BELLEVUE - Interlake senior running back Jordan Todd may have wrestled the state's 11-man football single season rushing record away from Whatcom County, but Lynden has a home in the Tacoma Dome.

Todd rushed for 331 yards and three touchdowns, giving him 2,741 yards this season, breaking the old mark of 2,676 set by Ferndale's Matthias Wilson in 1997. Todd even added a 54-yard punt return for a touchdown.

But it wasn't enough to stop the top-ranked Lions from claiming a 55-28 Class 2A state quarterfinal victory on Saturday, Nov. 19, at Interlake High School. Lynden proved it also could run the ball pretty effectively, grinding out 388 yards and eight touchdowns as a team to move on to the state semifinals for the fifth time in the past six years.

"That's what we set out to do at the start of the summer, and it feels pretty good to accomplish it," Lynden's Luke Christianson said. "We've still got a lot of work left to do, but this is right where we want to be right now."

The Lions (12-0) next face Chehalis W.F. West, which beat Lakewood 33-18 on Friday, Nov. 18. The game will be played Friday or Saturday, Nov. 25 or 26, at a time to be determined by the WIAA.

Lynden certainly wouldn't be headed back to the Tacoma Dome without its impressive running game on Saturday, though.

Quarterback Josh Kraght led the way with 140 yards and five touchdowns, but Christianson, who usually plays Lynden's slot receiver, added 101 yards and a TD on eight carries.

"I'm just happy to help out however I can," Christianson said. "Whether it's running the ball or catching it, or whatever is asked of me, I'm ready. Like coach said earlier, he sat me down at the beginning of the summer and said we want to get the best guys on the field, no matter where they're playing. I'm just happy that I can do something to help this team win."

Christianson was far from the only receiver to have an impact on Lynden's running game, though.

"I was really pleased with the job our receivers did blocking today," Lynden coach Curt Kramme said. "That's a tough thing to do to block people in space, but we have some guys that can do it. Zach Vis did some great blocking today, and Nate (Wielenga) missed one early, but he did a great job the rest of the way, helping block downfield for Josh and Luke and Kyle (Hanson), and that really helped us."

Downfield blocking certainly helped spring Christianson for a 26-yard touchdown around right end on Lynden's first possession of the game to give the Lions a quick 7-0 lead.

But three plays later, Todd answered by popping an 80-yard run for a touchdown to tie it up.

"Our safety ran into the referee on the play and kind of got blocked out of making the tackle," Kramme said. "I don't want to make excuses, but it might have ended up different. Definitely, we were a little over exuberant early in the game. It takes a little while to settle in and let the things you work on at practice speed come together at game speed. We knew he (Todd) was going to be tough to stop, and we committed nine guys to the box to try to slow him up. For the most part, I thought our defense did a pretty good job in the middle part of the game."

After Todd's first long run, Lynden did do a better job of containing the talented 5-foot-6, 177-pound senior.

Though he had 108 yards on his first four carries, Todd only had 157 by halftime on 14 attempts and entered the fourth quarter with 172 yards on 21 carries.

Besides Todd, the rest of the Saints' offense managed only 34 yards in the game, so with Todd contained in the second and third quarters, Lynden was able to pull away.

Kraght scored on runs of 43, 3, 1 and 1 yards to put the Lions up 34-7 at the half.

Interlake (5-7) forced Lynden to punt on its first possession of the second half, and Todd returned the punt 54 yards for a touchdown to cut the Lions' lead to 20 points.

But Kraght and Hanson scored on 29 yard runs on back-to-back Lynden possessions to give the Lions a 48-14 lead with 8:50 to play in the game.

With a Lions win in the bag, all that remained to be seen then was whether Todd would break Wilson's record.

"He was something else," Christianson said. "We just kept trying to do our job on defense to slow him down, but he is a really good back. I give him a lot of credit, because we had a lot of guys focusing on stopping him."

A 35-yard TD run with 6:22 to play got Todd within 23 yards of the record, before his 71-yarder up the middle with 3:53 remaining put his name in the record book. His 32 carries Saturday gave him 263 for the season at an eye-popping 10.4 yards per attempt.

"I'm pretty pleased with what we accomplished, but it was a lot of guys that helped get me here," Todd said. "Right now, it all kind of hurts, but I'm sure one day I'll look back and be happy, but not today. ... I can't believe it's really over. I just really wish we could keep playing."

Lynden, on the other hand is happy that it gets to keep playing, as it now takes aim at advancing to the state championship game for the fourth time in six years.

"We're where we wanted to be right now," Kramme said. "We're definitely happy with that."

Reach David Rasbach at david.rasbach@bellinghamherald.com or 360-715-2271.

Lynden 20 14 7 14 - 55

Interlake 7 0 7 14 - 28

First quarter

Lyn - Luke Christianson 26 run (Santiago Lopez kick)

Int - Jordan Todd 80 run (Rigel Kuhn kick)

Lyn - Josh Kraght 43 run (Lopez kick)

Lyn - Kraght 3 run (kick failed)

Second quarter

Lyn - Kraght 1 run (Lopez kick)

Lyn - Kraght 1 run (Lopez kick)

Third quarter

Int - Todd 54 punt return (Kuhn kick)

Lyn - Kraght 29 run (Lopez kick)

Fourth quarter

Lyn - Kyle Hanson 29 run (Lopez kick)

Int - Todd 35 run (Kuhn kick)

Lyn - Jordan Kreider 23 run (Lopez kick)

Int - Todd 71 run (Kuhn kick)

Lyn Int

First downs 24 13

Rush yds-att 42-388 45-332

Pass cmp-att-int 10-16-0 4-15-2

Passing yards 101 33

Penalties-yds 2-10 9-70

Fumbles-lost 1-1 6-1

Individual statistics

RUSHING - Lynden: Josh Kraght 15-140, Kyle Hanson 10-82, Luke Christianson 8-104, Jordan Kreider 9-62. Interlake: Jordan Todd 32-331, Kamana Adriano 13-1.

PASSING - Lynden: Josh Kraght 9-12-0-99, Luke Christianson 0-1-0-0, Jordan Kreider 1-3-0-2. Interlake: Kamana Adriano 4-14-2-33, Jason Sass 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING - Lynden: Luke Christianson 2-13, Zach Vis 6-75, Dak Shagren 1-2, Nate Wielenga 1-11. Interlake: Ryan Turman 1-1, Christian Price 2-19, Jordan Todd 1-13.