Sports - High Schools

POSTED: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009

PREP FOOTBALL: Red Raiders break through against city rival

BELLINGHAM - Despite coming off a loss on the last play of the game a week earlier, Bellingham coach Doug Trainor said he didn't have any problem getting his team ready to play on Friday, Oct. 16.

It didn't matter that the Red Raiders entered with an 0-6 record or that their opponent had a matching winless mark. This was a game against Sehome - a city rival - and getting a win was all that mattered.

"Our guys take winning the City Championship pretty seriously," Bellingham coach Doug Trainor said. "We wanted to make sure that we won this week to give ourselves a shot next week."

Bellingham took care of business against the Mariners on Friday, claiming its first victory of the year behind a powerful running game that paved the way to a 51-7 Northwest Conference Class 2A win over the Mariners at Civic Stadium.

Though Sehome (0-7, 0-7 NWC, 0-5 NWC 2A) remained winless this year, it did get a bit of a moral victory when it ended its scoreless drought with eight minutes to play on Beau Bianchi's 3-yard touchdown run around the right end. It had been almost five full games since Roman Andrushenko scored the Mariners' last points with five minutes to play in a Sept. 11 game against Burlington-Edison.

"We were obviously excited to get in the end zone," Sehome coach Kevin Johnson said. "It was nice to see our crowd, our sidelines and our coaches come to life a little bit after that. But scoring touchdowns is something we expect to do. We really wanted to win this game."

It became evident early on that would be difficult for them to do with Bellingham (1-6, 1-6, 1-5) chewing off big chucks of yardage just about every time it ran the ball. Of Bellingham's 48 carries Friday night, 29 went for 5 or more yards. Eleven went for 10 or more.

"They were just dominant up front tonight," said Bellingham running back Wes Sitser, who was the biggest beneficiary of the Red Raiders' mammoth offensive front, rushing for 123 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries. "The line was finishing their blocks. The tight ends were blocking great, and the receivers were blocking downfield. It was great."

Bellingham finished with 359 yards rushing, averaging 7.5 yards per carry.

Sitser had 106 yards by halftime, and in the second half nearly every back on Bellingham's roster got into the act - Evan Sobjack had 41 yards and a touchdown, Dominic Franklin had 26 and a TD, Oliver Dougherty had 49 and a TD, Ray Taumaoe had 56 yards, Levi Lott had 38 and a TD, among others.

"Their line is a bunch of studs," Johnson said. "That's the kind of level we want to play up to."

Sehome's offense put together some decent numbers on the ground, as Harrison Finley had 58 yards on eight carries, Bianchi had 47 on eight carries and Wayne Lamositele had 43 yards on six attempts, but by the time they got things rolling they were already in a hole.

It didn't take Bellingham long to take control of the game, as the Red Raiders marched 43 yards in six plays with the game's opening possession and scored on a 4-yard TD run by Sobjack up the middle. Their second drive went 79 yards in 12 plays and was capped off by a 1-yard Sitser run to make the score 14-0 after the first quarter.

Almost half of the second quarter was consumed by Bellingham's next drive, which started at the 1 after Michael Hilliard grabbed the first of three interceptions recorded by the Red Raiders. On the 13th play of the drive, Sitser scored his second 1-yard TD run to make the halftime score 21-0.

"This was a big win for us, especially with a really big game against Squalicum coming up next week," Sitser said. "We really want to win another City Championship."

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

Bellingham 14 7 23 7- 51

Sehome 0 0 0 7- 7

First quarter

Bel -Evan Sobjack 4 run (Walker Storrer kick)

Bel - Wes Sitser 1 run (Storrer kick)

Second quarter

Bel - Sitser 1 run (Storrer kick)

Third quarter

Bel - Dominic Franklin 9 run (Storrer kick)

Bel - Safety

Bel - Cory Sinclair 6 run (Storrer kick)

Bel - Oliver Dougherty 30 run (Storrer kick)

Fourth quarter

Seh - Beau Bianchi 3 run (Logan Barnett kick)

Bel - Levi Lott 7 run (Storrer kick)

Bel Seh

First downs 29 8

Rushing Att-Yards 48-359 25-153

Comp-Att-Int 7-15-0 4-12-3

Passing yards 85 42

Penalties-yards 7-57 8-74

Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-1

Individual leaders

RUSHING - Bellingham: Wes Sitser 18-123, Dominic Franklin 4-26, Evan Sobjack 5-41, Bobby Funkhouser 2-5, Oliver Dougherty 5-49, Ray Taumaoe 7-56, Cory Sinclair 1-6, Tom McKinley 3-15, Levi Lott 3-38. Sehome: Gary Tumber 5-7, Harrison Finley 8-58, Beau Bianchi 47, James Meintel 2-5, Hayden Knight 4-(-7), Wayne Alamositele 6-43.

PASSING - Bellingham: Bobby Funkhouser 7-15-0-85. Sehome: Harrison Finley 0-3-1-0, Hayden Knight 4-7-1-42, Sam Reier 0-2-1-0.

RECEIVING - Bellingham: Dakota White 2-21, Cole Goodridge 5-64. Sehome: Hary Tumber 2-34, Roman Andrushenko 2-8.