EVERETT — The last football encounter between Archbishop Murphy and Lynden produced one of the more thrilling — and unusual — finishes in recent state playoff history.
The Wildcats and Lions will square off for the first time since that memorable 2011 title-game clash when they meet at 1 p.m. Saturday in a Class 2A state semifinal at Everett Memorial Stadium.
It renews a brief, yet high-stakes rivalry that saw the two non-league foes battle five times in four years from 2008 to 2011 — including three times in the final two rounds of the 2A state playoffs.
“(Lynden) always seemed to win the game that mattered,” said current Murphy head coach Jerry Jensen, who was the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator from 2007-09. “We played quite a few times in a short span. … There was a little rivalry there.”
Murphy and Lynden met twice — once in the regular season and once in the playoffs — in both the 2008 and 2009 seasons. The Wildcats opened both years with a non-league win over Lynden, but the Lions returned the favor both times with a semifinal win over Murphy on their way to winning back-to-back state titles.
Then after a one-season hiatus, the rivalry reached its peak in the 2011 state-title game.
Lynden was in the midst of a dominant stretch that featured six 2A state championships in eight seasons. Murphy, coming off a state-title game loss to Tumwater the previous year, was searching for its first 2A championship since moving up to the classification in 2004.
The Wildcats controlled much of the game and appeared to be closing in on that landmark achievement, holding a 14-10 lead with about four minutes to go and Lynden in a precarious spot.
Then came a wild finish.
Backed up on its own 3-yard line and facing 4th-and-16, Lynden elected to take an intentional safety. Although that stretched Murphy’s lead to 16-10, it allowed the Lions to attempt an onside kick. Lynden recovered, and then drove downfield for the winning touchdown to capture the title with an improbable 17-16 victory.
It was Murphy’s second consecutive title-game loss, and the third time in four seasons that Lynden had ended the Wildcats’ championship dreams.
Jensen wasn’t on Murphy’s coaching staff that year, but he’s familiar with what happened.
“That just speaks to how well that program is coached,” Jensen said of Lynden’s decision to take a safety and then attempt an onside kick. “They exhausted every single option.”
Yet as longtime Lynden head coach Curt Kramme is quick to point out, history has no bearing on Saturday’s semifinal matchup. After all, no players remain from that 2011 thriller.
“It was exciting,” Kramme said. “But time marches on and we find ourselves with two different teams.”
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