Camas pulls away from Olympia, 48-13

CAMAS — Camas leaned on its defense and a powerful ground game to run away from Olympia 48-13 on Friday night at Doc Harris Stadium in the 4A state preliminary round

The Papermakers (10-0) forced three turnovers and had three sacks in the game, coming up big when they needed it the most. Facing a third-and-goal on the 4-yard line early in the game, Camas corner Dante Humble picked off a reverse pass from Olympia receiver Jacob Doughty to keep the Bears off the board. Linebacker Logan Silva would help preserve the lead at the end of the half, sacking Bears quarterback Nathan Hermann after Olympia again drove into the red zone, sending the Papermakers to the break up 13-7.

Camas started to pull away late in the third quarter, shortly after Olympia narrowed the score to 20-13 with its second touchdown of the game.

The Papermakers answered with a 10-play touchdown drive and forced a three-and-out, when quarterback Blake Ascuitto found Jackson Clemmer for a 36-yard touchdown to give the team some breathing room, leading 34-13.

Four plays later the game was out of reach. The Papermakers got an interception three plays into the next Olympia drive, then on the change of possession, Ascuitto found Clemmer again, this time for a 52-yard score. Four plays after that, Camas intercepted Olympia one more time and Jacques Badolato-Birdsell capped the scoring with his second touchdown of the night.

Randy Yaacoub led Camas with 26 rushes for 172 yards and a touchdown and Ascuitto finished with 307 yards passing. Clemmer had six catches for 151 yards.

“Last year we lost in the first round of the playoffs. It feels good to be one step farther than last year,” Yaacoub said. “That felt great. We came out really weak in the first half but (Olympia) played a hell of a game.

“We came out in the second half and we did what we usually do. I don’t think it was much technical stuff. We just came out in the second half with more emotion. It’s a game of emotions and that’s what we need.”

Alfredo Ramirez-Cortes led Olympia with 144 yards rushing and a touchdown. The Papermakers defense held Olympia to 98 total yards in the second half.

Camas advances to the round of 16 for the first time since 2017 and will host a game next week.

“It’s awesome to play in this stadium once more but we definitely have to fix a lot of things and work harder,” Yaacoub said.

CAMAS 48, OLYMPIA 13

Olympia 0 7 6 0–13

Camas 10 3 14 21–48

First Quarter

C–Bryce Leighton 25 field goal, 6:28

C–Gabe Guo 15 run (Leighton kick), 2:19

Second Quarter

O–Will Anderson 80 pass from Nathan Hermann (Ben Krasnokutsky kick)

C–FG, Leighton 24

Third Quarter

C–Randy Yaacoub 1 run (Leighton kick), 6:19

O–Alfredo Ramirez-Cortes 22 run (kick failed), 4:29

C–Jacques Badolato-Birdsell 3 run (Leighton kick), 0:47

Fourth Quarter

C–Jackson Clemmer 36 pass from Blake Ascuitto (Leighton kick), 9:09

C–Clemmer 52 pass from Ascuitto (Leighton kick), 8:37

C–Badolato-Birdsell 9 run (Leighton kick), 4:07

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Olympia: Alfredo Ramirez-Cortes 20-144, Brandonne Veley 4-9, Carlos Matheny 1-1, Nathan Hermann 5-minus 7. Camas: Randy Yaacoub 26-172, Gabe Guo 10-84, Jacques Badolato-Birdsell 12-78, Blake Ascuitto 3-24, Charlie Bump 1-7, Team 2-minus 8.

PASSING — Olympia: Nathan Hermann 11-25-2-192, Jacob Doughty 0-1-1-0. Camas: Blake Ascuitto 15-25-0-307.

RECEIVING — Olympia: Will Anderson 3-101, Jacob Doughty 3-39, Brandonne Veley 2-31, Peter Lang 1-13, Alfredo Ramirez-Cortes 2-8. Camas: Jackson Clemmer 6-151, Dante Humble 4-75, Jordan Geigenmiller 1-29, Charlie Bump 2-24, Kenny Wright 1-20, Randy Yaacoub 1-8.