TUMWATER — Even the best defenses can get worn out.

Archbishop Murphy controlled the game in the first half, wore out the Bearcat defense and took advantage of a series of second-half miscues by W.F. West to pick up a 14-7 State 2A Football Tournament quarterfinal win here Saturday, giving the Bearcats their first loss of the season at the worst time.

"The whole season, we made big plays when we needed to," W.F. West senior fullback and defensive lineman Tyler McCarty said afterwards. "We just couldn't do it today."

Ben Ternan threw for 180 yards on 6 of 12 passing — 145 of which went to Mitch Gueller on three passes — but the Bearcat running game had trouble finding its groove against the Wildcats.

"They're a great team," Bearcat linebacker Nolan Lininger said. "They do what they do very well. We had an answer. We just couldn't execute."

The Wildcats kept possession for 18 minutes and 29 seconds in the first half, churning out 206 yards on 30 running plays and scoring on a 3-yard scamper from featured running back Alex Martinez to take a 7-0 halftime lead. The 5-11, 192-pound senior accounted for 138 yards on 28 carries to lead all rushers, and Wildcats' quarterback Austin VanderWel kept the ball 12 times for 74 yards.

W.F. West, on the other hand, totaled just 55 yards of offense in the first half — 45 of which came on a long pass from quarterback Ben Ternan to receiver Mitch Gueller. The connection took the Bearcats down to the ATM 30-yard line, where their possession ended in a partially-blocked 50-yard field goal attempt from kicker Ian Ward.

The Wildcats responded with a 9-minute drive that stalled on the W.F. West 22-yard line. ATM forced a quick three-and-out and the Bearcats, punting into the wind, only knocked the Wildcats back to the Bearcat 32-yard line, which set up Murphy's first score.

The second half started out a bit more promising for W.F. West, but — after pulling Cat fans to and from the edge of their seats for 24 minutes — wrapped up in anticlimatic fashion.

"We got something going throwing the football," Bearcat coach Bob Wollan said. "The big fear was those guys wearing us down. All in all, we just had to come up with a plan to move the ball."

Gueller hauled in a pass and outran the Wildcat secondary to the tune of 40 yards, but got tripped up 12 yards from paydirt and fumbled. The Bearcats defense, again, stepped up and forced a quick punt. Erik Forgione returned it 42 yards up to the Wildcat 18 to set up W.F. West's lone TD of the night, a 1-yard punch into the end zone on fourth and goal by McCarty.

"It really had nothing to do with schemes or coaching," Wollan said, on the Bearcats' second-half resurgence. "It had everything to do with effort, and their refusal to lay down and let this happen."

The Bearcats kicked off and forced another quick punt, but another fumble — this time on their own 35-yard line — shifted the momentum back ATM's way. The Wildcats worked down to the 2-yard line, but the Chehalis defense held strong and stuffed VanderWel on a fourth-and-1 keeper. The Bearcats took over and Ternan hit Gueller on an eye-popping 80-yard pass from his own 1-yard line, but before the Cats could notch another first down ATM picked off a pass on its own 3-yard line.

ATM marched 69 yards before Bearcat corner Kylon Bonagofsky pulled off an interception of his own, but another three-and-out set up the Wildcats' final scoring drive — a seven-play, 67-yard number capped with a 3-yard run from Martinez.

With just 31 seconds left in their season, the Bearcats let an onside kick bounce out of their hands and back to the Wildcats, who kneeled out the clock.

And, like that, one of the most successful tournament runs in W.F. West history came to an end just a few plays from the Tacoma Dome.

"You always know there's only one team that's going to end up happy," Wollan said, of the season's end. "The deeper you go, the more vested you are, and the more its going to hurt."

W.F. West will graduate 21 players off of this season's team, including Ternan and Jake Steelhammer, the Evergreen 2A Conference's offensive and defensive MVPs, respectively.

"It's tough," Lininger said. "The seniors left a lot of knowledge, and a lot of leadership for us."

Archbishop Murphy will play Lynden — 31-0 winners over Sequim Saturday — in the State 2A semifinals next Saturday at the Tacoma Dome, while Ellensburg and West Valley will play in the other semifinal, also Saturday, at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane.

Notes: Archbishop Murphy accrued 361 yards of total offense, all on the ground. … Also seeing their careers end for the Bearcats were Zak Luker, Brendan Giese, Colton Schoelkopf, Stephen Summers, Edgard Burgos, Cody McNurlin, Cody Snider, Drew Elliott, Alex Nunez, Ben Bellmont, Derick Folwell, Eli Spencer, Charlie Smith, Justin Beesley, William Bird, Mitchell Braun, Reid Zucati, Tyler Coleman and Tyler Shoemaker.