Yelm’s mighty line bulldozes Olympia in rare meeting between crosstown rivals

Like all of his teammates and opponents, Sean Rohwedder had waited 15 months to play another high school football game. He’d waited forever to become a featured running back.

A second-team All-Area linebacker for Yelm in 2019, Rohwedder carried the ball on offense once in a while but had to wait his turn behind older stars.

On a rainy Friday night on the prairie, the compact 5-foot-9, 200-pound senior wasted no time proving his worth on the offensive side of the ball. On the first play from scrimmage of the Tornados’ belated season opener against visiting Olympia, Rohwedder burst 65 yards up the middle to ensure Yelm led from start to finish in what became a 31-7 victory.

He finished with 204 yards rushing on 21 carries and added a 22-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

“I was ready to go out and smack some people. It had been so long since we played, I felt great” Rohwedder said. But, Rohwedder, who did make some key tackles on defense, had more in mind than simple contact.

“Dude, I’ve been looking forward to running the ball for so long,” he said, pointing to guys who came before him at Yelm, Carson Amendt and Brandon Thompson, as players he patterned his approach after. “I learned so much from them and it was my time to shine.”

Rohwedder’s heroics were helped by a dominant night by Yelm’s vaunted line, which controlled play in both directions most of the night. Yelm rushed for 277 yards and allowed the Bears only 38 yards overland.

“The defense played really well,” said Yelm head coach Jason Ronquillo.

Yelm’s new quarterback, junior Nathan Paul, showed flashes of brilliance but also some of inexperience as he finished with 9 completions in 23 attempts for 136 yards and a pair of touchdowns: one each to Kyler Ronquillo and Hunter Venable.

“He’s got a lot of work to do,” said Jason Ronquillo. “A humbling experience for him tonight. We expect him to go up from here. We’ll get into the film room and try to get better.”

After Rohwedder’s early touchdown, Yelm went up 10-0 when Olympia was flagged for intentional grounding in its own end zone, a safety. It was one of 22 penalty flags thrown against the teams combined on the night, perhaps understandable given the gap between games for Washington high schools since November of 2019.

“We were sloppy early, it got better after halftime. I chalk it up to first game jitters, but we’ve got to clean it up,” Ronquillo said.

Midway through the second quarter, Olympia wide receiver Alfredo Ramirez made the play of the night, wrestling a tipped pass from quarterback Gabe Downing away from a Tornado defensive back near midfield and sprinting to the end zone to complete a 95-yard scoring play.

That cut Yelm’s lead to 10-7, but Olympia could get no closer.

BOX SCORE

Olympia 0 7 0 0 — 7

Yelm 10 6 8 7 — 31

Y – Sean Rohwedder 65 run (Rohwedder run)

Y – Safety, Olympia intentional grounding penalty in end zone

O – Alfredo Ramirez 95 pass from Gabe Downing (Roan Senna kick)

Y – Kyler Ronquillo 30 pass from Nathan Paul (kick blocked)

Y – Rohwedder 22 run (Ronquillo run)

Y – Hunter Venable pass from Paul (Lucatero kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

PASSING

O – Downing 14-23-0-136.

Y – Paul 9-23-0-132.

RUSHING

O – Cole Peterson 3-16, Downing 5-7, Braden Matthews 6-2, Jack Olsen 3-5, Elliott Grant 1-8.

Y – Rohwedder 21-204, Paul 7-25, Brayden Platt 6-28, Ray Wright 1-2, William Carreto 3-18.

RECEIVING

O – Mason Juergens 6-69, Ramirez 126, Peterson 1-3, Grant 1-(-3), Connor Johnson 1-4.

Y – Venable 4-63, Wright 3-27, Ronquillo 2-42.

This story was originally published February 20, 2021 at 12:29 AM.