OLYMPIA — Garrett Murphy dove to the pylon for a 12-yard rushing touchdown for the Capital Cougars at approximately 7:23 p.m. Friday night to put his team ahead of River Ridge by a score of 12-7 at Ingersoll Stadium.
The two-point conversion was attempted over 20 hours later at about 3:55 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
That was far from the only oddity that occurred at Ingersoll Stadium this weekend.
On Saturday, River Ridge and Capital resumed their Week 4 football game that was abruptly stopped with two minutes left in the first quarter Friday night due to a widespread power outage in the area.
The lights turned off at Ingersoll Stadium just as Capital was preparing to snap the ball for an extra-point attempt following Murphy’s touchdown. Capital was convinced it made the kick in the dark, but the game was delayed and the boot didn’t count. After about 25 minutes of hectic on-field discussions between school officials, referees and coaches, the decision was eventually made to postpone the game until Saturday and resume where it was halted.
About a half dozen Olympia Police Department vehicles drove onto the Ingersoll track to provide blinding lights for the fans in the stands as they departed.
To top off all the outlandishness Friday night, the theme of choice for Capital’s student section was foreshadowingly a “blackout.”
You just had to be there.
But the power returned to the stadium, and so did Capital, River Ridge, and just a smattering of the Capital student section. The Cougars got the better of the Hawks with a 29-17 victory Saturday night.
“With kids, any disruption…you have to retract their brain back into what they’ve gotta do today,” Capital head coach Terry Rose said. “They were having a good time last night when the police came and all that stuff. It was just a weird game.”
Both teams repeated their grand entrances onto the field, yet none of the typical Friday night theatrics followed. No national anthem. No coin toss. No kickoff.
Directly after the entrances, Capital’s offense took the field at the River Ridge 2-yard line with a 12-7 score on the scoreboard and 2:01 on the clock, lining up for a two-point conversion. Quarterback Nolan Potts handed the ball off to star wide receiver Carter Pennington, who sprinted to his left and was tackled short of the goal line.
River Ridge’s offense never took the field in the brief Friday night action, as Aizaiah Rookwood returned a kickoff 97 yards for the Hawks’ lone touchdown before the delay. Over 20 hours after the opening kickoff, the Hawks took their first offensive snap, and running back Jimmy Ha fumbled the ball after an 11-yard gain, with Capital’s Cale Burkheimer recovering in Hawks territory.
Hawks defensive end Ryzen Nunez sacked Potts to force a field goal, which Potts drilled from 24 yards out early in the second quarter.
Capital got the ball back after a River Ridge three-and-out, and Potts led the Cougars to a 10-play drive and connected with Kennon Valentine, who made an impressive leaping grab for a 4-yard touchdown. Capital held a 22-7 advantage at halftime.
River Ridge couldn’t find an offensive spark in the first half, failing to pick up a first down and recording just 10 total yards. To make matters worse, the Hawks lost their quarterback Nunez to a rib injury he suffered late in the first half on a third-down sack.
With sophomore Jax Fulton in at quarterback to start the second half, the Hawks went three-and-out again on the first possession. Capital, which had worn out the Hawks defense with long drive after long drive, needed just four plays to find the end zone again, this time via a Mason Bottin 21-yard run.
Down 29-7, the Hawks finally picked up a first down midway through the third quarter on a 20-yard gain by D’Vaughntae Sellman on a pitch from Fulton. The sophomore gunslinger flashed his potential with a 27-yard touchdown strike to Rookwood to pull the Hawks within two scores.
After a Cougars punt, the Hawks kept their momentum on offense alive with another lengthy drive down to the Capital 1-yard line. A delay of game penalty and an eight-yard tackle for loss by Cougars senior defensive lineman Karver Bulloch backed them up to the 14. Marco Villa Jr. hit a 31-yard field goal to make it 29-17 Cougars with 8:01 to play.
Capital milked the clock down to just over two minutes remaining in the fourth, but Potts threw an interception to Hawks senior defensive back Kaiden Thomas. The Cougars defense returned the favor moments later, however, as Bartlett forced his second turnover of the game with a sealing interception of Fulton with 33 seconds left.
It took nearly 24 hours from the opening kickoff, but the Cougars emerged victorious in a game that had no precedent. Capital once played Timberline at Ingersoll Stadium in 2022 and endured a brief power outage, but the game resumed after about a 90-minute delay.
“It was really crazy. The power went out, and our team just kept that energy. We wanted to play,” Bulloch said of Friday night’s outage. “We brought that into today’s game. We tried staying in that mindset and were ready to play today.”
Pennington, fresh off a remarkable 273-yard, three-touchdown game against Bonney Lake last week, was productive once again with 104 yards and a touchdown on 10 grabs. Potts finished with 189 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception on 21-of-32 passing, and he was the Cougars’ leading rusher with 64 yards.
Potts has battled a broken toe this season, but he toughed it out and willed his team to its second straight victory following an 0-2 start.
“That kid’s tough. When Nolan speaks, everyone listens,” Rose said. “When Nolan is in the huddle and he gets excited, they follow him. It’s a huge benefit to have him. He made great decisions.”
River Ridge finished with just 138 yards of total offense, but 128 of those came in the second half. Head coach Tim Claridge was frustrated with the slow start on offense Saturday afternoon but was impressed with the fight the Hawks displayed to battle back from a 22-point margin.
“We had to spend 20 hours off. You never know what it’s going to be like when you come out. It was a slow start to the day today,” he said. “But in the second half, I think the boys came out and fought hard. We put some points on the board, did a better job containing on defense, and we moved the ball a little bit on offense."
Capital (2-2, 1-0 Puget Sound League) will visit a tough Peninsula (2-2, 1-0 PSL) team Friday, Oct. 2, while River Ridge (0-4, 0-1 PSL) goes to Lakes (3-1, 1-0 PSL) that same night.
