QUILCENE — Quilcene senior Bishop Budnek overcame a slew of injuries, some preexisting, others of recent vintage, to boost the Rangers to unprecedented heights this fall, a berth in the Class 1B Football State Championship game.
Budnek broke his wrist during the abbreviated winter football season, underwent two surgeries and rehabilitation and was back on the field by mid-October for the Sea-Tac 1B League champion Rangers.
Quilcene was faring relatively well without him, including a win over a Class 1A Bellevue Christian team, but the Rangers also lost a contest to Lummi and were likely a rung below the state’s top 1B teams without his presence.
Budnek changed that, making his presence felt immediately in a nonleague contest against Neah Bay, as he ran for 196 yards on 26 carries and scored four touchdowns and two 2-point conversions in the Rangers’ 41-16 win over Neah Bay.
There was no stopping Budnek in a district playoff rematch with Lummi.
Bishop Budnek
With a state tournament berth on the line and Quilcene backed up in its own red zone, Budnek ripped off a 99-yard touchdown run, the first of seven touchdowns on the ground for Budnek, who finished with 285 yards rushing on 23 carries in the Rangers’ 61-34 triumph.
He ripped off even more yards in a state quarterfinal win over Winlock, totaling 337 yards on 33 carries, including five touchdowns. Four of the scores came in the third quarter as the Rangers erased a 12-7 halftime deficit to wrest control of the contest.
There was a cost, however. Budnek picked up a painful turf toe injury on the artificial turf at Sammamish High School and was slowed for the remainder of the postseason.
But to use slowed and Budnek in a sentence is almost an oxymoron.
He still totaled 240 yards rushing on 37 carries, with four touchdowns in Quilcene’s 36-12 state semifinal win over Odessa. Budnek ground out all those yards without any genuine big plays. His longest run of the game was 16 yards.
“He can’t run full speed,” Beathard said after the game. “He ran hard. He showed great effort. He’s still hard to tackle.”
Still wearing the protective cast on his wrist and running in pain with the turf toe, Budnek hurt his knee early in the state championship game defeat against Almira/Coulee-Hartline, but still managed to put up 139 yards and two TDs on 19 carries.
A young man with firm conviction in his Christian faith, Budnek was always quick to offer praise for the ability to play the game that he loved, despite his injuries.
As for the next level? Budnek plans to continue playing football in college, following the path of his older brother Zach, a freshman on the football team at Pacific Lutheran.
