Saturday’s 4A state quarterfinal game against Issaquah High — and essentially Bothell High’s football season — came down to one final play. With five seconds left on the clock, Eagle kicker Gavin Schumaker was preparing for the biggest kick of his life, a 36-yard attempt that seemed like 50 with so much on the line.

With the score tied 28-28 on fourth down, a miss would send the game into overtime, while a clutch conversion would send the Eagles to the Tacoma Dome for the first time in five years to play in the state semifinals.

Schumaker, who failed on a 27-yard attempt in the second quarter, made amends by booming the game-winning kick through the uprights, stunning the Blue Train into silence.

Final score: 31-28.

“I kinda messed up on that (earlier kick), I had to repay them,” said Schumaker, whose season-long field goal up to that point was just 30 yards. “It scared me, it was looking a little bit left.”

Special-teams blunders

Three crucial errors made by Bothell’s special teams dug the Cougars into an early hole. In the first two quarters, they fumbled a kickoff return and got called twice on roughing the kicker on Issaquah punts, all mistakes leading to Issaquah scores.

With 8:03 left in the second period, the Eagles were already up, 21-0.

“Special teams was as bad as it’s been in the nine years I’ve been here,” admitted Bothell head coach Tom Bainter after the game. “We just didn’t make plays, and we gave them too many chances in the first half.”

Taking advantage of those chances were the duo of Issaquah quarterback Joey Bradley and highly touted running back Grant Gellatly, who ran in all three of their first-half touchdowns, highlighted by a 27-yard run in the first quarter.

By halftime, the Eagles had already racked up 245 total yards, including 152 on the ground, 128 of which belonged to Gellatly on 18 carries.

Ottorbech unstoppable

Bothell’s answer to Gellatly was its own star Patrick Ottorbech, and the Eagles couldn’t do a thing to stop the 5-foot-7, 187-pound running back all night.

Making the most of great field position after a mammoth kickoff return, the Cougars got on the board in the second quarter with an eight-play drive from the Issaquah 34, with Ottorbech taking over once the Blue Train got to first-and-goal. The senior was handed the ball on four straight plays and scampered into the end zone on fourth-and-one to make it 21-7.

Entering halftime with a bit of momentum, the visiting Cougars continued their comeback in the third with center Jackson Pierce recovering a fumble at the 47. Thanks to a 32-yard run by Ottorbech and a perfect 11-yard pass from starting quarterback Mitchell Muller to 6-foot-5 junior Michael Hartvigson, the Cougars narrowed the gap, 21-13.

Bainter elected for a gutsy two-point conversion, which made the score 21-15.

Fourth quarter scare and the pass of the year

Bothell fans were left holding their collective breath on the first drive of the fourth quarter, as both Muller and Chris Dan Jumbo lay on the field after getting hit hard by Eagle defenders. Dan Jumbo got up and would later re-enter the game, but Muller, limping, had to be helped off the field.

That meant the spotlight would be on James Korn, who was Bothell’s starting quarterback in the team’s earlier loss to Issaquah on opening night of the season, and was replaced by Muller after week two’s loss to Bellevue.

After Ottorbech ran in a 5-yarder and Eagle wide receiver Brennan Miller caught an 11-yard bullet from Bradley to make it 28-21 in favor of the Eagles, Bothell was faced with a do-or-die situation as the two-minute warning approached.

It was fourth-and-seven from the 13, and Korn, who had been untested since week two of the season throwing in competitive, game-changing situations, came up big for the Cougars.

Looking for an open man with Eagles in hot pursuit, Korn let one fly to the left corner of the end zone, where Hartvigson stretched out amid a sea of purple-and-gold jerseys to make a great catch on an unbelievable, laser-guided throw.

“(Korn) always works hard every day in practice,” Bainter said. “He’s a team-first guy, and there’s no question that if we needed him, he would perform and he did a great job on a fourth-down play. I’m real proud of him.”

Ottorbech played his final game in a Cougar uniform in style, finishing with 248 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 28 carries.

“He’s a good football player, the best running back I’ve ever coached,” said Bainter. “He’s talented, hard to take down, a kid that has heart and plays with heart.”

While many have regarded Issaquah as a “run-only” team, the Eagles’ Bradley proved otherwise with a tremendous effort, passing 15-of-22 for 190 yards.

“What a great job by Joey tonight. He led us, he was so sharp early … made a lot of third-down completions, he had a great game,” said Issaquah coach Chris Bennett. “We got up early like we wanted to do, but Bothell’s a great team, they fought back.”

With the win, the Eagles (10-2) will play in the 4A semifinals against Central Kitsap, which defeated Rogers on Saturday, 21-6. The Cougars finished the season with an 8-4 record.