Sports - High Schools

POSTED: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009

PREP FOOTBALL: Tigers edge Borderites in Class 2A conference clash

BURLINGTON - With one long run Mikey Sanchez threw a monkey wrench into the postseason plans of the Class 2A teams in the Northwest Conference and might have kept Burlington-Edison in the hunt for a conference crown.

Sanchez's 41-yard touchdown dash early in the fourth quarter lifted the Tigers past Blaine 31-28 in a contest with major playoff implications on Friday, Oct. 16 at Kirkby Field in Burlington. The Tigers scored 24 points in the second quarter and then rallied in the fourth quarter to take the win.

"I think after we lost to Squalicum earlier in the season everybody kind of doubted us," Sanchez said. "We saw this game as an opportunity to show everybody that we were for real. We were fired up in the locker room, we came out fired up, and I think we proved something to people with this win."

Blaine took a 28-24 lead into the fourth quarter following a 50-yard touchdown run by Caleb Statham, but couldn't make it stand. After Sanchez's long run the Borderites had two more possessions to try and take back the lead, but the first one ended with a punt and on the second one Blaine was stopped a foot short of a first down on fourth-and-11.

"The last few weeks we've been playing well," Blaine coach Jay Dodd said. "I kind of thought momentum would keep us going and instead we ran into a brick wall tonight. You have to give them credit, they are a good team, but I really feel like the outcome had a lot to do with the way we played."

If the second half felt like a playoff tussle for both teams, the first half was filled with miscues. Blaine turned the ball over two times to set up easy scores for the Tigers (6-1, 6-1, 4-1) and struggled on special teams. Burlington-Edison scored 17 points in a span of about four minutes to build a 17-7 lead early in the second quarter.

Just when it looked like Blaine had grabbed back some of that momentum after Trevor Chau hauled in an 8-yard touchdown pass to make it 17-14 with 45 seconds to play in the half, the Tigers' Achilles Wynn returned the ensuing kickoff 91 yards for a score. Burlington-Edison held a 24-14 lead at the half.

"We just didn't play that well," Dodd said. "We came out in the first half and just played poorly. We kind of had a deer-in-the-headlights look. We have a lot of good football players on this team who have played great all year long. Tonight I think they'll be the first one's to tell you they didn't play very well. I just don't really know what else to tell you."

Blaine (4-3, 4-2, 3-2) recovered in the third quarter, with Statham scoring twice and the defense blocking a long field goal attempt. But a big play bit them again when Sanchez scored in the fourth, and the Tigers won the field position contest with a couple of good punts that left the Borderites too much field to cover and not enough time to do it in.

Statham finished with 167 yards on 25 carries and Todd Bird had seven catches for 60 yards to pace Blaine. Sanchez had 79 yards on 14 carries and Wynn had two scores, including a 19-yard run in the second quarter.

"This is big," Burlington-Edison coach Bruce Shearer said. "Each game we find out something new about ourselves and something else that we can do. What we have to do now is build toward the next two weeks."

Blaine 7 7 14 0- 28

Burlington-Edison 0 24 0 7- 31

First quarter

Bla - Todd Bird 5 pass from Jordan McCarty (Keith Sentkowski kick)

Second quarter

BE - Cody Larson 44 run (Andrew Furney kick)

BE -Furney 29 FG

BE - Achilles Wynn 19 run (Furney kick)

Bla - Trevor Chau 8 pass from McCarty (Sentkowski kick)

BE -Wynn 91 kickoff return (Furney kick)

Third quarter

Bla - Caleb Statham 36 run (Sentkowski kick)

Bla -Statham 50 run (Sentkowski kick)

Fourth quarter

BE - Mikey Sanchez 41 run (Furney kick)

Bla. BE

First downs 15 7

Rushing Att-Yards 39-204 33-194

Comp-Att-Int 13-18-1 1-3-1

Passing yards 122 7

Penalties-yards 4-20 3-30

Fumbles-lost 4-3 1-1

Individual leaders

RUSHING - Blaine: Caleb Statham 25-167, David Craig 3-10, Tusapa Laolagi 4-12, Al Bohnson 6-21, Jordan McCarty 1-(-6). Burlington-Edison: Mikey Sanchez 14-79, Andy Agen 6-26, Cody Larson 5-65, Achilles Wynn 2-26, Chris Burt 4-(-6), Damon Acoba 2-4.

PASSING - Blaine: Jordan McCarty 13-18-1-122. Burlington-Edison: Chris Burt 1-2-1-7, Mikey Sanchez -0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING - Blaine: Trevor Chau 2-17, Todd Bird 7-70, David Craig 2-7, Al Bohnson 2-28. Burlington-Edison: Jake Schifferl 1-7