A tag team of quarterbacks leads Timberline past Yelm, 35-21
Mike Spears entered his first season as Timberline’s head football coach unsure who his starting quarterback would be.
He may not have to make a decision if he continues to get the offensive output he got from Jacob Henning and Trenton Horn in the first half of the Blazers’ Narrows League 4A opener against Yelm. Both juniors took turns carving up the Tornados defense.
Henning threw for a touchdown, Horn added a pair of touchdown runs and visiting Timberline turned back a late push by previously unbeaten Yelm to post a 35-21 victory on Friday.
“Great first half out of both of them,” Spears said about the effort of his dual signal callers. “We’re a young team. We’re still learning how to win. We just need to be able to put four quarters together. We had a great first half last week against Tumwater, then fell apart. Tonight, we looked very good in that first half, but we still need to put a full four quarters together.”
Henning finished 10 of 16, passing for 165 yards with an interception. Horn connected on 4 of 5 pass attempts for 124 yards and added rushing touchdowns of 1 and 7 yards to help the Blazers (1-2 overall, 1-0 league) race to a 28-0 lead at intermission.
Chris Barnes hauled in six catches for 151 yards, highlighted by his 33-yard TD reception from Henning with a minute left in the first half.
Yelm (2-1, 0-1) got back into the contest on the arm of senior Daylon Matthews, who tossed second-half touchdown passes to Kaleb Lunderville and Joey Hawks to make it a game. But Matthews was sacked five times and picked off once.
Outside of a Henning pass that was intercepted late in the first quarter, the Blazers were nearly flawless in the first half, scoring on four of their five possessions.
Henning bookended the half with scoring drives, while Horn directed a pair himself — both ending with him calling his own number on short TD runs.
Henning sparkled on both of his touchdown drives, going 4 for 5 for 55 yards on the Blazers’ opening possession, which Uli Maae capped with a 6-yard TD run.
Henning then ended the first half by marching Timberline 75 yards, on 4 for 4 accuracy, in under a minute.
The Tornados cut the deficit in half in the third quarter with Brandon Thompson’s 3-yard touchdown run and a 57-yard TD pass from Matthews to Lunderville, but Timberline answered quickly, with Horn hitting Barnes on a 53-yard completion before Anthony Hathaway punched it in from a yard to push the Blazers back in front by three touchdowns.
This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 10:25 PM with the headline "A tag team of quarterbacks leads Timberline past Yelm, 35-21."