Cougars trounce Yelm, ready for playoffs

Capital High School clinched the Olympic Western League title with its sixth conference victory, defeating the Yelm Tornadoes 56-7 as senior Riley Wall led the charge.

"He did a great job," Capital coach J.D. Johnson said of the senior, who averaged 12.6 yards per carry before taking a seat with 6:15 left in the third quarter. "We wanted to let him get going a little bit. He missed two games, his numbers were down a little bit in the league and we felt bad for the kid. I told him, 'We'll let you go, but there's going to be a point in time where we're going to pull you out.'"

By then the damage was done.

Capital (6-3, 6-1 OWL) scored on four of its first five possessions, racking up 260 yards of offense through the first two quarters and jumping out to a 28-0 lead.

While Wall patrolled the ground, quarterback Kellen Camus took to the air. The junior completed 6-of-9 first-half attempts for 111 yards. He also bowed out early in the second half after his 24-yard touchdown strike to Joe Tolman put the Cougars up by five touchdowns. The long TD pass was Tolman's second of the game and Camus' third through the air.

The Cougar defense held Yelm to 7 points on only 59 rushing and 102 passing yards.

The playoffs begin next week, either Friday or Saturday. Expect this team to muscle its way back into the state tournament. Don't expect a rematch with O'Dea, though--last year's nemesis will probably have to get past dominant Eastside Catholic first.