3 Washington high school football games you should not have missed from Week 1

Defending Class 3A champion Yelm's defense was on full display in low-scoring, non-league victory at Camas

After scoring at least 40 points in 11 of its 14 games last season, defending Class 3A champion Yelm opened its 2023 campaign with a different result.

It scored eight points.

And the Tornados won.

Riding its defense, Yelm was able to leave its trip down south with an 8-7 win over Camas at Doc Harris Stadium.

"We learned a lot about ourselves tonight moving forward," Yelm coach Jason Ronquillo said. "We've got a lot of things to improve on - probably the most important development is our internal leadership."

Two-way senior standout Brayden Platt scored Yelm's only touchdown on a 30-yard run in the second quarter. Platt was also responsible for the two-point conversion.

The remaining offense in the game came near the end of the first half with Camas' Titan Brody punching it in from 4 yards out.

From there, the Tornados and Papermakers traded defensive stops.

Camas had its chance in the final minutes to win the game with the ball inside Yelm's 5-yard line, but was forced to try for a field goal that was ultimately blocked by the Tornados' Anthony Kiamco.

"Defense was lights out and bailed us out multiple times," Ronquillo said. "The goal-line stands say so much about the fortitude and mindset of the defense."

Photo by Steve Faber

FERNDALE TAKES DOWN 2-TIME DEFENDING 2A CHAMP LYNDEN

Ferndale coach Jamie Plenkovich knew not many people outside the city gave his Golden Eagles a chance against two-time defending Class 2A champion Lynden.

With a handful of seniors from last years team graduated and now playing on Saturdays, the Golden Eagles had plenty of players stepping into starting roles for the first time Friday night.

That didn't seem to matter as Ferndale put on a defensive clinic, shutting down nearly everything Lynden wanted to do offensively in a 17-14 upset win over the Lions.

"We got a lot of guys seeing the field for the first time and we didn't get the opportunity to play a jamboree last week," Plenkovich said. "I thought for not having those things, our kids came out and played a really clean game."

Talan Bungard scored both touchdowns for the Golden Eagles and Phoenyx Finkbonner converted a 31-yard field goal with time winding down in the game.

Brant Heppner tossed two touchdowns for the Lions in the loss.

"We held them to seven points until a minute left in the game, so to control their offense like that and to do enough on offense when we had the football - great job by our guys," Plenkovich said. "We had a lot of guys that were really gassed that sucked it up at the end of the game."

CLASS 4A CHAMPION LAKE STEVENS HAS ANSWERS FOR GARFIELD

It's only Week 1 of the Washington high school football season, but defending Class 4A champion Lake Stevens looked like a well-oiled machine already against Class 3A Garfield.

The Vikings' offense hummed in the 48-21 win and made sure there would be no season-opening upset like last year.

Lake Stevens scored the game's first 13 points on touchdown passes of 54 and 42 yards from Kolton Matson to Jesse Lewis and David Brown.

Garfield responded with EJ Caminong hooking up with new target Rahshawn Clark to cut the lead to 13-7, but the Vikings responded with two consecutive scores to go up 27-7 in the second half.

With the state's top senior quarterback and plenty of offensive weapons on its side, the Bulldogs cut into Lake Stevens' lead once more with a Reggie Witherspoon III score and Maliqki Walker rushing touchdown.

But as they had done all game up to that point, the experienced Vikings put any thoughts of a comeback to bed.

What followed was 21 unanswered points for Lake Stevens and the Vikings rolled to a Week 1 win.