Olympia pummels Spokane’s Ferris, 42-0, at 13th annual Emerald City Kickoff Classic

Six.

That’s how many consecutive touchdowns Olympia football scored Saturday en route to thumping Ferris, 42-0, in its season opener at the 13th annual Emerald City Kickoff Classic at Husky Stadium.

The Bears improve to 2-0 at the Classic — they beat Walla Walla, 20-13, in 2004 — and 2-0 in their series against Ferris.

“I think going into it we knew we’d have a good game because we’d been practicing hard all week, and had a lot of returning people ready to go,” senior wide receiver David Woodward said.

Woodward, who caught three passes for 38 yards and rushed for another 33 yards, was one of two impact players who returned from season-ending injuries last year. Running back Scott Gunther was the other.

Gunther rushed for 94 yards on 19 carries and scored two touchdowns.

“It felt good to be back on the field, it’s been over a year,” Woodward said.

Olympia scored on all but two of its drives, and finished with 22 first downs — the Bears were 10 for 12 on third-down conversions.

Quarterback Jack Bell — a first-year starter — bookended Olympia’s scoring efforts with a 3-yard touchdown in the opening drive, and a 1-yard scoring run with 4 minutes, 5 seconds to play in the fourth. Jaden Toussaint and Clay Markoff each added a touchdown on short rushes.

“You don’t go in expecting to win like this,” Olympia coach Bill Beattie said. “Our kids came out and played phenomenal football, especially in the first half.”

The second half was no slouch for the Bears, who added a sixth touchdown in completing the shutout. The defense allowed only 51 yards on 35 plays by Ferris — all from passing. The Saxons finished with a net total of zero rushing yards on 13 carries and had only four first downs.

Woodward and Dayne Shafer led Olympia with 5 1/2 tackles apiece.

“Our defense is a veteran group … hopefully tonight was a little bit showing of what they’re able to do,” Beattie said.

The strong scoring effort also allowed Olympia to explore some options on its 80-player roster.

“We were rotating the whole game,” Gunther said. “We’re really deep, it’s going to be a good year.”

And even when plays went wrong, they went right for Olympia. On the opening drive, the Bears completed a two-point conversion on a botched extra point attempt.

Sophomore Ketner Young bobbled the snap before tossing a floater to Gunther, giving Olympia the early 8-0 lead.

“We didn’t mean to … but again, that’s a great job,” Beattie said. “We’ve got a sophomore quarterback who gets a bad snap, picks it up and gets two points.”

The Bears play host to rival Capital at 7 p.m. Friday at Ingersoll Stadium in the 39th Spaghetti Bowl.

“You enjoy this win and you get back to work and go after it,” Beattie said. “We take the next opponent as they come.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 7:39 PM with the headline "Olympia pummels Spokane’s Ferris, 42-0, at 13th annual Emerald City Kickoff Classic."