In the second half, he was close to extraordinary as the River Ridge Hawks subdued Steilacoom, 26-7, in a non-league showdown.
Wallace carried 15 times for 194 yards and three eye-popping touchdowns, all after halftime, to break open a close game.
“He does special things,” River Ridge coach Steve Schultz said. “I’m glad he’s on our side.”
Steilacoom, which put up 48 points in a win over Klahowya last week, got nothing in the first half. It was more its own miscues than stout River Ridge opposition, though it was hard to fault the Hawks’ pass defense.
Steilacoom’s three-headed running attack of Jacob Esseln (two carries for 17 yards) James Dodsworth (2 for 18) and James Mack (3 for 31) had the Sentinels knocking at the Hawks’ 13 after a Mack 16-yarder.
From there, the play call was a pass, and Grant Walker stepped in front of the Steilacoom receiver at the goal line to grab Lucas Mireles’ pass and end the threat.
Earlier, Jeremy Camacho’s interception of Mireles and a hard-nosed 20-yard return set the Hawks up on the Steilacoom 7, from which distance the other half of the River Ridge brother act, Elijah Camacho, reached the end zone on the first play of the second quarter.
Steilacoom drove deep into River Ridge territory again as time grew short in the first half, but the half ended with Elijah Camacho needing to beat one man after a 65-yard interception return.
Wallace was hardly unproductive in the first half (seven carries, 47 yards), but the second half was his playground. He carried five times on a 62-yard drive after the second half kickoff, the capper a 24-yard Wallace blast up the middle.
Minutes later, he outran the world on a 67-yard scoring sprint.
That was a warm-up. On the next possession, with River Ridge at the Sentinels’ 32, he took a handoff and again appeared trapped behind the line, but he changed direction twice to elude tacklers and then picked his way through the grasping defense and made a dive into the end zone.
“You notice our guys, when he has the ball, they go until the whistle blows,” Schultz said.
Schultz said his team’s focus was on playing a better second half after leading 20-0 at halftime last week and squeaking out a 27-26 win over Washington.
This week, River Ridge shut down the Steilacoom run game after its solid first half.
“They were beating us off the ball,” Schultz said. “They’re not big, but they sure are quick and tough.”
In the second half, Mack powered into the end zone from 19 yards out for the Sentinels’ only points.
River Ridge (2-0) heads to Longview next Friday to face Mark Morris in a nonconference game.
