BELLINGHAM – Amidst the toughest part of their schedule, the Bayhawks took another loss, this time in their home opener against Archbishop Murphy, 54-13, on Friday night.
Bellingham stopped the Wildcats for a loss on their first two rushing plays of the game, but Archbishop Murphy’s running attack began to take form after that. The Wildcats ran for 349 yards on 27 carries, including the first four touchdowns of the game.
Archbishop Murphy then went to the spread halfway through the second quarter, and quickly scored on a 64-yard touchdown pass, before scoring on another long touchdown run just before halftime to put the score at 40-0.
The Bayhawks made a change at halftime, and it gave them a lot of positives to look at for the immediate future.
Junior Joe Harward was moved from quarterback to wide receiver, and Bellingham inserted sophomore Ben Leonard behind center. On his second pass attempt, he threw a deep ball down the right sideline, and despite pass interference on the Wildcat defender, Harward came down with the ball and scored a 79-yard touchdown.
The two connected on two other long plays in the game, and Harward finished with 167 yards on four receptions, all of which came in the second half.
Leonard finished his varsity debut at quarterback going 6-for-11 for 191 yards. He also found senior tight end Gabe VanHofwegen for a touchdown late in the contest.
Senior linebacker Gabe Bowers led Bellingham with 6.5 tackles, while VanHofwegen ended with 5.5 tackles, including a stop behind the line of scrimmage.
The Bayhawks (0-4) will host Granite Falls (3-1) on Friday at 7:00 at Civic Stadium
Archbishop Murphy 54 Bellingham 13 ATM 13 27 7 7 - 54 BEL 0 0 7 6 - 13 ATM - 17 yard touchdown run (kick good) ATM - 12 yard touchdown run (kick failed) ATM - 13 yard touchdown run (kick good) ATM - 67 yard touchdown run (kick good) ATM - 64 yard touchdown pass (kick good) ATM - 39 yard touchdown run (2pt pass failed) BEL - Harward 79 pass from Leonard (Boak kick) ATM - 60 yard touchdown run (kick good) ATM - 4 yard touchdown run (kick good) BEL - G. VanHofwegen 12 pass from Leonard (pass failed) ATM BEL 27-349 Rush Att-Yards 15-7 2-6-0 Comp-Att-Int 13-25-1 87 Passing Yards 279 Individual Leaders RUSHING - ATM: N/A. BEL: Frost 8-17, G. VanHofwegen 1-3, Harward 6-(-13). PASSING - ATM: N/A. BEL: Harward 7-14-0-88, Leonard 6-11-1-191. RECEIVING - ATM: N/A. BEL: Harward 4-167, Hanstead 4-74, G. VanHofwegen 2-29, Wright 3-9.
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