Olympic football saves season with Yelm win

Published 2:03 pm Monday, October 12, 2009

In this season of dominance by Western Cascade teams in the combined Olympic/Western Cascade League, it was only a matter of time until a team from the north delivered a decisive victory.

The Olympic Trojans fulfilled that prophecy Friday, scoring 34 unanswered points to erase an early deficit and secure a season-saving 34-13 victory over the Yelm Tornadoes of the Western Cascade League in Olympic/Western Cascade action at Silverdale Stadium.

Not only did the Trojans become just the second Olympic team to defeat a Western Cascade counterpart this season — North Kitsap defeated Yelm 27-19 Sept. 26 — but they did it in convincing fashion with their season on the line.

“We’ve been getting smacked around by these guys down south for the last couple weeks, so it took us awhile to figure out, ‘Hey, we can play with these guys,'” Olympic coach Tim Allbee said. “About halfway through the second quarter we started figuring it out, picking it up. We made some adjustments at halftime, then it was just a matter of getting after it. We figured it out and got our groove back, as Stella would say.”

The outlook was bleak after the Tornadoes (3-3 overall, 2-2 league) blew to a 13-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to touchdown runs of 2 and 1 yards, respectively, from running back Andrew Almieda, who piled up 136 yards in the first half before sustaining what appeared to be a knee injury. He didn’t play in the second half.

Larry Dixon put Olympic on the board late in the first quarter with a 22-yard touchdown run, the first of his three scores, and the Trojans took a 14-13 lead into halftime after notching the only touchdown of the second quarter, a 17-yard pass from quarterback Zach Bird to Blake Johnson.

It was all Trojans in the second half.

Bird found Harley Dakis for a 25-yard score, accounting for the only points of the third quarter to make it 20-13 — the extra point was blocked — and Dixon, who rushed for 171 yards on 27 carries to move within 156 yards of the all-time West Sound rushing mark, scored on a 46-yard run followed by an 11-yard reception in the fourth.

With the victory, the Trojans (3-3, 1-3) snapped a three-game losing streak and remained in the mix for the fourth and final OWL playoff spot. Three Western Cascade teams — Timberline, Capital and North Thurston, which collectively are 12-0 in league play — have clinched the top three spots. Olympic, Yelm and North Kitsap (2-4, 1-3) are vying for the No. 4 slot. Had the Trojans lost, they would have been three games behind Yelm with as many to play and without the tiebreaker.

“It was a must-win, it was huge,” Allbee said. “We can’t overemphasize how important this game was. We had to win this game.”

There are three games remaining in the regular season, and Olympic faces Port Angeles, NK and Bremerton. PA and Bremerton are both winless in league play, meaning if Oly holds serve the No. 4 OWL playoff spot could boil down to the winner of the Oly-NK game, which is Oct. 23 at NK. Yelm still faces North Thurston, Capital and Timberline.

“We’ve got to keep it one week at a time and stay focused,” Allbee said.

First quarter

Y—Andrew Almieda 2 run (Brendan O’Shaughnessy kick)

Y—Almieda 1 run (kick blocked)

O—Larry Dixon 22 run (Rob Elliott kick)

Second quarter

O—Blake Johnson 17 pass from Zach Bird (Elliott kick)

Third quarter

O—Harley Dakis 25 pass from Bird (kick blocked)

Fourth quarter

O—Dixon 46 run (Elliott kick)

O—Dixon 11 pass from Bird (Elliott kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing—Yelm, Andrew Almieda 18-136, Robert Burkhardt 8-30, Ben Kramer 5-35, Brendan O’Shaughnessy 6-12. Oly, Larry Dixon 27-171, Rob Elliott 4-27.

Passing—Yelm, O’Shaughnessy 0-11-1-0, Jordan Cameron 3-4-0-10. Oly, Zach Bird 6-11-1-79.

Receiving—Yelm, Almieda 1-(-5), Burkhardt 1-8, Austin Payne 1-7. Oly, Blake Johnson 3-36, Dixon 1-11, Harly Dakis 1-25, Trey Fullilove 1-7.

Olympic/Western Cascade League standings

Timberline 4 0 6 0

North Thurston 4 0 5 1

Capital 4 0 4 2

Yelm 2 2 3 3

Olympic 1 3 3 3

North Kitsap 1 3 2 4

Bremerton 0 4 1 5

Port Angeles 0 4 0 6