Dylan Reubenking / dylanr@chronline.com
In an odd first quarter, the Yelm Tornados led the Lincoln Abes 7-0 without its offense taking the field for a single snap Thursday night.
By the time Yelm’s offense finally reached the end zone late in the fourth quarter, the Abes had ripped off 36 unanswered points and had established firm control on the road. Lincoln defeated Yelm 36-14 for its second straight loss to start the season and its first 0-2 start since 2019.
“Right now, this isn’t what this program is used to,” first-year Yelm head coach Rex Norris said. “I am confident that they’ll stay resilient and come out better next week.”
One week after the Tornados were shut out 42-0 by Mount Tahoma in Tacoma, they took their home field for the first time and played with a feisty defensive energy in the opening quarter against the Abes and their highly touted quarterback Sione Kaho.
Following an 11-play opening drive, Lincoln was forced to kick a 27-yard field goal, but it was blocked by Yelm’s Sam DeJiacomo, scooped up by Jacob Ford and returned for a 78-yard touchdown to give the Tornados their first points of the season.
The only downside of the special teams score for the Tornados was that their defense had to immediately march back onto the field after the long opening drive. The Abes wore them down, this time with a 13-play drive that took seven minutes off the clock and resulted in a Jadeon Scranton 9-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 7-7.
Yelm’s first offensive snap came two minutes into the second quarter, and the Tornados failed to move the chains on four attempts. Just before halftime, the Abes hushed the Yelm crowd with a 74-yard touchdown pass from Kaho to Ilaikima Malafu to give Lincoln a 14-7 halftime lead.
Tornados quarterback Owen Sletten tossed an interception in Lincoln territory on the first drive of the third quarter, and the Abes once again exhausted the Yelm defense with another laborious drive. Scranton finished off the drive once again with a 2-yard run on a direct snap, and a botched extra point attempt ending up as a two-point reception by Scranton off a pass that was tipped by a Tornado defender.
On the doorstep of the red zone for the first time of the night, the Tornados turned the ball over for the second straight possession late in the third period. Lincoln blew it open in the fourth, first on a 16-yard pass from Kaho to Malafu and then on Scranton’s third touchdown run of the evening. Yelm’s first offensive score of the season came with 1:07 left in the fourth, with Sletten finding senior Jay Sumich in the corner of the end zone on a jump ball.
Kaho, who holds numerous Division I offers, torched Yelm for 245 yards and two touchdowns on 16-25 passing, while Scranton rushed for 107 yards and three scores on 24 carries.
For Yelm, Sletten completed eight of his 19 passes for 77 yards, one touchdown pass and one interception. Sumich led all Tornados receivers with 58 yards and Jacob Ford paced the rushers with 21 yards, but Yelm could only muster up 127 total yards compared to Lincoln’s 443.
“We need to be better in just understanding where our opportunities are and putting the kids in better positions as a staff, and that’s on me. I’ve gotta make sure that we have a plan,” Norris said. “We have a lot to build on and to improve on. We’ve talked a lot about reflecting. As an individual, we have to identify what we need to get better at and really focus on that during practice and during the week. If we can get our kids to do a better job of that, as well as coaches, we’ll all take a step closer to being successful."
Yelm (0-2) will look for its first win of 2025 when it hosts Life Christian Academy at home on Friday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. in the final non-league contest before South Puget Sound League action begins with a home test at Spanaway Lake Sept. 26.
