ANACORTES – All season, Blaine felt comfortable with a quick passing game to the outside on short-to-medium routes. But, the Borderites bombed away deep on Friday as they topped Anacortes 34-8 at Seahawk Stadium.
Sophomore quarterback William McKinney let it fly, completing 14-of-22 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns, and his number one target was senior wide receiver Chase Abshere. Abshere had numerous dynamic catches, and ended with seven receptions for 185 yards and two touchdowns. Perhaps his best grab was the last one he made in the back of the end zone, and by doing so he became just the 19th player in Whatcom County history to catch at least 100 passes in his career.
The defense was also extremely hard to break through, forcing punt after punt all game long. Linebacker Hudson Reid was in on numerous tackles for losses, and he also had a fumble recovery.
Reid was also valuable in the passing game, catching four passes for 43 yards.
Running backs Alex Mercado and Oscar Caridad worked off of each other really well, with Mercado breaking a highlight reel 22-yard touchdown run, and Caridad wearing the Seahawk defense down with 44 yards on 15 carries.
Senior Derek Machula also caught a 13-yard touchdown pass on a nice back-shoulder pass from McKinney.
Senior kicker Bryce Kamrath continued his tremendous season, connecting on all four of his conversion kicks as well as two more field goals.
The Borderites (4-4) will try to avenge their loss from earlier in the season to Mountlake Terrace (5-3) when the two match up in a district crossover game at Edmonds District Stadium this Friday night at 5:00.
Blaine 34
Anacortes 8
BLA 7 10 10 7 – 34
ANA 0 0 0 8 – 8
BLA – Abshere 27 pass from McKinney (Kamrath kick)
BLA – Kamrath 24 FG
BLA – Mercado 22 run (Kamrath kick)
BLA – Kamrath 30 FG
BLA – Machula 13 pass from McKinney (Kamrath kick)
BLA – Abshere 21 pass from McKinney (Kamrath kick)
ANA – 20 yard touchdown pass (2pt run good)
BLA ANA
30-106 Rushing Att-Yards 40-77
14-22-0 Comp-Att-Int 5-16-0
206 Passing yards 92
Individual Leaders
RUSHING – BLA: Mercado 8-62, Caridad 15-44, Tkachov 3-4, McKinney 4-(-4). ANA: N/A.
PASSING – BLA: McKinney 14-22-0-206. ANA: N/A.
RECEIVING – BLA: Abshere 7-185, Reid 4-43, Machula 1-13, Kortlever 1-7, Mercado 1-1. ANA: N/A.
