A Whatcom trifecta: county teams wallop opponents in state tournament quarterfinals
Whatcom County has had three football teams in the state playoff semifinals before, but it’s unlikely that three quarterbacks in their first seasons as starters have ever led their teams to such an astonishing combined point total for the first two rounds.
Even more impressive, of the 299 points that Squalicum’s Leyton Smithson, Lynden’s Kaidan Hermanutz and Lynden Christian’s Will Colwell have helped produce in six wins, all but seven points have come in the first three quarters.
In a memorable tripleheader Saturday at Civic Stadium in the quarterfinals, in Class 2A Smithson passed and ran for 396 yards and five touchdowns in the Storm’s 63-38 win over Ridgefield; Hermanutz also was responsible for five touchdowns and 254 all-purpose yards in the Lions’ 54-20 rout of Prosser. In Class 1A, Colwell threw for two scores and produced 165 total yards.
All this, against three teams that entered the quarterfinals with a combined 31-2 record!
In the 2A semifinals Saturday, No. 2 seed Lynden (10-1) will welcome No. 3 North Kitsap (11-0) to Civic Stadium at 5 p.m., while No. 4 Squalicum (8-2) is on the road against No. 1 Tumwater (9-2) at 4 p.m. Meanwhile, in the 1A semifinals Saturday, No. 3 Lynden Christian (7-2) travels to meet No. 2 Eatonville at 5 p.m. at Art Crate Field in Spanaway, while No. 5 King’s (9-1) visits No. 1 Royal (12-0).
“This will be the first time Civic Stadium has ever hosted a state semifinal,” Lynden coach Blake VanDalen said.
Think those three quarterbacks were phenomenal? Look at their stellar support: Ben Schlenbaker scored four touchdowns for Squalicum, giving him 10 in two state games; Kaleo Jandoc caught five passes for 156 yards and three touchdowns for Lynden; and Kade Eldridge ran for 174 yards and three touchdowns for LC.
Squalicum, which opened in 1998, claimed its first state semifinals berth. Lynden and Lynden Christian, both well established when the state playoffs began in 1973, will be making their 17th and 8th appearances, respectively.
As a testament to the sportsmanship of the three local head coaches, the only local touchdown in the fourth quarter of games in the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals was a 55-yard scamper by promising Lynden Christian junior offensive backfield backup Isaac Paxton on Saturday.
LYNDEN 54, PROSSER 20: As stellar as junior running back/linebacker Lane Heeringa has been all season, he was called on to run only eight times for 45 yards as VanDalen continued to work with juniors Hermanutz and Campbell Nolte, who gained 84 yards on 13 carries and 60 yards on seven rushes, respectively.
Hermanutz, a junior, and Jandoc, a senior, were nothing less than spectacular together with beautifully executed scoring passes of 41 and 52 yards for Lynden’s first two touchdowns.
Prosser (10-2) trailed only 14-13 midway through the second quarter when Collin Anker returned a kickoff 47 yards to the 35. Hermanutz found Jandoc for 30 yards and on fourth down, defensive standout Cade Slayton, a 215-pound senior, went on for one play at quarterback to bull his way for a touchdown.
That was the first of six consecutive Lions touchdowns, followed by Nolte’s 3-yard run, Jandoc’s 8-yard catch, Stanley’s 12-yard reception from Hermanutz, Nolte’s 43-yard run and Hermanutz’s 3-yard scramble.
Hermanutz, a junior whose best game number is five touchdown passes, and Jandoc, a senior whose best is four scoring receptions, received loud cheers from the large crowd for the sheer artistry of their teamwork.
“If anyone had told me before my recovery from summer shoulder surgery (in July) that all this would happen, I would have said ‘thank you’ but I wouldn’t have believed it,” said Hermanutz, while praising interior linemen Bennett Roorda, Dane Gatterman, Josiah VanderHaak, Jesus Ortiz and Kuyper Assink for flawless protection.
“None of those guys is a senior (although tight end Case Zweegman is a great senior) and they’re all new as starters,” Hermanutz said. “They’re just so good.”
Jandoc hasn’t always been so explosive.
“We have a lot of weapons and I’m not always going to be one of them in every game,” the multi-sport senior standout said. “We have a saying about wait your turn. So many of us have shown so much improvement.”
VanDalen, whose teams made the state finals in 2018 and state semifinals in 2019, is thrilled with that improvement and work ethic.
“Our guys are like sponges, they want to learn so much and that is so rewarding,” the fifth-year head coach said. “Our offense understands that we’re young (nine junior starters) and our defensive understands that we’re older (with five senior regulars plus many more contributors).”
Anker’s 11-yard interception return helped set up Jandoc’s third touchdown catch with 19 seconds left in the first half for a 33-13 advantage. Kole Antypas made a pass theft early in the third quarter to set up Stanley’s touchdown catch.
LYNDEN CHRISTIAN 49, TENINO 18: The Beavers (10-2), in the state playoffs for the first time since 1986, stuck to their power running game and passed only twice, including an interception by sophomore Jeremiah Wright.
Although Oregon State recruit Takari Hickle, listed at 255 pounds, surpassed 2,000 yards rushing with 223 yards on 35 carries — and the Beavers surpassed 5,000 yards on the ground — the Lyncs handled the big guy well after he scored on a 52-yard run on the game’s first series and broke a 32-yarder on the next series. Only one of his last 28 rushes, a 13-yarder, was longer than nine yards.
“We stumbled into a (rescheduled) game against Onalaska (Oct. 8 against a similar power-running team) and that experience really helped us,” said Lyncs coach Dan Kaemingk, whose team fell to Royal 26-22 in the 2019 state finals and is thus fully motivated to return.
Eldridge scored on runs of 12, 16 and 66 yards and proved a more than suitable counter to Hickle. Eldridge’s 66-yarder gave the Lyncs a 35-12 lead late in the third quarter along with the fifth of seven conversions by Lucas VanHofwegen.
Tenino immediately pulled within 35-18 on a 61-yard touchdown sprint by Gavin Watson, but LC senior Zac Owen responded with a 79-yard kickoff return for a score. That effectively ended the game.
Earlier, Colwell threw for touchdowns of 4 yards to Caleb Ryan and 30 yards to Jamison Hintz, who made a remarkable leaping catch over a defender in the end zone. That gave Colwell 20 touchdown passes.
Tenino, which rushed for 801 yards in the previous playoff game, was held to nearly half that by the Lyncs and the likes of linebackers Matthew Burrows and fellow senior lineman Roman Meenk. Along with those two, Andrew Tanner, Denver DeJong and Andrew Jewell provided much of the blocking as the Lyncs finished with 414 total yards to the Beavers’ 423 yards, all of which came on runs.
“Roman Meenk was really good today,” Kaemingk said of the 270-pound senior.
Burrows said the team was not shaken by Tenino’s 80-55 explosion in the Round of 16 against Freeman.
“Not at all,” said Burrows, when asked if Tenino’s game-opening 91-yard drive shook the Lyncs’ defense. “I know the mentality of our defense and our coaching staff and I know how we bounce back.”
Burrows acknowledged, “That dude (Hickle) was very hard to bring down. He’s tough and I wish him well wherever he plays in college.”
Eldridge was emotional about the win while praising his offensive linemen.
“I was very excited to get that 66-yarder,” said Eldridge, who began the season at tight end since he is a 6-4, 240-pound junior with a running style that combines agility with power.
SQUALICUM 63, RIDGEFIELD 38: The Spudders came in 11-0, but that didn’t seem to faze the Storm, which received their usual all-over-the-field effort from senior linebacker Bryson Lamb.
Lamb’s interception set up the Storm’s first score, a perfectly executed 32-yard deep throw and cut from Smithson to fellow senior Kaleb Hawkinson, followed by the first of Sebastian Smith’s nine extra points. Smith is 16 for 16 in the playoffs.
A 43-yard pass from Smthson to Kai Posey to the 2-yard line set up the first of Schlenbaker’s four scores, which included a 35-yard pick six for a 42-17 bulge early in the third quarter. Smith’s 58-yard touchdown run, on which he slashed back perfectly several times, had made it 35-17 on the first play of the second half.
The Storm’s first-half excellence also included Smithson’s 1-yard keeper for their third score and the versatile senior’s 41-yard scoring pass to Posey.
Runs of 2 and 48 yards by Schlenbaker and Smithson’s 33-yard touchdown capped what coach Nick Lucey called “our most complete game.” That included consistently outstanding work by the offensive line of Lamb, Blaze Robles, Evan Jaborra, Colby Lewis and Riley Rambo, all of whom were cited by coaches for their best effort.
Schlenbaker carried 17 times for 147 yards and Smithson had 13 runs for a season-high 192 yards. Smithson completed 11 of 14 passes for 204 yards with no interceptions, including three passes for 92 yards to Posey and three for 69 yards to Hawkinson.
Smithson, a senior in his first season at quarterback, showed how he earned all-conference honors at running back for 5A school Mountain View of Meridian, Idaho, as a junior before his family moved back to Bellingham.
Smithson has well over 1,000 yards running and passing and has accounted for 19 touchdowns in only eight on-the-field appearances — 11 runs, seven passes and one reception. (The Storm had two opponents cancel because of COVID exposure and had a Week Ten bye as a playoff qualifier.)
The game lasted more than three hours, with the Storm penalized 17 times for 147 yards to Ridgefield’s two penalties. Most of Squalicum’s infractions were procedural and the game was sportsmanlike.
Ridgefield quarterback Logan DeBeaumont threw 51 passes with 26 completions for 354 yards as a substitute for a stifled running game, which produced only 9 net yards rushing. In addition to Lamb and Schlenbaker, Deandre Dunmore had an interception.
The Storm amassed 560 total yards against this previously unbeaten team, with 356 on the ground.
“I can’t say enough about how well our kids competed,” Lucey said. “Just a great effort against a tough team.”
