BELLEVUE – The Red Raiders put it all together, with big plays in all three phases of the game, which led to a dominating 26-0 victory over the Totems on Friday night.
Offensively, it was a great mix of run and pass. The return of Jack Fields at running back inked immediate affect as he took his first carry of the game 48 yards for a touchdown. He finished with a game-high 126 yards on 17 carries.
Senior quarterback Cody Tolle was very accurate with his passes, completing 10-of-15 passes for 140 yards and a pair of touchdowns. While senior wide receivers Connor McKay and Andre Triplett took the short passes (combining for six receptions), it was 6-foot-3 senior wide receiver Morgan Cavalier that was the deep threat. He caught four passes for 104 yards and two touchdowns.
His first touchdown catch was a miraculous jump ball that he caught in the back of the end zone from 23 yards out, and his second TD catch was a streak down the middle of the field that he caught between two defenders and sped towards the end zone for a 52-yard score with just five seconds to go until halftime.
On special teams it was all about Triplett. He punted five times, and averaged over 40 yards a punt. And, the only two times he didn’t punt for at least 40 yards were on perfectly placed punts that put Sammamish inside its own 5-yard line.
And, that is where the defense comes in.
Senior defensive end Chris Oesterling continued his monstrous season, and capitalized on one of the Triplett punts. On a third down play in the fourth quarter he made a quick move on the opposing left tackle and strip sacked the quarterback in the end zone, and recovered the ball for a touchdown. It was his second sack of the game, and his Whatcom County leading seventh on the young season.
He also had three other tackles for losses while Cavalier made some huge hits from his corner back spot as well as intercepting a pair of passes.
Bellingham (1-2) will open up conference play on Friday when they host Cedarcrest (2-1).
Bellingham 26
Sammamish 0
BELL 7 12 0 7 – 26
SAMM 0 0 0 0 – 0
BELL – Fields 48 run (Alten kick)
BELL – Cavalier 23 pass from Tolle (kick failed)
BELL – Cavalier 52 pass from Tolle (kick blocked)
BELL – Oesterling recovered fumble in the end zone (Alten kick)
BELL SAMM
30-176 Rushing Att-Yards 28-26
10-15-1 Comp-Att-Int 9-22-3
140 Passing yards 61
Individual Leaders
RUSHING – BELL: Fields 17-126, McKay 1-33, Cavalier 2-23, Swanson 4-5, Quinlan 1-(-4), Tolle 5-(-7). SAMM: N/A.
PASSING – BELL: Tolle 10-15-1-140. SAMM: N/A.
RECEIVING – BELL: Cavalier 4-104, McKay 4-31, Triplett 2-5. SAMM: N/A.
Do you get roster updates? I noticed several new numbers for Bellingham players.
The most up-to-date roster that I have is at http://www.nwcathletics.com/index.php?pid=0.1.2.1.320. From there, you can click on the roster tab.