With the state title on the line, Tualatin quarterback Ries Miadich did what she has done so many times over the last two seasons: she looked deep to Sydney Murdick.
And just as she has done plenty of times over the last two years, the sophomore receiver hauled in the long pass from her quarterback. On this particular pass, Murdick caught the ball in the front corner of the end zone, seemingly breaking a 26-26 tie as time expired in the state championship game.
It’s the stuff sports movies are based on. Until it wasn’t.
The initial referee ruled that Murdick stepped out of bounds with her first foot after catching the ball before her other foot stepped in the end zone. After conferring, the referees agreed the catch was no good, and the state title game between Tualatin and South Salem would go to overtime.
Murdick, still holding onto the ball, held her head in her hands. Her teammates crowded around her and patted her on the back in the short period of time before overtime started.
“They told me that I’m an amazing player trying to bring me back in the game,” Murdick said. It helped a lot.”
It didn’t take long for Murdick to get another chance to bring Tualatin a state title. Miadich looked her way again in overtime, and this time the sophomore made sure it counted, as she ripped the ball out of mid-air and danced around a few would-be tacklers en route to the end zone, giving Tualatin the 32-26 overtime win in the state title game.
“She went through a lot today,” Tualatin Head Coach Bubba Lemon said of Murdick. “She was getting a little banged up, and she got hit a little bit. In each game, she ended on a high note. She’s a girl with so much resilience that she doesn’t let it keep her down.”
The Timberwolves won three games Saturday in the state championship tournament, which took place at Liberty High School. They opened the day with a 31-19 win against Thurston, which went 12-1 in the regular season.
That win gave Tualatin a meeting with the Amity, the tournament’s No. 1 seed. Amity came into the tournament undefeated on the season, and not just undefeated, but unrelenting. Amity had four wins by 50-plus points, two wins of 60-plus points, and one 75-0 win.
The most points Amity had given up in a game were 13, which it did in an early-season 46-13 win against the Timberwolves. In the rematch, the game was tied at 20 at the end of regulation. Tualatin won on a touchdown pass to Hannah Wachter.
South Salem came into the state title game after finishing 16-1 in the regular season, with its only loss coming to Amity. Just like the Amity game, Tualatin and South Salem went to overtime.
In the state title game, South Salem got the ball first in overtime and seemingly had all the momentum heading into the extra time. Tualatin built up a 26-6 lead in the first half, but South Salem chipped away at the lead until it tied the game with just under three minutes to go in regulation.
Tualatin’s defense stepped up in overtime, however. Miadich intercepted a pass near the end zone to end Salem’s drive. She didn’t waste time on offense, as her first pass in overtime went back to Murdick, and the sophomore ended the game, and the season, with an impressive catch-and-run to the end zone.
“Usually when you see Sydney by herself on that side, it means that I’m going to huck the ball up and trust that she gets it,” Miadich said. “She does almost all the time. I have so much trust in her on those plays.”
Murdick didn’t have much experience playing football before joining Tualatin’s flag football team last season, the first year in the program’s history. She has taken to the sport rather quickly, though.
“Sidney Murdick is the best flag football player in the state,” Lemon said. “She goes and wins one-on-one balls all the time, so we knew to get her the ball in overtime.”
She’s not the only one who decided to give flag football a try when Tualatin added a team and has found a new passion. Senior Isabella Hernández said she had played in a few powderpuff games, but that’s about it.
Hernandez has excelled as the team’s running back over the last two seasons and has received more than 20 offers to play collegiately. In the fall, she’s going to travel across the country to play flag football at Roberts Wesleyan University in Rochester, New York.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “It’s fun to see our progression throughout the years. Coming into the first season, we were learning flag football, and all the rules were new. Some of us didn’t even really understand football. And now we won state.”
Lemon said that was one of the most fun aspects of starting the program at Tualatin, just giving girls in the school something new to try and then seeing their excitement and execution on the field grow over time.
While many of the players were new to football, they weren’t all new to playing sports at Tualatin. Lemon himself is the coach of the boys basketball team, which won the state title earlier this year. Miadich spent the last four years starting for the school’s girls basketball team, including as an integral part of the state championship-winning team last year.
“We are really blessed to have her,” Lemon said of his quarterback. “She is such a great leader. She is a very special kid, and she deserves this kind of moment.”
She did have a huge moment in the basketball state title game a year ago, as well. Tualatin fell behind against Clackamas and then had a furious second-half comeback. In the comeback, Miadich hit a huge three-pointer late in the game to put Tualatin ahead for good.
“Playing in that basketball game helped me here on the field today,” Miadich said. “Also, just having Bubba as my coach helps. He’s been through a lot of these pressure situations, especially with his state championship this year. I just think that all of our heads were in the right space today.”
