TACOMA — Two out of three ain’t bad.
The history of Archbishop Murphy varsity football is both short and sweet.
Three seasons.
Two state championships.
The Wildcats continued their improbable journey on Saturday at the Tacoma Dome with a 20-0 shutout of Zillah in the Class A state title game.
A group of seniors, who began their careers as freshman on the Wildcats dry-run, junior-varsity team, never envisioned themselves as two-time state champions.
"I never would have imagined this," said senior running back and defensive end Ben Waiss. "Freshman year, we came out here just a bunch of scroungey guys who wanted to learn how to play football.
"We learned how to play football."
Waiss and his teammates weren’t sure they’d ever win a game, let alone finish their careers with a 26-game winning streak. They took their lumps as a junior varsity squad in 2000 and put together a surprising 6-3 varsity season in 2001 behind the running of Jevon Butler, who spent his freshman season at Cascade.
"They started out the program," said Butler, who carried the ball 26 times for 167 yards on Saturday to push his career totals to 4,892 yards and 53 touchdowns. "They started out as freshman and they knew what they wanted to be."
Some were trying football for the first time in their lives. They didn’t know pioneer Archbishop Murphy coach Terry Ennis from Daniel Boone, but thought they’d give the game and the legendary coach a look-see.
"It’s crazy," said senior center Nate Thompson, the anchor of an offensive line that opened holes for 299 yards rushing on 60 carries against Zillah. "I just wanted to play football. I’d never played before. I was just really happy my parents were going to let me play."
They learned the game from Ennis, who won a Class 3A state title at Cascade in 1991. Like his new players, Ennis wasn’t sure what to expect when he began the football program at the small Catholic school in southeast Everett.
"I just really wanted to teach the game of football and coach," said Ennis, who finished the season with a career record of 236-78. "There was never any master plan. I’m not smart enough to look that far ahead — trust me. This has all been just bonus stuff. We’d have been very, very happy as a football team if we’d have just gone 5-4."
Somehow, 5-4 became utter domination. The 2003 ‘Cats outscored their 14 opponents 649-144, including 129-18 in four state playoff games.
Zillah, Ennis said, was by far his team’s toughest test of the season. Four turnovers ultimately doomed the Leopards, who had scored 28 or more points in every game this season.
Each team went nowhere on its first possession, signifying that points would be harder to come by than they had been for either team during the rest of the season.
The Wildcats, who managed a total of three yards on their first two offensive drives, got their first good field possession of the game when Jeff Arkell sacked and jarred the ball loose from Leopards standout quarterback Louis Santana.
David Burdick recovered the loose ball at the Wildcats’ 47. Ben Waiss’ circus catch for 24 yards at the Zillah 18 set up Kyle Wilkins’ eventual 9-yard TD run for a 7-0 lead with 21 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
Archbishop Murphy expanded its lead after stuffing the Leopards on fourth-and-1 at their own 44. Wilkins threw a 28-yard pass to Ian Telge to the Zillah 2, and then Wilkins plunged in from a yard out for a TD with 2:58 to go in the half.
Wilkins finished the game with four completions in five attempts for 69 yards and carried the ball 11 times for 44 yards.
"Early on, I thought we were controlling the tempo," said Zillah coach Terry Duncan, whose defense held the Wildcats to their season low in points. "Then we had a drop, a pick — things we hadn’t done all year. I give a lot of respect to Archbishop Murphy. They are a fine, fine football team."
Archbishop Murphy began the second half with a long drive that hampered Zillah’s hopes of a comeback. Butler, who capped the drive with a 1-yard TD dive, carried the ball six times during a 12-play, 70-yard drive that ate 6 minutes, 40 seconds worth of game clock.
"That (first possession of the second half) is always going to be your most important possession," Ennis said. "I think that says something about the way the kids came out of the locker room. They weren’t happy with the first half. They wanted to get better.
"They’ve done a tremendous job of trying to get better every day in practice."
You can’t do much better than a state championship.
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