Sports - Sports News

POSTED: Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

PREP FOOTBALL: Lions eliminate Storm

LYNDEN - For the past few weeks the Lynden football team has been waiting for its offense to break out in a big way.

On Saturday against Squalicum, the Lions certainly got things going in the right direction.

Lynden scored five unanswered touchdowns, including three in the second quarter, to run away with a 34-14 win over the Storm in a Class 2A Northwest District playoff game at Rollie DeKoster Field on Saturday, Nov. 7. Jordan Hastings rushed for three touchdowns and threw for another to help Lynden knock off Squalicum for the second time this season.

The win sends the defending state champion Lions back into the state playoffs and guarantees them at least one more game in Whatcom County. Lynden will host the District Four No. 3 seed next week on either Friday or Saturday.

"We were able to get rolling a little bit on offense tonight and that was good because the last few weeks we haven't really been clicking," Hastings said. "It's nice to sort of get a head of steam heading into the playoffs."

Squalicum took a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter on a 3-yard plunge by Brad Miller, but then Lynden's offense started to find a rhythm and assert itself. Hastings capped a 67-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to make it 7-7 early in the second quarter, and a 9-yard scoring run by Brett Bajema five minutes later made it 14-7.

On the Storm's next series, Roman Reyna intercepted a pass to give the ball back to Lynden at midfield with less than two minutes to go in the half. Two plays later, Hastings burst up the middle of the field for a 49-yard touchdown run.

"I think we scored four of the first five times we had the ball so that was good," Lynden coach Curt Kramme said. "We experimented with some things in the second half and made some mistakes but as long as we learn from those we'll be alright."

In the second half it was Ryan Seto who delivered the big play, turning a short pass on third down into a 66-yard touchdown run to make it 27-7. Another Hastings touchdown run, this time on a 1-yard dive into the end zone, pushed the Lions lead to 34-7 with four minutes to play in the game.

"Anytime you play a good team twice during the season, it's always hard," Hastings said. "We had to play them twice last year too and we kind of struggled in that second game. I think we were able to feed on that experience a little bit and realize you can't underestimate anybody."

Even trailing big late in the fourth quarter, Squalicum did all it could to make a game of it. The Storm used a hook-and-lateral pass to pull within 34-14 when Brad Miller took a lateral from Jeremy King to the end zone on a 45-yard catch, pitch, and run. Then Squalicum recovered on onside kick, but couldn't score again.

For the second straight season the Storm's season ended at the hands of Lynden.

"We kind of looked at playing Squalicum again like a blessing," Kramme said. "We could have had to play a bad team in this game and beat them by 50 and likely gotten worse. Instead we got to play a good Storm team in a quality game. Hopefully this will make us better."

Squalicum 7 0 0 7- 14

Lynden 0 21 6 7- 34

First quarter

Squal - Brad Miller 3 run (David Starkovich kick)

Second quarter

Lyn - Jordan Hastings 2 run (Santiago Lopez kick)

Lyn - Brett Bajema 9 run (Santiago Lopez kick)

Lyn - Jordan Hastings 49 run (Santiago Lopez kick)

Third quarter

Lyn - Ryan Seto 66 pass from Jordan Hastings (Kick fail)

Fourth quarter

Lyn - Jordan Hastings 1 run (Santiago Lopez kick)

Squal - Brad Miller 45 pass from Quin Moore (David Starkovich kick)

Squal. Lyn.

First downs 17 16

Rushing Att-Yards 36-160 27-166

Comp-Att-Int 14-27-1 10-14-1

Passing yards 179 182

Penalties-yards 7-75 3-20

Fumbles-lost 2-1 3-0

Individual leaders

RUSHING - Squalicum: Evan Fenton 12-54, Brad Miller 18-82, Nikko Walker 4-19, Quin Moore 2-5. Lynden: Jordan Hastings 16-124, Brett Bajema 6-23, Jake Christianson 1-3. Blair Bomber 4-16.

PASSING - Squalicum: Quin Moore 14-27-1-179. Lynden: Jordan Hastings 10-14-1-182.

RECEIVING - Squalicum: Brad Miller 2-51, Evan Fenton 1-0, Christian Foster 1-4, Jeremy King 4-57, Michael Dallas 4-37, DJ Schwab 2-30. Lynden: Ryan Seto 3-102, Blair Bomber 3-11, Nolan Gudde 1-8, Nyles Varner 2-50, Blake Groves 1-11.