In the state tournament, survival is the name of the game.

The Montesano Bulldogs survived on Friday evening by creating four turnovers and holding off a second-half charge to defeat No. 9 Toppenish 24-22 in the first round of the 1A State Tournament at Montesano High School.

Despite being outgained in the contest, the Bulldogs (9-2 overall) used big plays on defense and a key fourth-quarter field goal from sophomore kicker Felix Romero — which turned out to be the difference in the score — to advance to the state quarterfinals.

Toppenish (8-3) took the first drive of the game straight downfield and quieted the packed house at Jack Rottle Field when quarterback Joshua Perez hit receiver Shane Rivera for a 13-yard touchdown.

Monte responded on its next drive, tying the game when senior receiver Kaleb Ames caught a pass from senior quarterback Jayden McElravy and broke several tackles on his way to a 29-yard touchdown with 6:10 left in the opening frame.

With just under a minute to go in the first quarter, Monte gained the lead when McElravy cashed in on good field position with a 1-yard touchdown run to make it a 14-7 game.

Shortly thereafter, Montesano would get its first of what would be four Toppenish turnovers in the game when defensive back Bode Poler intercepted a Perez pass inside the Wildcats’ 10-yard line.

A few players later, McElravy punched it in from a yard out to stake the Bulldogs to a 21-7 lead with just over eight minutes left until halftime.

RYAN SPARKS / THE DAILY WORLD Montesano running back Ethan Blundred (7) carries the football during the Bulldogs’ 24-22 state-tournament win over Toppenish on Friday in Montesano.

“Explosive plays win games,” Ames said of winning the turnover battle. “So if we win the explosive-play battle, we are most likely going to win the game. So that’s what we try to do every single week. It doesn’t matter who we are playing, we are going to try to make the explosive plays.”

Later in the quarter, Montesano linebacker Peyton Damasiewicz recovered a Wildcats fumble in Toppenish territory and — after picking up a first down and a Wildcats personal-foul penalty — the Bulldogs had the ball at the Wildcats 21-yard line.

Monte failed to add to its lead when a McElravy pass was intercepted by Toppenish defensive back Kiyanno Zuniga on 3rd-and-12 from the 18-yard line.

In the third quarter, Toppenish cut into Monte’s lead with a 12-play, 65-yard drive that culminated with a Perez 15-yard TD pass to receiver Santana Luna, making it a 21-14 game.

A nice return from Montesano’s Tucker Eaton gave the Bulldogs the ball at their own 43-yard line on the ensuing Toppenish territory.

McElravy hit Poler for a 12-yard pass play with an extra 15 yards tacked on after a Wildcats penalty for a horse-collar tackle, giving Monte a 1st-and-goal at the 10-yard line.

Two consecutive unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties against the Wildcats moved Monte’s offense up to the 3-yard line. McElravy appeared to give the Bulldogs a two-touchdown lead with a 3-yard run, but a key holding penalty — one of four holding calls Monte had in the game — nullified the score and pushed the ball back to the 13. Three plays later, the Bulldogs would settle for a 22-yard field goal from Romero to go up 24-14 at the start of the fourth quarter.

“He was really big for us,” Jensen said of his sophomore kicker, who also hit all three of his PAT attempts and consistently booted the ball past the Wildcats 30-yard line on kickoffs. “He really came through for us.”

Monte wouldn’t score another point and relied on its defense making big plays down the stretch to secure the win.

RYAN SPARKS / THE DAILY WORLD Montesano’s Kaleb Ames tackles Toppenish wide receiver Adrian Villanueva during the Bulldogs’ 24-22 state-tournament win over Toppenish on Friday in Montesano.

Ames intercepted a Perez pass in Monte’s red zone to kill off one Wildcats drive and — after the Wildcats defense recovered a bad handoff that turned into a Monte fumble — Eaton recorded Monte’s third and final interception of the contest.

On 4th-and-7 from the Monte 36, Perez threw a pass to Rivera deep down the near sideline. Eaton turned, leaped and grabbed the ball out of the air just as Rivera was also getting his hands on the ball. The two hit the ground simultaneously and laid on the ground for several seconds, neither wanting to give up possession.

The officials conferred and gave the interception to Eaton, thwarting the Wildcats drive.

“From our advantage point, he came down with it,” Jensen said. “But he let the guy come across over the top and hang on, so I could see why their fans were upset, but he had it.”

“Tucker going up there and getting that was pretty huge,” Ames said of the play. “It was great seeing him do that. It was Tucker playing Tucker ball.”

Monte’s offense was forced to punt on the next possession and Toppenish followed with a 12-play drive capped by a 2-yard TD run from running back Timmy Torres.

A Perez pass to receiver Nick Cortes Jr. for two points made it a 24-22 ballgame with just over two minutes left on the clock.

Due to its own procedure penalties, Toppenish had three separate shots at securing an onside-kick. But on the Wildcats’ third attempt, the ball went out of bounds to give Monte the ball.

After picking up a first down on a McElravy 10-yard run, Monte’s offense got into the victory formation to close out the game.

RYAN SPARKS / THE DAILY WORLD Montesano linebacker Jaxson Wilson grabs a hold of Toppenish running back Izaiah Maldonado during the Bulldogs’ 24-22 state-tournament win over Toppenish on Friday in Montesano.

“(Toppenish) is a very good football team and they gave us some problems up front and some problems with their speed,” Jensen said. “But it’s survive and move on. We get to do that. … It’s nice to win on our home field. I thought that was a big advantage for us and our crowd was really good.”

Montesano managed just 203 yards of total offense but benefited from a short field throughout the evening as poor Toppenish punting and the turnovers consistently gave the Bulldogs favorable field position. Toppenish also had 13 penalties for 78 yards.

The Wildcats totaled 315 yards of offense, the bulk of that coming from the arm of Perez, who went 27-of-44 for 239 yards passing.

Regardless of how the stats are skewed, survival comes part-and-parcel in the state tournament and, though he stated his team needs to play better moving forward, Jensen is grateful the season will continue.

“A bad win is better than a good loss,” Jensen said. “Our kids played hard, we just didn’t play as well as we could and we have a lot of things to clean up.”

Eighth-seed Montesano will face the winner of No. 16 Cascade Christian at No. 1 Royal next week (time, date, location to be determined).