Despite losing 20-19, Yelm High School’s girls football team played in a highlight-filled, back-and-forth matchup against the Olympia Bears on Monday, Jan. 22.
Fielding just 11 total players for the game due to a girls basketball contest causing several players to miss the game, the Tornados nearly walked away with the win.
The team trailed 20-19 after scoring a touchdown against Olympia High School with under two minutes to play. The Tornados wanted to go for the win and lined up for a two-point conversion, trailing by one point. Quarterback Austin Hitchner collected the snap, dropped back and threw a lofting pass to receiver Hailey Briggs in the corner of the end zone, which was caught. After a brief celebration from the Tornados’ players and coaches, Briggs’ catch was ruled out of bounds by officials, and Olympia remained in the lead, 20-19, as time dwindled down.
Yelm ran an “onside kick” play from its own 5-yard line, but needed to pass midfield to keep possession and was unsuccessful. The Olympia Bears ran the clock out to secure a 20-19 victory.
Regardless of the outcome, head coach Jason Ronquillo said he was incredibly proud of his girls for competing considering the lack of players for the game against Olympia. Several of Yelm’s key athletes played on the road at Gig Harbor in a South Sound Conference girls basketball matchup, missing the contest against Olympia.
“I love this team. To be able to battle against a good 4A school like this with 11 girls for a full game, my hat’s off to these girls. They competed,” Ronquillo said. “We were playing with a skeleton crew tonight. We only had 11 girls, and everyone was playing both ways. Thank God we only played one game, but we’ll play two games on Wednesday with the same crew. We’re expecting to compete in both games. We wish we had our basketball players, but we don’t want to jeopardize their season. They’re trying to make a playoff run here soon, and we want them to play basketball until they can’t.”
The Tornados started off the contest in a big way as Hitchner launched the football 30 yards downfield, which led to a touchdown. Yelm quickly led 7-0. Later in the first half, Yelm added to its lead when Hitchner threw another bomb to wide receiver Sage Rough for her second passing touchdown of the contest.
Ronquillo said it’s been impressive to see Hitchner gain confidence at quarterback throughout the early season. Her confidence is due to reps in both practice and games, he said.
“The more Austin (Hitchner) knows, the better she will continue to play,” Ronquillo said. “She’s starting to visualize things happening in front of her and starting to understand what the concepts within the game are. Everything is starting to slow down for her, and she’s been playing very well.”
After Yelm was off to a 13-0 start, Olympia put together a long, methodical drive with under 2 minutes to play in the half. Eventually, as time expired in the first half, Olympia punched in a 10-yard passing touchdown and converted its two-point try but ultimately trailed 13-8 at halftime.
Olympia started the third quarter by driving the length of the field after several chunk plays through the run game. Eventually, the Bears scored their second touchdown of the game on another short passing touchdown. After a failed two-point try, the Bears led the Tornados 14-13.
In Yelm’s first set of downs after halftime, Hitchner threw an interception to give Olympia good field position. Eventually, the Bears capitalized and scored a rushing touchdown to extend their lead to 20-13.
The Tornados had one last shot to tie the game or take the lead, and it appeared they were on track to do so. Yelm moved the ball after two chunk plays of over 10 yards rushing, quickly finding the red zone deep in Olympia territory.
Despite the Tornados marching the ball deep into Bears’ territory and finding the end zone, a ruling that the receiver Briggs was out of bounds after her catch on the two-point try led to Olympia stealing the contest from Yelm.
“Tonight, what they showed that they haven’t shown yet was being able to make the big play. We saw some big plays that were highlight-tape type of plays, and that was inspiring. You don’t want to just chuck the ball downfield one play at a time. You want to be able to throw 30-yard darts, and we did that today. It was exciting to see,” Ronquillo said. “There was some physicality in tonight’s game. My message to the girls was to just play one play at a time but understand that even though it’s a non-contact sport it is a very aggressive sport. Stay aggressive, do what you’re coached and do your job.”
