A season to remember

Published 10:07 am Friday, February 22, 2008

TACOMA — You can point to several reasons why the Archbishop Thomas Murphy Wildcats are the Class 1A state high school football champions.

During a trying week for his family, junior running back Jevon Butler responded with one of his best games of the season, rushing for a Class 1A title game record 227 yards on 26 carries and scoring a pair of touchdowns. Butler’s mother suffered a heart attack earlier in the week.

Then there was the play of senior quarterback Axel Wolff, who flawlessly executed an offense that amassed a record 466 yards on the ground against a Royal defense that didn’t allow any team to score more than one touchdown during the regular season.

No play was more significant, however, than Wolff’s lone pass in the game, a 25-yard touchdown to split end Ian Telge with 1:01 left in the second quarter that gave the Wildcats a two touchdown lead heading into halftime.

Archbishop Murphy coach Terry Ennis can’t forget the effort of his defense. A high-powered Royal offense that averaged more than 56 points a game during the regular season was limited to two touchdowns by the stingy Wildcat defense.

But were he to hand out game balls, Ennis would have to order them in bulk because as far as he is concerned, Archbishop Murphy’s 35-14 victory over Royal in the Class 1A Gridiron Classic Dec. 7 in the Tacoma Dome was a total team effort.

“It’s the greatest experience to work this hard and get something like this,” Wolff said. “We didn’t just show up here … we worked hard every day. When your work pays off, it just makes the victory so much sweeter.”

Wolff’s sentiments were shared by many players and their coach.

“There were some kids that did some things they hadn’t done all year,” Ennis said. “We said, ‘Hey, if there’s a fumble out there, somebody’s got to be ready to get on it.’ We had a linebacker playing for the first time … these were kids working hard. That’s what I’m really excited about.

“I went into this one saying we don’t want to be embarrassed because that’s a great football team and our kids just played hard.”

The Wildcats came into their first-ever championship game as an underdog in most observers’ estimation. Royal, who won state titles in 1996 and 2000, had 18 seniors on its roster compared to Archbishop Murphy’s five. This was only the second varsity season and third overall for the Wildcats.

But none of that mattered. Nor did the talk from the Knights that they were going to contain Jevon Butler.

“We came pumped up for this game,” Butler said. “They gave us no respect … We showed them who the winners are.”

Before the Wildcats could even start to prepare for the top-ranked Knights, they had to deal with the news that Feneda Butler, the mother of Jevon and J.T. Butler, had suffered a heart attack on Monday, two days after Archbishop Murphy’s semifinal victory over Cascade Christian.

Emotionally, it’s been a difficult couple of weeks for many of the Wildcats, who also were coping with the death of the father of a classmate many players know well. Another boy’s father had some chest pains.

“I think we just kind of supported each other in a lot of ways,” Ennis said.

Freshman running back/defensive back Stan Smith was stunned when he heard the news about the Butlers’ mother. The team rallied to support J.T. and Jevon.

“Being the great high school we are, everybody helped them,” Smith said. “Everybody was praying for their mom.”

Feneda Butler was released from the hospital later in the week and is recovering at home.

“We dedicated the game to my mom,” J.T. Butler said. “We played for my mom.”

Archbishop Murphy didn’t take long to get its fans fired up. Jevon Butler returned the opening kickoff 68 yards to Royal’s 22-yard line. An illegal shift penalty pushed the Wildcats back five yards and the Knights’ defense then stiffened. Four plays later, Archbishop Murphy turned the ball over on downs.

While frustrated not to come away with any points, Ennis wasn’t necessarily surprised by Royal’s defensive stand.

“You’re playing teams that aren’t going to … lose their confidence because of a big play,” he said.

Archbishop Murphy’s offense got a big boost of confidence on its next offensive series, putting together a 12-play, 65-yard scoring drive. Butler scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 17-yard run with 30 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Butler kept the drive alive on a fake punt play that netted a critical first down. Facing a fourth-and-3 at the Royal 47, the Wildcats lined up to punt. But the ball went to backup quarterback Kyle Wilkins, who handed the ball off to Butler, who gained 11 yards on the run and a first down.

“We did not want to be punting four or five times to their team because they have too much offense,” Ennis said. “We knew that every possession was also a big part of our defense. The time we could run off the clock was really going to be important. So having a fourth down and turning a punt into a first down, those were big plays.”

After forcing the Knights to go three-and-out on their next offensive possession, the Wildcats took over the ball at their own 16.

On the first play from scrimmage, Butler burst through the middle of the line and sprinted 84 yards for a touchdown to give the Wildcats a 14-0 advantage just over a minute into the second quarter.

The Archbishop Murphy offensive line dominated its counterpart the entire game.

“They knew what they had to do,” Jevon Butler said. “They just did it. They executed everything.”

Royal quarterback Kevin Gilbert finally got his team on track and engineered a 5-play, 85-yard scoring drive early in the second quarter. Gilbert connected with running back Camron Iverson on a 40-yard touchdown pass with 9:04 remaining in the quarter.

Both teams were forced to punt on their next offensive possessions.

The Wildcats then took over on its own 16 and drove down to the Knights’ 25. On first down, Royal was caught off guard when Wolff lofted a pass to split end Telge, who caught the ball in the end zone to give Archbishop Murphy a 21-7 halftime lead.

The touchdown was critical because Royal opened the second half with a 11-play, 71-yard scoring drive that cut the lead to 21-14. Gilbert found wide receiver James Dykes on a 7-yard touchdown pass four minutes into the third quarter.

“Looking back now, that last pass at the end of the half was huge,” Ennis said. “Right away, they came back in the second half. We executed big plays well. Our big plays were because our kids just got it done. We got it all right.”

Another big play shifted the momentum back to the Wildcats. After drawing to within a touchdown, Royal appeared to be on the verge of getting the ball back.

Archbishop Murphy was faced with a third-and-9 at its own 31 with just under five minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Wolff pitched the ball to Smith, who then burst through the right side of the Royal defense for a 68-yard touchdown, giving the Wildcats a 28-14 lead.

The offensive line made it easy for Smith.

“I had perfect blocking,” he said. “It couldn’t have been a more perfect play … they’ve just been great. They make huge holes for us and they never quit. I think we’ve got the best line in the state.”

The freshman sensation finished with 140 yards on 13 carries.

Royal appeared to be driving for another touchdown when Jevon Butler clocked Gilbert, forcing a fumble that J.T. Butler recovered at the Archbishop Murphy 25 with 2:29 remaining in the third quarter.

Running back Ben Waiss scored Archbishop Murphy’s fifth and final touchdown on a 63-yard scamper at the 8:35 mark of the fourth quarter.

“You don’t practice breaking through the line and running for those long runs,” Ennis said. “We went into this game not sure where our success would be. We didn’t think we can do this. So everything that happened was a really pleasant surprise … the long runs were bonuses.

“I was surprised that we were able to outrun them a couple of times because … 85 and 10 (Iverson and Gilbert) were good, fast athletes. So that’s not something I pictured us doing.”

Archbishop Murphy’s defense then punctuated a stellar effort with a pair of takeaways to close out the game — Jevon Butler intercepted a Gilbert pass and Joe Markovich recovered a fumble in the waning seconds.

Ennis couldn’t say enough about his defense’s effort. Royal was limited to 34 yards on the ground, which may have been the most significant statistic of the day.

“They couldn’t keep us off balance running and passing,” Ennis said. “The kids did a super job stopping the run … we didn’t really believe that we were going to do that. That helps us just to be able to be more confident with our pass defense.”

Archbishop Murphy picked off Gilbert two times and recovered two fumbles.

“This was about some kids that played great defense,” Ennis said. “There’s no way we should have held this team to 14 points, except a whole bunch of guys did everything they could on every single play.”

At the Tacoma Dome

Archbishop Murphy7 14 7 7 — 35

Royal 0 7 7 0 — 14

AM—Jevon Butler 17 run (Fritsch kick)

AM—Jevon Butler 84 run (Fritsch kick)

R—Iverson 40 pass from Gilbert (Hebdon kick)

AM—Telge 25 pass from Wolff (Fritsch kick)

R—Dykes 7 pass from Gilbert (Hebdon kick)

AM—Smith 68 run (Fritsch kick)

AM—Waiss 63 run (Fritsch kick)