Backup QB Velasco throws game-winning TD pass, lifting Puyallup over Emerald Ridge, 29-28
Puyallup High School football coach Brian Grout can count on senior Jacob Velasco to do pretty much anything he asks of him. Score on two-point conversions? Fine. Haul in a receiving touchdown? Sounds good. Snag interception on defense? Great. Oh, and go play some quarterback with the game on the line in the fourth quarter.
After starting quarterback Kaden Rolfsness had to head to the sideline with an injury, Velasco’s number was called to play quarterback for the Vikings in Puyallup’s 4A South Puget Sound League rivalry matchup against Emerald Ridge on Friday night at Sparks Stadium. He threw the ball exactly one time. The result: a 19-yard-touchdown pass to senior teammate Donte Grant, giving Puyallup the lead with just over a minute to play. It’d be enough as Puyallup hung on to win, 29-28.
Throwing a touchdown wasn’t the first thing on Velasco’s mind.
“Don’t get sacked,” he said, laughing. “Get the ball out.”
Grant, a high-level baseball player as well, got the behind the defense with his trademark speed. As Velasco rolled out to his left, he lofted the ball over the defender and into Grant’s hands in the end zone.
“I’ve been playing football with Donte since I was in sixth grade,” Velasco said. “I’ve been throwing him the rock since we were 12. Just seen him get a little crease and threw the ball and there it was.”
Grant knew he had the defender beat, too.
“As soon as I went past that linebacker, I knew I was open,” he said. “I cut hard to the corner and wide open, right there.”
Grout wasn’t surprised to see Velasco come up big when the team needed him to.
“He’s a leader, tone setter for our team and he’s just a gamer,” Grout said.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES
The touchdown pass capped off a comeback that frankly, seemed unlikely at the halftime break. Emerald Ridge moved up and down the field with ease in the first half, junior quarterback Jake Schakel getting whatever he wanted in the passing game. A couple Puyallup turnovers gave the Jaguars a short field to work with, too. Schakel completed 23-of-35 passes for 220 yards in the game, and in the first half alone, threw three touchdowns to his top receiver Tony Harste. At halftime, Emerald Ridge led 26-8.
It all flipped in the second half. Aside from a safety, Emerald Ridge was held scoreless in the second half.
“We hadn’t played very good football,” was Grout’s assessment of the first half. “We came in here and said execution, aggression and trust was very low level, compared to our opponent’s. We talked about how all that’s fixable and how nothing in front of them was not fixable. They just had to go out and do the things that we know how to do and that we’ve done all summer.”
Message received by the team.
“I think yeah, our energy,” Velasco said. “We knew what we had to do. We were getting real close on every play and it just wasn’t capitalizing. We talked in the locker room and just brought our energy up and I guess that was really the final part that we needed.”
Rolfsness completed 12-of-25 passes for 151 yards and three touchdowns. Four different Puyallup receivers caught a touchdown: Grant, Mal Durant, Dane Parker and Velasco.
Emerald Ridge coach Adam Schakel felt it came down to controlling the line of scrimmage in the second half.
“We just got out of rhythm,” he said. “We were in a great rhythm to start. We needed to find a way — when you want to finish, you’ve gotta be able to run the football. We were having trouble doing that. We’ve gotta figure out what the issue is there and make those adjustments a little sooner.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2022 at 12:13 AM.
