Tight league standings could cause tiebreaker havoc Friday night

Scrapping for the final Class 4A Narrows League district playoff allocation on Friday night is not where the Olympia High School football team expected to be two weeks ago.

“We expected to have it locked up by now,” Olympia coach Bill Beattie said.

The Bears jetted to a 6-0 start before a 27-26 loss in the final seconds against third-ranked Gig Harbor two weeks ago started them on a two-game skid.

Last week’s 16-13 loss to Bellarmine Prep in overtime knocked Olympia (6-2, 3-2 4A Narrows) out of the weekly AP rankings.

“You go 6-0, scoring 40-something points a game and giving up seven, and then you lose two games by four (total) points — that’s tough,” Beattie said.

Suddenly, Olympia, which has outscored opponents 295-102, and was in position to snag a league title or No. 2 seed out of the regular season, will battle Yelm (5-3, 2-3) at Ingersoll Stadium for the final playoff spot.

“After Bellarmine, it was definitely a wake-up call,” Olympia senior lineman Brett Thompson said.

The Bears could not close on their final 17-play drive to Bellarmine’s 13-yard line in regulation. It ended with an interception in the end zone with 2 minutes, 1 second to play.

Olympia had the first overtime possession, but fumbled near the goal line. The Lions nailed a 34-yard field goal to end it.

“You take the little things to heart and realize you have to make some changes,” Thompson said. “I think we’ve flushed that game. I think we’ve learned from it.”

That game, though, could come back to haunt the Bears.

Yelm beat Bellarmine, 42-35, in overtime two weeks ago when Daylon Matthews hit Kaleb Lunderville for a 24-yard touchdown on a seam route. The Tornados picked off the Lions on the following drive to seal it.

If head to head and point differential tiebreakers do not determine the final allocation, the deciding factor will be how each team stacked up against the league’s No. 1 and No. 2 seeds.

Both lost to current league leader Gig Harbor, but Yelm has the edge over Olympia with the win over Bellarmine.

Olympia can claim the playoff spot outright with a win Friday, but Yelm’s road is a little rougher — similar to its bumpy season.

The Tornados were staring at a 1-2 league record after losing to Stadium in Week 5. They rallied with a nonleague win at Evergreen of Vancouver the following Saturday.

What made the difference?

“Really looking at ourselves in the mirror from the loss to Stadium,” Yelm coach Jason Ronquillo said. “We really took a gut check in that game, and that kind of helped springboard us into Bellarmine.”

The win that also could springboard the Tornados into the playoffs.

Olympia, though, could have a saving grace in Timberline (2-6, 2-3). If Yelm handles the Bears on Friday, but the Blazers beat South Kitsap, it will force a three-way tie for third place, with each team finishing 3-3 in league play.

In that instance, no team can win the head-to-head tiebreaker — Olympia beat Timberline (49-25), Timberline beat Yelm (35-21), and Yelm would have beaten Olympia.

The second tiebreaker is point differential between games involving those three teams — the differential awarded per game cannot exceed 14 points. The Bears currently have a positive 14-point differential with the win over Timberline, while the Tornados have a negative 14-point differential with the loss.

If Yelm and Timberline both win, the Tornados would need to beat Olympia by more than 14 points to advance. An exact 14-point win would force the Bellarmine Prep tiebreaker, under which Yelm also would advance.

Timberline cannot make the playoffs. If Timberline loses and Yelm wins, Yelm is in regardless of point differential.

“We’re hungry to make it to the playoffs,” Lunderville said.

3A Narrows

A cluster of injuries plagued Capital (3-5, 3-3 3A Narrows) early in the season.

Senior quarterback Cody Jenkins missed the first six weeks with an injured right index finger. Backup quarterback and wide receiver Carson Bertelli broke his arm in the Spaghetti Bowl in Week 2. Dallen Pritchett and Gavin Armitage — both all-league players last year — are out for the season.

“I don’t think there are many teams that have come through more than we came through with the major injuries, losing the guys that we’ve lost,” said Capital coach JD Johnson.

Capital was 1-5 through six weeks.

“We know how bad we let it slip, but we did know we are a really good team,” Jenkins said. “We just kind of lost footing and it all spiraled downhill, but we’ve picked it back up.”

Jenkins’ return has helped. He is 17 of 28 passing for 350 yards and seven touchdowns in two starts.

Wins over Mount Tahoma and North Thurston in the last two weeks have given Capital an outside chance of earning the league’s No. 4 seed into districts.

“We keep painting this picture for them,” Johnson said. “It’s the fact that some pieces have come back, and that the energy is up. Most teams that were (1-5) would have probably folded a long time ago.”

The Cougars can advance in two ways on Friday at Shelton (5-3, 4-2). If Capital wins and Central Kitsap also wins, Capital advances. If Capital wins by more than six points and Wilson also wins, the Cougars also advance. They are out with a loss.

Shelton still can earn the second or third seed into the playoffs.

To take the second seed, the Highclimbers have to beat Capital, and Central Kitsap also has to beat Wilson. For the third seed, Shelton must win, while Wilson beats Central Kitsap. For the final seed, Shelton can advance if it loses by less than six points while Wilson also wins.

2A SPSL

Thursday night’s 41-20 win over Steilacoom was just icing on the cake for No. 9 River Ridge. The Hawks (9-0, 7-0 2A SPSL) clinched their first league title last week against Fife.

2A EvCo

The matchup between No. 1 Tumwater (8-0, 2-0 2A EvCo) and W.F. West (5-3, 1-1) will decide the league champion, but doesn’t knock anyone out of playoff contention.

All four 2A EvCo teams will get a playoff berth, regardless of record or standings.

Black Hills (7-1, 1-1) and Centralia (3-4, 0-2) also are in for next week’s district playoffs.

1A EvCo

Tenino (5-3, 3-3 1A EvCo) and Elma (5-3, 3-3) were both knocked out before each of their final regular-season games. Eatonville — which beat the Beavers and Eagles — snagged the third and final playoff spot with a 50-0 win over Forks on Thursday.

Rochester (4-4, 3-3) was eliminated in Week 2 after failing to meet 2A requirements while playing in a 1A league.

2B Pacific

Rainier (5-4, 4-4 2B Pacific) slipped into the fifth and final playoff spot with a 51-0 shutout over winless Chief Leschi on Thursday.

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 9:34 PM with the headline "Tight league standings could cause tiebreaker havoc Friday night."