and when the credits rolled, Raymond defeated Adna 16-14.

After handing the ball back to Adna on downs at the Raymond 29-yard line with 1:44 left in the game, it looked bleak for the Gulls. However, the Gulls did what they had done all game and came up with a turnover when they needed it most. Adna’s Isaac Ingle ran the ball straight ahead twice trying to just drain time off the clock and force Raymond to take its timeouts. On the third run, Ingle was hit and the ball came loose. Raymond’s Luke Hamilton was quick to flop his 6-3, 220-pound frame on top of the ball and the Gulls were back in business.

Raymond (6-4) hadn’t run a play that went for more than eight yards in the entire second half as Seagull quarterback Kason Koski stepped under center with 1:25 left on the clock. Koski’s first pass of the drive resulted in a defensive holding penalty, but his second attempt is one Seagull fans will be talking about for a long time. The senior dropped back and rolled a little to his right before heaving a pass out toward receiver Jack Jordan. The pass sailed over Jordan’s head, but as an Adna safety tried to intercept the ball he tipped it just enough for Jordan to run underneath it. The sophomore receiver wrangled in the ball in around the Adna 20-yard line and sprinted the rest of the 66 yards down to the 2-yard line before he was caught and tackled.

From there, the Gulls fate was sealed with a kick. Raymond tried a sneak with Koski, but failed to get into the goal line so the Gulls went to plan B and called on their secret weapon — Koski’s kicking. The first-team all-league kicker had already made field goals of 24 and 28 yards, hammered through a point after and narrowly missed on a field goal try from 41 yards.

Raymond coach Luke Abbott called the Gulls final timeout with 3.5 seconds left on the clock and called on the leg of his senior leader to get the job done. Adna called a timeout to try and ice Koski and add to the drama, before the Gulls set up for a 22-yard field goal with their season on the line. Jordan’s hold was solid and Koski’s hands went up the moment the ball left his foot.

“Keep my head down and drive through, just like every other time,” Koski said. “It was a PAT. It barely broke the inside of the pole, but it went through. Barely, but it made it. I don’t know what to think or say. I started crying. It was just crazy.”

Raymond will now travel to La Conner on Saturday to continue their playoff path.

The Gulls plundered the Pirates for four fumble recoveries and an interception on the night. Fumbles became more of a story line for the contest than Raymond’s offense as Adna put the ball on the turf a total of nine times in the game.

“It was a lot of luck,” Abbott said. “A lot of things went our way, there is no hiding that, but I was very proud of how our defense played today. (Adna) is a very powerful team. Coming in, I knew it was going to be a difficult game for us so we prepared and prepared and prepared defensively and I’m so happy the way our guys stepped up to stop a great football team.”

The first Pirate fumble came on Adna’s first offensive play. Raymond went 3-and-out on its first possession, but a booming punt by Brandt Rockwell put the Pirates on their own 4-yard-line. Ingle took a hand off and ran right off the tackle, but was hit around the line of scrimmage. The ball popped up in the air and into the arms of Raymond’s Patrick Edwards. Raymond actually lost a yard over the next three plays, but Koski hit a 24-yard field goal to put the Gulls up 3-0 four minutes in the game.

Ingle, who finished with 141 yards rushing despite being responsible for three of the fumbles the Gulls recovered, made up for his early mistake with a 34-yard run for a touchdown to put Adna up 7-3 with 4:34 left in the first quarter.

The Pirates next fumble would be the most costly of the five turnovers points-wise. Adna’s Brady Collins fumbled a hand off on the Pirates next possession. The ball hit the turf and bounced twice before Raymond’s Taevon Hubbard scooped it up and sprinted 50 yards, outrunning several Pirates to score the Gulls lone touchdown with 17 seconds left in the first quarter.

“We had a defensive scheme for every formation that we’ve seen,” Abbott said. “We had multiple films on them and we came up with a plan that I thought would potentially shut them down or at least give us an opportunity to slow them down. It was all about do your job. Do your job, trust that the other 10 guys are going to do theirs and everything is going to be OK and I thought they did an absolutely fantastic job tonight.”

The second quarter was quiet for both teams before Koski came up with some heroics near the end of the first half. With just over a minute left in the half, Koski picked off a deep pass by Adna’s Conner Weed to give the Gulls the ball on their 48-yard line. Moments later, Koski completed a 10-yard pass to Marcus Anderson and connected on a 23-yard strike to Reese Garcia for two of his four completions in the contest. The Gulls drove clear down to the Adna 10-yard line before settling for a 28-yard field goal from Koski as the half expired.

Adna’s first possession of the fourth quarter looked like it would be the deciding factor right up until the final two minutes. On the second play of the drive, Ingle broke a run up the middle, cut left and sprinted 46 yards to move the Pirates into the red zone. Ingle toted the ball the final two yards to put Adna up 14-13 with 10:31 to go in the game.

While Raymond held Adna to just 220 total yards offense, the Gulls struggled to move the ball themselves and had just 81 yards of offense before Jordan’s catch in the fourth. Overall, the Gulls had just eight first downs, with three of them earned by Adna penalties. No matter the struggles Raymond had before, Koski had all confidence when he saw Hamilton emerge from the pile with the football.

“When they fumbled it, I knew we had a shot,” Koski said. “We just had to rely on our guys to make plays and that’s what happened.”