Sports - Sports News

POSTED: Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009

PREP FOOTBALL: Blaine out of postseason

TUMWATER - The Blaine football team spent the first few minutes of its Class 2A state playoff game in shock as Chehalis W.F. West jumped out to a quick lead.

By the end of the game that shock had turned into disappointment as a Borderites rally fell short and the undefeated Bearcats waltzed into the state quarterfinals.

W.F. West's Ben Ternan rushed for a pair of touchdowns and threw for two more to help the Bearcats to a 38-20 win over Blaine on Saturday, Nov. 14, at Tumwater Stadium. W.F. West scored two touchdowns on its first eight plays to build a 14-0 in the first five minutes of the game and Blaine never really recovered.

The Bearcats (11-0) host Archbishop Murphy next week with a trip to Class 2A state semifinals on the line. After the game, the Borderites lingered on the field, clearly upset that their season had come to an end. Blaine finishes the year 7-4 overall.

"We thought all season that we had a pretty good football team, and I think we thought we were going to be here a little longer than just the first week," Blaine coach Jay Dodd said. "Obviously that didn't happen for us."

It was clear from the start that this could be a rough game for Blaine. The Borderites fumbled the ball on their second play from scrimmage and W.F. West scored two plays later to take a 7-0 lead. The Bearcats scored again three minutes later when Ternan scampered in from the 7-yard line. Just like that it was 14-0 with just under eight minutes to play in the first quarter.

"We just never got going," Dodd said. "We just never got in the flow of the game."

Caleb Statham kick started Blaine's offense on the next series, sprinting around the end and outracing the Bearcats secondary for a 60-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 14-7. W.F. West answered quickly however, blocking a Blaine punt and then benefitting from a penalty to start its series on the Blaine 11. Four plays later Ternan found Mitch Gueller open for a six yard strike.

Still, Blaine rallied. Al Bohnson capped a 70-yard drive at the end of the second quarter with a 12-yard touchdown grab. He wrestled the ball away from a W.F. West defender to pull the Boderites within a score, 21-14, at the half. It left Blaine feeling good about its chances but the Bearcats had other ideas.

"We fell behind by two scores real fast," Dodd said. "But as poorly as we played in the first half we thought being down 21-14 was a good thing. We just couldn't make it happen in the second half."

The Bearcats scored on their first possession of the third quarter to go ahead 28-14. Later in the quarter Ternan busted off a 67-yard run up the middle to make it 35-14 and the game was all but over. W.F. West has mostly passed its way to a perfect record this season, but against Blaine it rushed for nearly 200 yards.

"They had a nice little running game between the tackles that we hadn't seen on film," Dodd said. "As the game went on we had to adjust and we didn't do a good enough job adjusting to it. The spread us out and we had a tough time stopping the run between the tackles tonight. That's been one of our strengths. "

The game was particularly tough for Blaine's seniors, who helped turn the football program into a perennial state playoff qualifier. Statham finished with 143 yards rushing and two scores, Trevor Chau had 78 yards receiving, and Jordan McCarty went 16 for 31 for 178 yards passing to lead Blaine.

"Before these guys got to high school Blaine football wasn't really on the map," Dodd said. "These guys really did change Blaine football into what it is today. It's something our school takes a lot of pride in and our community takes a lot of pride in and it's because of all these seniors."

Blaine 7 7 0 6- 20

W.F. West 21 0 14 3- 38

First Quarter

W.F. West - Mitch Gueller 20 pass from Ben Ternan (Ian Ward kick)

W.F. West - Ben Ternan 7 run (Ward kick)

Blaine - Caleb Statham 60 run (Keith Sentkowski kick)

W.F. West - Mitch Gueller 6 pass from Ternan (Ward kick)

Second Quarter

Blaine - Al Bohnson 12 pass from Jordan McCarty (Keith Sentkowski kick)

Third Quarter

W.F. West - Erik Forgione 25 pass from Ben Ternan (Ian Ward kick)

W.F. West - Ben Ternan 67 run (Ian Ward kick)

Fourth Quarter

Blaine - Caleb Statham 4 run (kick fail)

W.F. West - Ian Ward 20 field goal

Bla West

First downs 15 16

Rushing Att-Yards 27-158 31-207

Comp-Att-Int 16-31-1 12-21-0

Passing yards 178 138

Penalties-yards 10-70 4-30

Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-1

Individual leaders

RUSHING - Blaine: Caleb Statham 21-143, David Craig 1-4, Tusapa Laolagi 3-25, Jordan McCarty 2-(-14); W.F. West: Ben Ternan 11-98, Brennan Casteel 2-14, Tyler McCarty 5-19, Cody Snider 9-57 Bryce Hanson 3-17, Mitch Gueller 1-2.

PASSING - Blaine: Jordan McCarty 16-31-1-178. W.F. West: Ben Ternan 12-21-0-138

RECEIVING - Blaine: Trevor Chau 7-78, Todd Bird 4-30, David Craig 2-12, Al Bohnson 1-12, Laolagi 1-26, Andrew Miller 1-20. W.F. West: Erik Forgione 7-91, Mitch Gueller 5-47