TUMWATER — Maybe they just needed the TV cameras rolling.

The Pirates settled a score, knocked a monkey off their collective backs, bounced the defending state champions out of the dance and gave the KING-5 News crew a set of blue-and-gold highlights in a 37-6 State 2B Football quarterfinal win over rival Napavine here Friday night.

Highlights of the game were broadcast on KING-5 News Friday night, after being voted the station’s “Big Game” with over 20,000 votes.

The win ends the season for the Tigers (9-3) and propels the Pirates (11-0) into the State 2B Football Tournament semifinals in the Tacoma Dome.

“Dude,” Adna running back Bubba Lara said, between hugs after the game, “It’s a great feeling. I can’t wait to be there. I’m pretty excited, I’m not gonna lie.”

Adna had made the state tournament in each of the past six seasons, but never advanced past the quarterfinals — losing, most recently, to the Tigers 41-34 in last year’s quarterfinals, also in Tumwater.

“It feels awesome,” Pirate center Adam Hart said. “We finally beat the door down to get in.”

Adna quarterback Kyle Grosshans completed 6 of 8 passes for 143 yards and a touchdown and ran in three scores. At safety, he kept the ball out of the hands of the Tigers’ big-play receiver Matt Waltenburg, and picked off a Marty Cozart pass in the third quarter to set up another Pirate touchdown.

“My only goal this year was to get to the Dome,” Grosshans, a senior, said. “Now we’ve got to get the gold ball in our hands.”

The quarterback was especially happy to get the win over the rival Tigers.

“It meant the most. It’s the best feeling, especially for the revenge from last year,” he said.

Adna flashed in and out of the Wildcat offense and surpassed its point total from last year’s 41-34 shootout loss to the Tigers late in the third quarter. Running back Anthony Tatum ran for 143 yards on 13 carries and caught a pair of passes for 46 yards more.

“They just executed their stuff,” Tiger coach Josh Fay said. “Adna executed, and we didn’t.”

The Pirates jumped out of the gate with a nine-play, 61-yard drive — all on the ground, with flashes of the Wildcat formation — highlighted by a 20-yard back-and-forth run from Anthony Tatum and capped with a 1-yard keeper from quarterback Kyle Grosshans.

Adna scored with a 59-yard drive, capped again with a 2-yard Grosshans keeper, midway through the second quarter, and again highlighted by a 37-yard run by Tatum up the right side.

Napavine’s answered with its best drive of the first half, when Micah Brown packed the rock for consecutive gains of 15, 20, 22 and 12 yards — up to the Adna 11 — before the Pirates strung together three successful stops and broke up the Tigers’ fourth-down play from seven yards out.

Adna coach KC Johnson was happy with defensive lineman Cooper Brunoff’s contribution, in particular.

“Cooper played an absolutely huge game,” he said. “But it was just such a team effort.”

Adna blew up in the third quarter, scoring early on a 13-yard dash from Tatum; a safety — which led to a another 1-yard scoring dash from Grosshans; and a 20-yard in-stride bullet from the quarterback to Angus Brunoff.

“I’m so proud of these guys,” Johnson said. “They executed the game plan to perfection. Napavine gave us some fits when they started kicking out the fly guy (Brown), but besides that we played some great defense.”

The Tigers finally found paydirt on a 23-yard dash by Brown up the middle early in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t convert the extra point.

“I thought Micah played his guts out for us,” Fay said. “I felt bad we couldn’t end the season on a better note for him and the seniors.”

It was the final game in black and orange for seniors Brown, Mason Keller, Matt Waltenburg, Marty Cozart, Jimmy Cook, Stephen Valentine, A.J. Kreidler, Joe Johnston, Milo Allen, Damon Garnas, and Glenn Talley.

“All these guys are going to be better people for their experiences in football,” Fay said.

Brown, in his final game, ran for 153 yards on 22 carries.

“Napavine’s a great football team. I don’t think tonight’s score is indicative of their talent or coaching or anything,” Johnson said. “We just took advantage of good field position, and I thought we capitalized when we needed to on their mistakes.”

Adna will take on either Tacoma Baptist or Willapa Valley — who play at noon Saturday in Tumwater — in the semifinals next week.

“We thought, last year at this time, that they were really rolling,” Johnson said of Napavine, who beat Naselle in the semifinals and toppled Asotin in the title game last year in Tacoma. “We felt like this year we were in that spot, and we wanted to go out and make a statement.”

The statement has officially been made.

“It’s a tough road,” Fay said, on the Pirates’ title chances. “But if they play like this, they’ve got as good a shot as anyone else.”