Napolean Bonaparte once stated, “He who fears being conquered, is sure of defeat.”

Enumclaw High’s gridders lost to Capital 42-7 in the first round of the 2009 football playoffs, but showed no fear in hosting essentially the same team Friday night. The 0-3 Hornets nearly pulled off the upset victory, with only a blocked extra point being the deciding factor in a 14-13 loss to the visiting Cougars.

In the second quarter, Capital erased the zeroes on the scoreboard, recovered the ensuing onside kick and scored again moments later to go up 14-0.

Enumclaw began to stray from its ground attack and quarterback Dylan Podolak, who went 20-for-30 passing for more than 250 yards, began to air things out.

In the waning seconds of the first half Podolak began to get dialed in with Terenn Houk, as the twosome tangoed down the gridiron on four consecutive completions that landed the Hornets on the threshold of the Cougars’ end zone. On a fourth-down play, Podolak lofted up a 15-yard alley-oop to Houk, who latched on to pigskin to score.

Matthew Wasisco was good on the extra-point kick, filling in for Andy Holdener, who was sidelined after suffering a concussion two weeks ago.

In the third quarter Podolak saw wideout Jason Greer open and streaking toward Capitals’ end zone. Podolak threw a 37-yard rainbow which Greer caught in stride as he crossed the goal line.

A Capital defender thwarted the one-point try.