4 takeaways from Yelm’s 41-20 road win over Mount Si

So much went right for the Yelm Tornados on Friday night that it would be easy to overlook the challenges.

Despite a solid performance, host Mount Si made Yelm work until the final minutes before putting away a 41-20 non-league football victory over the Wildcats.

“This was a dog fight, man. This was a good game,” Yelm coach Jason Ronquillo said. “I think a lot of this game was mental, too. Our kids don’t know Mount Si players. They don’t even know where we’re going. To come here, and play in front of this rowdy crowd, a lot of noise, the music’s playing, we bring in slightly under 30 players – it was challenging between the ears for them and they responded well.”

Very special teams

It didn’t start as the Tornados might have hoped.

Both sides threw interceptions on consecutive plays on the game’s first two possessions. Neither team moved the ball early.

Then on Yelm’s third opportunity with the ball, the Tornados faced a fourth-and-7 from their own 36-yard line. The ball was snapped to punt. Mount Si defensive back Andy Cole raced in off the left side and blocked the kick to the ground.

The ball bounced up into Cole’s arms at the 23, and he scampered into the end zone for the game’s first touchdown and a 7-0 Wildcats lead.

Yelm responded with a nice drive to close within one, 7-6, on the first of three Brayden Platt rushing touchdowns. Then, after forcing a punt on Mount Si’s ensuing possession, Kyler Ronquillo gathered in a long punt and wove his way down the field for 71 yards and the go-ahead score with 40 seconds left in the first quarter.

“Having that big return was a huge answer for us, and that was great,” coach Ronquillo said. “Special teams played well besides that punt. Field position was big for us.”

Yelm never trailed this one again.

Lights out performance

It wasn’t just that the stadium lights timed out and turned off at 10 p.m. With only 3:50 left to play in a non-league game, the Yelm coaches thought the contest might simply get called off then and there.

The Tornados led it 34-20, after all. But 21 minutes later, after cooling down, the lights came back on and play resumed.

Yelm failed on a fourth-and-5 from the Wildcats 7, turning the ball back to Mount Si. On its previous possession, Mount Si had traversed 70 yards in only three plays, closing the gap from 34-13 to 34-20.

It was quite different on their final possession of consequence.

“I hate to say this, but the lights going out got us a chance to talk to our guys and our defense,” coach Ronquillo said. “Put some things in on the fly. We literally ran the same call four plays in a row at the end and pinned them down there. They just couldn’t pick up the twist. It was kind of beneficial to us to have the lights go out, to be honest.”

Consequences of Transportation

The 10 p.m. lights-out came into play because this one started 30 minutes later than usual, at 7:30 p.m. That change in game-time became necessary due to some transportation issues for the Tornados on Friday afternoon.

In fact, the Tornados almost had no way to get up to Snoqualmie.

“Very close,” Ronquillo said. “We had to change some bus drivers schedules around. Like, we had no bus driver. But a bus driver, thankfully, said ‘I’ll give up my route.’ He didn’t get off until like 4:30. So he changed his route to drive us, and called in a substitute to drive for him. So it was a tangled web of all sorts of things just to get us here.”

Getting a performance from the big guy

It may have been difficult sledding for parts of the game, but Yelm running back Brayden Platt still managed to get his.

Platt’s final carry of the game, a 9-yard touchdown run with 1:48 to play, not only made the final 41-20. It also gave Platt 104 yards and three touchdowns rushing on 21 carries against a Class 4A opponent in Mount Si.

“We started off hot, but then we both started switching up the game so it slowed down a little,” Platt said. “That’s a key component. But we also want to keep them (opponents) truthful.”

So Yelm will pass it when needed. Platt got it done on Friday, though.