State championship notes: Yelm, Kennedy Catholic to play for first football titles

The players on the Yelm High School football team have dreamed of playing in the state championship game for a long time.

The core of the group — Kyler Ronquillo, Ray Wright, Brayden Platt, Aden Schaler, William Carreto, Onyx Carter and others — have been playing together since elementary and middle school.

Still, for as long as they’ve visualized themselves playing for a state title, it didn’t immediately sink in after Yelm’s hard-fought 28-27 win over Bellevue in the Class 3A state semifinals last Saturday at Art Crate Field in Spanaway.

The Tornados had just marched 94 yards down the field in under five minutes, scoring the game-winning touchdown with under a minute to play in the game to beat the defending 3A champion Wolverines.

“It means so much to us,” quarterback Damian Aalona said. “Everyone’s crying already. We just have one more week to go.”

It felt surreal for four-star recruit Brayden Platt, who gashed the Bellevue defense to the tune of 159 yards and three touchdowns.

“I still don’t believe it,” he said. “In my head, I don’t know, it doesn’t feel real.”

Such is life for a program that has never reached this stage. While deep state playoff runs are the expectation for some programs in the state, Yelm has never played for a state championship.

Yelm, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, which still carries an undefeated record into the season’s final week, will play undefeated 3A Metro League champion and No. 2 seed Eastside Catholic in the 3A state championship game at noon Saturday at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup.

Prior to coach Jason Ronquillo arriving to Yelm a decade ago, the Tornados weren’t taken seriously in football circles.

Sure, having a special collection of talent helps, but credit is due to Ronquillo, too. He has taken a once irrelevant program and turned it into a versatile, nasty, weight-room obsessed powerhouse. Yelm has outscored opponents 676-137 this season.

“Nobody is more important than the program,” Ronquillo said. “The coaches are not more important than the program, the athletes aren’t. This is what our foundation is based off of — a positive attitude, a winning attitude, a can-do attitude, a commitment to one another. Excellence.”

KENNEDY CATHOLIC PLAYING FOR FIRST TITLE

This Kennedy Catholic group also has a chance to achieve what no team in program history has before — win a state championship.

Several Lancers teams have made promising runs in the past — the program is making its 27th appearance in the state playoffs this fall — but this group is looking to complete an impressive season with a title.

Kennedy Catholic has made one previous title game appearance, finishing runner-up to 3A powerhouse Bellevue back in 2006.

More than a decade later, can this Lancers team, which enters the weekend on a 12-game winning streak, be the first in school history to lift a championship trophy?

Saturday evening at Mount Tahoma Stadium in Tacoma, No. 4 seed Kennedy Catholic will get its chance, this time in the 4A bracket, playing last season’s runner-up in No. 2 seed Lake Stevens.

“We worked all summer for this,” senior Maclane Watkins said following Kennedy Catholic’s 42-28 win over Emerald Ridge in the semifinals last weekend. “Nobody else really believed that we’d be here except for us.

“So, for us to even get here, it means a lot. But, we’re here to go finish it.”

Kennedy Catholic coach Sheldon Cross believed even before the Lancers’ season began this group had an opportunity to make a convincing run.

“I knew this was going to be a special team,” Cross said last weekend, moments after the Lancers secured their trip to Saturday’s final.

What has led this Kennedy Catholic group to the championship game this season?

“I think it all started from our last game last year,” Watkins said, recalling Kennedy Catholic’s stunning 43-42 loss to North Creek in last season’s district round.

“We were heartbroken with how we lost, and then the next Monday, we were like, ‘Something needs to change.’ Then we just put in the work, our leadership’s been there, and all of that has paid off for us to get here.”

The Lancers swept the 4A North Puget Sound League in another undefeated league title run this fall, and have posted 12 consecutive double-digit wins following their only loss, to 3A power Eastside Catholic — which has also advanced to the title game this weekend in 3A — in their season-opener.

Kennedy Catholic won postseason games against Kamiak (50-8 in the district round), Richland (46-35 in the state first round), Skyline (38-10 in the state quarterfinals) and Emerald Ridge to reach the championship game.

STATE CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE

Three South Sound stadiums are set to host the state’s six championship games Saturday. Here is the full schedule:

4A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

No. 2 Lake Stevens (11-2) vs. No. 4 Kennedy Catholic (12-1)

5 p.m. Saturday, Mount Tahoma Stadium, Tacoma

3A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

No. 2 Eastside Catholic (12-0) vs. No. 1 Yelm (13-0)

Noon Saturday, Sparks Stadium, Puyallup

2A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

No. 3 North Kitsap (12-1) vs. No. 1 Lynden (12-0)

5 p.m. Saturday, Sparks Stadium, Puyallup

1A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

No. 10 Mount Baker (8-4) vs. No. 1 Royal (11-1)

Noon Saturday, Harry E. Lang Stadium, Lakewood

2B STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

No. 2 Okanogan (12-0) vs. No. 1 Napavine (12-0)

5 p.m. Saturday, Harry E. Lang Stadium, Lakewood

1B STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

No. 2 Neah Bay (10-0) vs. No. 5 Liberty Bell (10-2)

Noon Saturday, Mount Tahoma Stadium, Tacoma