“Carson”ville-Pilchuck knocks Yelm out of state 3A bracket, 39-21

Dylan Carson didn’t sneak up on Yelm.

The Tornados and their coaches had seen video of Marysville-Pilchuck’s 6-foot, 200-pound senior running back, they knew he’d rushed for 2,140 yards coming into Saturday’s 3A state quarterfinal game in Yelm.

But Carson has a collection of qualities that make a back impossible to stop or even contain, as the cliché goes. His performance — 395 yards and five touchdowns on 28 carries — lifted the fifth-seeded Tomahawks (11-1) to a 39-21 victory, ending Yelm’s season as well as its 16-game winning streak.

“He’s a very physical, tough runner,” said Yelm coach Jason Ronquillo. “He constantly keeps his feet moving. It takes more than one guy to get him down. You’ve got to have the troops rally to the first contact or he’s going to break it.”

Eleven times, fourth-seeded Yelm (10-1) hit Carson early and held him to two or fewer yards on a carry, but once he got past the first level of the Tornados’ defense, he ripped off big chunks of yardage.

“He’s fast, he’s quick, he can break tackles,” said Yelm’s senior lineman Kollin Gifford. “When he gets into open space, there’s really no catching him. He’s a dude.”

Marysville-Pilchuck kept Carson under wraps on its first possession and wound up with a three-and-out that set up a Yelm touchdown drive. Moving 86 yards in nine plays, the Tornados took their only lead, 6-0, on a 10-yard play action pass from senior quarterback Palaina Hooper to running back Ray Wright.

Then, the Tomahawks let Carson touch the ball and the game’s complexion changed for good.

On his first carry, on the first play of Marysville-Pilchuck’s ensuing possession, Carson bolted 65 yards untouched up the middle and the Tomahawks edged ahead, 7-6. They scored again late in the first quarter on a drive highlighted by a 53-yard Carson run and culminated by a one-yard scoring plunge on fourth down by Carson.

A rare moment of ordinary human frailty gave Yelm a chance to tie, though. Carson fumbled a handoff from quarterback Jace Luton and, four plays later, the Tornados tied it on a 15-yard touchdown run by Brayden Platt and a two-point conversion.

Marysville-Pilchuck regained the lead before halftime on the first of only two passes by Luton, a 29-yard toss to a wide open Jordan Velasquez.

Yelm would never again catch up as Carson added touchdowns from 22, 90 and 53 yards out.

Hooper finished with admirable numbers for Yelm, completing 23 of 33 passes for 171 yards, but the Tornados’ passing game peaked a bit too late. Down by 18, Hooper engineered a 10-play, 80-yard drive in which he completed seven passes without a miss, including a rollout bullet to Aden Schaler on the back line of the end zone for Yelm’s final score, briefly making it 32-21 with eight and a half minutes still to play

“Our kids have the right sense of urgency at the right time,” said Ronquillo. “They didn’t have any quit in them.”

“We needed to settle down,” added Hooper. “We realized where we were on the scoreboard so we started picking up the pace, but it was too late.”

That Carson was the loose cannon that Yelm couldn’t account for was emphasized by the Tornados respectable numbers on offense. They totaled 310 yards, getting 96 yards on 13 carries from Platt, their own stellar sophomore back.

But the Tomahawks’ ground game and nine penalties totaling 85 yards in a heated do-or-die game both hurt Yelm. Down by 12 late in the third quarter, Platt broke loose for an apparent score but a holding penalty brought the ball back and, after keeping the ball for 17 plays and eight minutes of clock time, the Tornados turned the ball over on downs at the Marysville-Pilchuck six.

“We were our own worst enemy in the red zone,” said Ronquillo.

Hooper and Gifford were disappointed with the loss but not Yelm’s season.

“Coming here I knew we were going to be good,” said Hooper, who left Timberline to play his final high school season at Yelm. “I didn’t think it was going to be easy, but making a connection with all these guys so quickly was something I couldn’t have asked for.”

Gifford looked past the defeat to the overall season.

“It’s bittersweet to go out this way, but I couldn’t be prouder of the season we had,” he said. “We made Yelm history, hosted three playoff games in a row, which has never been done here before.”

This story was originally published November 20, 2021 at 6:55 PM.