The rematch of last year’s championship game promised to be a pretty good one. But a funny thing happened on the way to this game. Personal fouls, turnovers and flags galore marred the highly anticipated rematch and if that wasn’t enough, the late arrival of the Bellingham Blitz forced the delay of the game from 6:30 to 7:00, which didn’t sit well with fans who had to endure the 90-degree heat in the process.

But when it was all said and done, the Tacoma Cobras were crowned champions of the PDFL by rolling the Bellingham Blitz by a score of 44-20.

“Our true character was tested, we lost focus a little bit, but we made the plays we had to in the end,” said head coach Dave McEachern.

“For all the lack of execution and with all the penalties we had it could have been a lot worse, but we got all of our mental faculties together at the right time and found a way to win.”

The Cobras got on the scoreboard first, when on the third play from scrimmage, linebacker Joshua Tuani picked up a Blitz fumble at the Bellingham 40 and raced all the way to the Blitz 9.

Marcus Reed did the honors from there to score one of his three touchdowns on the night.

“With the familiarity factor we have with the Blitz, we knew we could beat these guys both mentally and physically, and that’s what we did,” Reed said.

After Bellingham tied it at 7-7 midway through the first quarter, Tacoma took the lead for good when quarterback Adam Kruse connected with Jarrell “the flea” Patterson for a 9-yard touchdown pass to give the Cobras a 14-7 lead. The key to the game for the Cobras was to shut down the Bellingham running game, which they did.

Tailback Greg Williams was held to 24 yards on 22 carries.

“Our interior line was committed to stopping the run, and they did a great job,” McEachern said of his front four.

The only real time that Tacoma was tested was late in the third quarter after a Blitz touchdown pass cut the lead to 28-20.

The Cobras responded with a 55-yard drive in just two plays with Reed scoring from 15 yards out, giving Tacoma a 34-20 lead.

“We stayed pretty basic on defense and used our better talent to our advantage to completely take away their running game and that was pretty much the story on that side of the ball,” said cornerback Mory Ke’ita of his defensive teammates’ efforts.

After the crowd had filed out of Curtis Viking Field for the last time this year, McEachern reflected some more on their second consecutive championship.

“The effort of our coaching staff and players and the time that they have put in this year, I’m very proud of them. I hope we can do it again next year.”