Mountaineers slip past Kalama in 1A playoffs

With their season on the line, none of Mount Baker’s football players knew the real play coming up. None, that is, except senior quarterback Mason Bass.

Following a signal from coach Ron Lepper, Bass pulled the ball away from record-setting running back Jed Schleimer and put the season on his shoulders.

“Everyone bit on that great fake by Mason,” said Schleimer. “I knew what was happening when Mason pulled the ball out” (when everyone else on both teams thought the ball would go to Schleimer).

The result was a 35-yard dash around right end with 3 minutes and 8 seconds remaining for the game’s final touchdown in Baker’s wild 47-42 win over Kalama in the first round of the Class 1A State Playoffs on Saturday, Nov. 14.

“Coach Lepper called it,” Bass said, recalling how the two had talked about similar circumstances in the previous game. “He was saving it for the right time.”

Baker (10-1), which rallied from a 21-0 first-quarter deficit against Kalama (8-2), never led until Bass’ touchdown, which the affable senior acknowledged was the most exciting play of his three-year career as varsity quarterback.

“I’m a good decoy,“ quipped Schleimer, a junior who gained 230 yards on 27 carries and scored three short-yardage touchdowns to extend his school season record to 2,272 yards.

Sophomore Carson Engholm enjoyed his best game, rushing for 148 yards and 16 carries including a 29-yard score, plus a game-saving interception on Kalama’s last drive. Bass threw only eight passes but completed four for 94 yards, including scoring strikes of 56 and 11 yards to sophomore Thomas Barbo.

However, what helped make Bass’ dramatic touchdown possible was a 30-yard run by senior Vadim Kotsyuba on the opening play of the winning drive from the 25-yard line, followed on 3-and-8 by Schleimer’s 8-yard gain for a vital first down.

On Kalama’s previous series, quick Jacob Herz — who scored on 80-, 31- and 85-yard passes from Isaac Truesdell — returned a kickoff 81 yards to the Mount Baker 7-yard line. But the Mounties, who won their 10th in a row, played pass defense well enough to force three consecutive incompletions, giving Baker possession on its 25.

Bass, Schleimer and Engholm couldn’t say enough about the offensive linemen who led the Mounties to 461 yards rushing to go with Bass 94 yards passing for a whopping 554 total against a team that came in with a Trico League title and eight straight wins.

Gene Fleming, Cory Bergh, Chad Cohn, Kolton Zender, Maxwell Tolman, Paul Lebedev and tight end T.J. Bass were, as Schleimer put it, “Just absolutely outstanding in our comeback.”

As Engholm put it, “Those guys are just so much fun to play (in the backfield) with.”

Kalama quarterback Truesdell threw four touchdown passes and caught a 45-yard score from Colby Mazza on a trick flip from Herz, who took the initial handoff. That gave the Chinooks their 21-0 lead. Truesdell completed 23 of 36 passes for 430 yards but was intercepted by Bass, Kotsyuba and Engholm, who made his pass theft at Baker’s 17-yard line with 2:25 remaining.

“I’m just so proud of these guys for never giving up,” said Lepper. “We had a lot of chances to tuck our tails in, but we never did. Just give our guys a lot of credit for beating a very good team.”

As Lepper told his team, “I never said it would be easy.”

But he also never said anything about giving Bass a play no one else knew about.

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Mountaineers slip past Kalama in 1A playoffs."