STANWOOD — Landon Stokes could not have made it look easier.

After a sack from Stanwood junior Brenner Perry on the first play of the game led to a Walla Walla three-and-out in their 3A State Round of 32 matchup at Bob Larson Stadium on Saturday, Stokes shed his blocker and put his hand in front of the punt deep in Walla Walla territory, blocking the ball back into the end zone.

Stokes reached it first, and with no one around him, he picked the ball up as casually as one would a dropped pencil. The junior linebacker/receiver raised both arms over his head, ball still in hand. Just one minute in, Stanwood led 7-0 after the extra point.

“I’ve been looking forward to one of those all season,” Stokes said of his punt block. “I’ve been close a few times, just not quite there. It’s just amazing. First time scoring all season, it’s just amazing.”

It came at the perfect time.

That score would be just the start for the Spartans (10-0), who scored 10 touchdowns en route to a 70-22 win against the Blue Devils (5-5) to advance to the Round of 16. In Stanwood coach Tony Slater’s second season at the helm, his program rolls on as one of the last undefeated teams in the state.

“It’s not really because of me. These boys had it in them from the jump,” Slater said. “They want to put the work in. They want to keep working, taking steps in the right direction. I would say we’re here to just to help guide them. These boys wanted it well before I was here.”

The players give Slater a little more credit, praising his leadership for creating a culture that has everyone bought in. After finishing 7-3 last season, which ended in a 47-21 defeat to Rainier Beach in the Round of 32, the Spartans remerged this year as a Wesco 3A North powerhouse.

“We may not have the same numbers we had last year, and we had twice as many seniors last year, but the senior group this year really picked up,” senior Avrey Patterson-Roe said. “It’s not carrying the team, but they carried the load of the stress for the team, and I just feel like our seniors have done a great, great job bringing the team, building us up. It’s our 11 guys versus their 11 guys. … We’re going to fight until the last second of the game no matter what.”

The Stanwood offense lit up the stat sheet, as senior Alex Maldonado completed 13-of-17 passes for 364 yards and five touchdowns, with 316 coming in the first half. Senior Linkin Currie brought his rushing totals up to 210 yards and three scores with a 73-yard rushing touchdown at the end of the game. Junior Kolby McKnight hauled in four catches for 157 yards and two touchdowns, and Patterson-Roe added 89 yards and two scores on two receptions.

However, for as productive as the offense was, the defense and special teams set it up for success, forcing punts from Walla Walla on each of its first five possessions in the first quarter. Slater credited the players for studying film and executing the game plan that defensive coordinator James Kruckenberg laid out for them, and Stokes felt like the energy from the first snap put them over the top.

After the second Blue Devils punt, McKnight made a catch over his defensive back and ran down to the Walla Walla three-yard line for a 46-yard gain, which set up a short rushing touchdown from senior Eben Bland Jr. to extend the lead to 14-0 less than five minutes into the game.

Momentum slowed with a fumble in the red zone and a Walla Walla punt block of its own, but the defense held firm into the second quarter, where Patterson-Roe scored from 79 yards out on the first play. Facing 3rd-and-long from the Spartans’ 21, Maldonado found the tight end over the middle. Two defenders converged on Patterson-Roe before the line to gain, but he spun out of the tackles and broke free for the touchdown.

Patterson-Roe said every time the ball is in his hands, he makes it a personal mission against the incoming defenders.

“The guy in front of me is stopping me from my future. He’s stopping me from my goals,” Patterson-Roe said, recalling what he thinks to himself. “If I let them stop me from my goals, then I’m losing myself. So I come into every game and every play — whether it’s defense or offense — with this mentality of, ‘I’m going to die if I don’t do what I do best. It’s either the person in front of me is dying or I’m dying,’ and I never want to be the one on the ground.”

No need to check his pulse after Saturday.

Sophomore Tyrus Kruckenberg recovered the ensuing kickoff in the red zone after the Blue Devils returner muffed it, and Maldonado found Patterson-Roe again for a 10-yard touchdown that pushed it to 28-0 just 1:49 into the second quarter.

Walla Walla picked up its first points on an 18-yard dump-off to junior Kalama Roberson, working an aggressive Stanwood blitz into its favor, but the extra point attempt went wide to keep it 28-6 with 8:21 left in the half.

Currie took the first play of the next possession 80 yards to the house, but it got called back due to a penalty. It wouldn’t matter; three plays later, Maldonado used his legs to keep a third-down play alive before finding McKnight open at midfield for an 88-yard touchdown to extend it to 35-6 with 6:32 left in the half. Maldonado threw his fourth touchdown pass of the quarter — a 33-yard shot down the right hash to junior Jordan Slater — with 2:36 left to make it 42-6.

“He’s a great one, for sure,” Tony Slater said of Maldonado. “He puts in the work, the film study and all that kind of stuff, too. The boys block for him, and the receivers are great, too. I mean, all-around everybody makes him great, and he makes everyone else great, which is beautiful.”

The Blue Devils cut it to 42-14 with 24 seconds left in the half on an eight-yard touchdown pass to senior Micah Eggart and a two-point conversion to senior Derrick Bingham Jr., but the Spartans scored three more touchdowns in the third quarter. A 54-yard run from Currie and a 20-yard pass to McKnight extended it to 56-14, and even after Roberson gained 75 rushing yards on a single drive that he capped with a three-yard score and the two-point conversion, Currie ran in another touchdown from 22 yards out to end the quarter.

Walla Walla worked into the red zone as time bled off the running clock, but junior Ozzie Songhurst and senior Hunter Carle combined for a stop on 4th-and-goal to give the ball back to the offense. After a few big runs from Bland Jr. to run out the clock, Currie put an exclamation point on the day with his 73-yard rushing touchdown for the 70-22 final.

Stanwood will not take satisfaction from Saturday’s performance alone. Patterson-Roe even lamented allowing 22 points more than he celebrated scoring 70. With a new standard firmly entrenched in the undefeated Spartans, they will push for even greater heights beginning next week, when they will attempt to return to the 3A State quarterfinals for the first time since 2022.

“If someone’s going to say we’re never going to be perfect, no, we’re going to push for that perfection no matter what,” Patterson-Roe said. “And we’re going to fall to greatness because of it.”