PURDY--Brother, was this ever a fun game to watch!

And what set the tone for the Federal Way Eagles to excitedly beat the state’s No. 8-ranked 4A football team, Gig Harbor, via a great game plan from head coach and offensive coordinator John Meagher in a West Central District playoff at Roy Anderson Field Friday.

State is next for the Eagles! They will be playing No. 1 ranked Skyline likely. It could also be Graham-Kapowsin as those two square off on the plateau of that East Sammamish area school of football excellence where the Spartans are ranked high nationally now.

But what? What set the tone of this great win for the Eagles’ program that is now hopefully just a beginning of expectations.

It was a lot of things, starting off with the Eagles getting their lunch handed to them in their face via a quick, six play, 80-yard Tides drive to open the game and make it 7-0. That did not intimidate the Eagles..

“I saw something different out there in this team that I haven’t seen in any of my other football teams I’ve coached,” Meagher said.

The Tides marched down the field for a field goal their next possession after the Eagles went three and out themselves. So, it was 10-0 Tides with still 4:00 on the first quarter clock.

So was this destined to be another Tides win like the playoff variety one two years ago, 35-16, over the Eagles?

No way!

The Eagles did nothing their first two possessions offensively-three and punt, three and punt-but after the Eagles got a third try to stop the Tides...they did. On third and one, they did. On fourth and one, they did. Senior captain linebacker Andre Barrington led the way.

Something was changing at this point in the game, a total mindful sensation of confidence coming over the Eagles.

“I had a different feeling about the character of this football team, like it wasn’t deer in the headlights,” said Meagher.

That confidence continued to roar from within, going outward, as the Eagles didn’t score a TD on their next set of downs, but they did get a 33-yard Kelyn Rowe field goal that made it 10-3 Tides.

The Eagles were coming back against heavy odds, against a Tides team having won eight straight and when was the Tides’ last loss? It was their first game of the season, against Olympia, 21-7, and Olympia is a team ranked second in the state right now.

So, this Tides team was for real. So what did it take to beat them on their home turf? The Eagles play continued to be unreal. Nico Curran, in the secondary, was blanketing the Tides wide receivers as was 5-5 Rian Miller playing bigger than life. Damon Hardy also was in on tackle after tackle. In fact, the Eagles altogether had six guys make a tackle in this game before Hardy made a second and third.

So, after the Eagles stopped the Tides on their next possession, with 8:00 left in the second quarter, thanks to great job by Jordan Maulolo leading the linemen, and a good blitz pressure from Miller on third down, it was time to score again and continue to cause distress in the Tides stands.

“Are you kidding me,” one Tides fan shouted out after Eagles QB Mick Tanielu hit Lologo Lologo on a 42-yard bomb pass play that was followed by an 18-yard scoring strike from Barrington to Alden Coleman to tie it 10-10.

The Tides got the ball back for another possession, but this one would be a chilling setback from the very first down when their all-everything QB Chet Thompson (1000 yards rushing, 24 passing TDs) was chased down by the Eagles defensive linemen, led by James Seumaala sacking Thompson with a viscious throw to the ground.

On second down, the Tides’ Thompson tried to run and met a wall of Eagles linemen. On third down, he tried to pass and threw the ball incomplete, feeling Eagles pressure.

What happened with you guys just ignoring the early 10-0 deficit that happened so quickly in this game?

“I’ll give you three words,” said Seumaala, a 6-3,260 junior playing both sides of the ball. “Brotherhood. Industriousness. Accountability.”

But this game looked almost over one quarter into it?

“We just had to keep fighting, make sure our guys stayed focused and get it done,” said Seumaala. “Jordan Maulolo, Winston Gatlabayan, Lologo Lologo, ‘Dre (Andre Barrington), the whole team, my love goes out to my whole team.”

The Eagles just met this game head on and got after it, thinking things through perfectly every play. They had to. They only had a couple illegal procedure penalties the whole game and one holding call. Outstanding!

“We prepared throughout the whole week,” said Seumaala. “Making sure we were understanding the coaching staff. We came ready to play. I thank the Lord for this.”

The whole game the Eagles were making miracles by virtue of just having players have to play so much. Defenses get tired from just playing defense, especially big linemen like Seumaala. But add in their having to play on the offensive line, too? Murder!

Meagher instituted some fine running into a game plan that really worked.

Actually, Barrington really worked it, going forth as both a running back and a quarterback switch off with Tanielu. Barrington in fact is who is spoken of next for getting the Eagles ahead, on first and 10, after having held the Tides to another three and out defensively. It was the 6-2, 210 Eagles three-sport star whipping a pass from the 46-yard line into the end zone for Nico Curran to grab hold of and make it 17-10, Eagles, after another Rowe extra point.

Barrington liked the result of this game over two years ago.

“It was a tough game, it was a tough game,” said Barrington. “Last time against these guys, I got carried out on a stretcher. I’m glad to finish it with my brothers.”

Barrington is a D-1 football prospect, quite capable of helping the WSU Cougars compete again for a Rose Bowl title like they did in early 2000 with Ryan Leaf and then beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl a year or two later when Vince Young was a superstar freshman and the Cougars ended 2002 ranked top 10 in the country.

Barrington ran for 125 some yards in the first two quarters on 10 carries, a 12.5-yard average.

He was all over the field, finishing with over 200 yards rushing the football and throw in another 100 for him throwing the pigskin about. He was one of many players playing both sides of the football.

“I am sure he was dead meat after this game,” said Meagher.

Barrington was looking like dead meat during the game, when he got hammered on a tackle and left with help. But his intensity and will to help out his team got him back in there sore and all.

“I am going to be sore, but it’s going to be a good sore,” said Barrington, an Eagles captain superbly replacing fellow all-league linebacker and UW recruit, Andru Pulu, -- who went out a couple weeks ago with an MCL tear in the knee from a game against Kentwood. Pulu could return in a couple weeks.

Getting back to the game, the Tides made it 17-13 with 3:40 left in the third quarter, after more incomplete passes more than anything else from their QB, Thompson, a D-1 baseball recruit. He was rattled, no doubt, that Seumaala awesome sack and other pressures earlier in the game from Eagles linemen made him go from throwing 6-of-6 for 68 yards and a TD in the first quarter to 0-for-3 in the second quarter. And his third quarter numbers were no good either, a couple incompletes and one 15-yard completion the whole time and then a couple more short throws in the fourth was all.

The Eagles responded to that Tides score to get within four points, with another of their own, holding onto the ball for 10 plays, going 80 yards in seven minutes’ time of possession. Barrington broke through from one yard out on this drive, 24-13.

The Tides scored with 7:50 left, getting an out pass to work for a 50 yard TD run since going through the middle to Barrington’s territory or throwing deep was not working with Miller and Curran defending the Tides’ receivers. That made it 24-20, Eagles.

The Tides were with the ball one last time with four minutes left, but fumbled the ball as the Eagles pressure ensued for a handoff and that was the ball game. Putting the ball in Barrington’s hands is a perfect way to effectively pick up a first down and run out the clock. Game over.

Looking back, the Eagles ruled the time of possession game, having the ball for two-thirds of the 48 minute duration (12 minutes per quarter times four quarters).

“They had a lot of guys going one way and we had a lot of guys going two ways so we tried to run the clock as much as we could,” said Meagher. “I think that worked out.”

That part of the game plan was brilliant.

“We used Andre as QB against K-M. so we had that in the book and we decided to use that and give them some different looks,” said Meagher.

So...it can be done. And the Eagles just might be the brothers to do it.