YELM — The standard for the Yelm High School football team has been set for years. Make the Round of 16, go on a deep playoff run and find a way to reach Husky Stadium.
Even with key departures from the Tornados’ runner-up finish a season ago in Class 3A coupled with a bump up to 4A competition, the expectations weren’t lowered.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with the classification, it is about us,” Yelm head coach Jason Ronquillo said.
For the first time in seven years, Yelm went one-and-done in the postseason.
Several penalties on vital drives and some aggressiveness gone against them, the Tornados dropped a 24-20 heartbreaker to Richland in the 4A Round of 32 on Friday night at Yelm High School.
There were plenty of tears and emotions in the post-game team huddle afterward. Seniors embraced their coaches after a 7-3 campaign that featured four wins in the SPSL.
“Tonight’s game is kind of indicative of how our season went” Ronquillo said. “Sometimes we played well, sometimes we don’t.”
Down four points for the majority of the fourth quarter, Yelm had a handful of chances to take the lead. It had a couple punts, and on the penultimate drive, had the biggest mistake of the night.
An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty turned a fourth and 3 into fourth and 18. With all three timeouts still in their back pocket, the Tornados called a reverse pass play that was well incomplete.
“Self-inflicted wounds and it is hard to come back from those when you’re playing a good football team,” Ronquillo said.
After a touchback punt, Yelm had 1 minute, 42 seconds to march down the field. Quarterback Parker Myers fired a dart to Jacob Ford for a first down and eventually got the ball across midfield.
Yet a holding call, one of several on the night, backed Yelm up again and on fourth down, Richland brought pressure and the final pass landed on the turf.
“We knew they were going to bring five-to-six man pressures,” Ronquillo said. “They had a fight all the way until the end. I can’t fault their efforts.”
Myers scored all three touchdowns from inside the 10-yard line. Marcus Ronquillo ran for chunk yardage nearly every time he touched the ball and sophomore Davin Kirkwood snared a third quarter interception and set Yelm up in ideal field position thanks to huge punt returns.
Coach Ronquillo felt it was one of the best games Kirkwood played this season.
“He really had a good game,” he said.
Kirkwood’s pick came after Yelm took the lead to open the second half. Facing fourth and short, it called a fake punt and Ford was ruled out of bounds short of the line to gain.
The very next play from the Bombers, tailback Jakob Brannon scampered 32 yards to give them a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Yelm turned the ball over on downs again on the next drive and again, Richland took advantage on a 64-yard pass from Jackson Woodard to Colson Mackey to go up 24-14.
“More of a momentum thing,” Coach Ronquillo said of the fake punt. “We saw something we had (seen) on film and we went for it. Had he stayed in bounds, it is a different story.”
Yelm graduates just 13 seniors from the roster, including Boise State commits Bol Bol and Jacob Tracy. Myers, Ronquillo, Kirkwood and a host of sophomores are expected to anchor the core of Yelm’s 2025 group.
Which Coach Ronquillo doesn’t expect to take a step back.
“We’re going to have to lick our wounds for a little while and we’ll pick ourselves up,” he said. “This is the right place for us and we’ll stay competitive.”
