BLAINE – Coming into the contest, Blaine had been shut out in half of its games. The offense put up some big numbers, but the Borderites still came up short as they lost to Lakewood, 34-16 on Friday night.
After giving up an early touchdown to the Cougars, Blaine was able to drive down the field with relative ease. Junior quarterback Will McKinney rolled to his right on a play from the 8-yard line, and threw across the field to find a wide open Zane Rector in the end zone. McKinney found Rector again on the two-point conversion and the Borderites held an 8-7 advantage after one quarter.
Lakewood’s strong mix of run and pass led the way in the second quarter, and the Cougars went into the locker room at halftime with a 20-8 lead.
Senior running back Oscar Caridad was the workhorse for the evening, carrying the ball 39 times for 220 yards. With the Lakewood defense keying on him, it allowed McKinney to rip off some big runs in the second half, including a 14-yard touchdown run. McKinney finished with 49 yards on the ground on nine carries.
The Cougar defense played back, and allowed availability in the short passing game. McKinney took advantage with six short completions to Rector for 39 yards. However, he was intercepted three times, all on deep passes that Lakewood was ready for.
The Blaine special teams played well on a few trick plays as well. The Borderites opened the game with a surprise onside kick that sophomore kicker Preston King executed to perfection and it was recovered by senior Ian Dickinson. Later in the game, Blaine pulled off a perfect fake punt in which the ball was snapped to the up back sophomore Cole Thomas, who is the backup quarterback, and he completed a 23-yard pass to fellow sophomore Jaxon Kortlever for a first down.
Rector, along with linebacker Mason Vega, led the Blaine attack on defense.
The Borderites (1-6) will conclude their conference schedule this Friday at Lynden (5-2).
Lakewood 34
Blaine 16
LAKE 7 13 14 0 – 34
BLA 8 0 8 0 – 16
LAKE – 5 yard touchdown run (kick good)
BLA – Rector 8 pass from McKinney (Rector pass from McKinney)
LAKE – 27 yard touchdown run (kick good)
LAKE – 14 yard touchdown pass (pass failed)
LAKE – 24 yard touchdown pass (kick good)
BLA – McKinney 14 run (Kortlever pass from McKinney)
LAKE – 56 yard touchdown run (kick good)
LAKE BLA
29-260 Rushing Att-Yards 50-267
11-19-0 Comp-Att-Int 10-33-3
155 Passing yards 106
Individual Leaders
RUSHING – BLA: Caridad 39-220, McKinney 9-49, Parker 1-23, Ai. Holley 1-(-25). LAKE: N/A.
PASSING – BLA: McKinney 9-32-3-83, Thomas 1-1-0-23. LAKE: N/A.
RECEIVING – BLA: Rector 6-39, Kortlever 2-29, Dalry 1-24, Vega 1-14. LAKE: N/A.
