BELLINGHAM – Any law firm will tell you how important the opening statement, and the closing statements are.
Bellingham senior Liam Poulton-Claypool, who was nicknamed “The Law Firm” two seasons ago, opened the game with a 7-yard touchdown reception, and closed it out with a game-clinching interception inside his own 10-yard line to secure a 20-14 victory over Friday Harbor at Civic Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Bayhawks got off to a fast start, following the Poulton-Claypool touchdown reception from sophomore quarterback Gabriel VanHofwegen, they forced a Wolverine punt and scored two plays later on a 54-yard touchdown run by senior Logan Steeves.
Friday Harbor answered back with a long drive, and scored on an 8-yard run to cut the lead to six points.
Both defenses stepped up in the second quarter, including Bellingham senior safety Isaac Bates who intercepted a pass with 1:03 remaining until halftime. The Bayhawks looked impressive in the hurry-up offense, but had to settle for a 37-yard field goal attempt by Poulton-Claypool with seven seconds left. It had plenty of distance, but was wide, and Bellingham went into the locker room with a 13-7 lead.
The Bayhawks started out the third quarter with a monster drive that racked up 72 yards, most of them picked up by Steeves on the ground. 230-pound sophomore Tyler Frost finished the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to give Bellingham a 20-7 lead.
The Wolverines scored on a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to cut the lead back to six, but Friday Harbor’s onside kick attempt was covered up by Bayhawk senior Kalani Utu.
Bellingham drove into Wolverine territory, but Friday Harbor intercepted its fourth pass of the game and the Wolverines took over on their own 20-yard line with 5:43 left and down by six.
Friday Harbor pounded the ball over and over again, and found success running the ball off of right tackle. Time kept coming off the clock, as the Wolverines marched into Bellingham territory.
Bayhawk senior outside linebacker Lucas Cousens got a huge quarterback sack on first down, which put the Wolverines back to the Bellingham 33-yard line with 1:20 left in the game. Out of timeouts at that point, Friday was forced to spike the ball which brought up third-and-long. That led to the long pass which was intercepted by Poulton-Claypool with 53 seconds remaining to end the game.
Bellingham was led offensively by Steeves who finished with 154 yards rushing on 24 carries. Defensively, it was Frost once again who racked up 16 tackles, including three tackles for loss.
The Bayhawks (3-5) will host Meridian (4-4) on Friday night at 7:00 at Civic Stadium.
Bellingham 20 Friday Harbor 14 FH 7 0 0 7 - 14 BEL 13 0 7 0 - 20 BEL - Poulton-Claypool 7 pass from VanHofwegen (Poulton-Claypool kick) BEL - Steeves 54 run (kick failed) FH - Kleine 8 run (Velasquez kick) BEL - Frost 2 run (Poulton-Claypool kick) FH - Gustufson 1 run (Velasquez kick)
FH BEL 55-206 Rush Att-Yards 33-164 2-12-2 Comp-Att-Int 8-16-4 58 Passing Yards 118
Individual Leaders RUSHING - FH: N/A. BEL: Steeves 24-154, Frost 3-8, VanHofwegen 6-2. PASSING - FH: N/A. BEL: VanHofwegen 8-16-4-118. RECEIVING - FH: N/A. BEL: Poulton-Claypool 4-57, Steeves 2-24, Bates 1-27, Cousens 1-10.
