Red Raiders finish season over .500

The Bellingham Red Raiders secured a winning season with a 35-13 win over Granite Falls, Thursday, Nov. 5, at Civic Stadium.

Sophomore quarterback Nick Knutson and his teammates knew what was on the line and embraced the pressure.

“All week our coach was talking about how we can start getting respect throughout the city,” Knutson said. “We really did that tonight.”

Despite the lopsided looking score, the game was still relatively up in the air in the second half. After a first-half performance by Bellingham that saw junior running back Dakota Johanson go for 138 yards on 16 carries and the defense pitch a shutout, Granite Falls made things interesting.

Led by a gutsy performance from quarterback Griffin Chapman, the Tigers trimmed Bellingham’s lead to 21-13 at the end of the third quarter.

After sacking Knutson for a safety the Tigers looked like they could go ahead and take the lead in the fourth quarter.

Senior Noah Hadfield had other ideas.

After admittedly being beat on the exact same play earlier in the night, Hadfield read a screen pass from Chapman. Instead of getting beat this time, he was holding the ball 50 yards later in the end zone, and the game had been changed for good.

“To make that big play, it got everyone excited,” Hadfield said.

Dominating a football game doesn’t always mean putting up 70 points and scoring on big play after big play. Sometimes it means lining up against the other team, and not conceding anything.

“We stopped their normal offense and kind of had a bend but not break defense,” Bellingham coach Ted Flint said. “We made some big stops... the couple of turnovers were huge.”

Ultimately, though, it was a special night for the Red Raiders and its seniors.

“I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s just overwhelming happiness,” senior Kole Jorgenson said.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Red Raiders finish season over .500."