LYNDEN – Rollie DeKoster Field was filled with excitement during the pre-game festivities, and didn’t end until after the final whistle.
A superbly evenly matched game that was a battle of differing styles saw Ferndale knock off the two-time state champion Lions 17-14 on Friday night.
The Golden Eagles played their usual game of ground and pound offensively, and stayed with it throughout the contest. In fact, Ferndale’s ball-control offense was the ideal game plan as the Golden Eagles ran 24 more plays than Lynden did.
It was junior fullback Talan Bungard early and often for Ferndale, as he gained 27 yards on his first two touches of the game and he closed the opening drive by catching a 7-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Bishop Ootsey to put the Golden Eagles up 7-0 moments into the game.
Both teams then traded punts back and forth until the end of the second quarter when the Lynden passing game began to heat up a little bit.
Lion junior quarterback Brant Heppner ripped a bullet-like bass down the middle of the field to senior wide receiver Cooper Moore for a gain of 26 yards, which put Lynden into Golden Eagle territory for the first time.
The Lion offense began to stall, but on 4th down Heppner found sophomore speedster Dani Bowler down the right sideline for a 28-yard touchdown. Malachi Koenen’s extra point tied the game, 7-7, just before halftime.
Ferndale kept with the smash-mouth game plan in the third quarter, and benefited from it with an 11-play 62-yard drive that culminated with Bungard, who followed a great block by junior guard Wyatt Strait, and plowed into the end zone from three yards out.
The ball control was working for the Golden Eagles, and the Ferndale secondary made passing a little more difficult for the Lions as cornerbacks Kevin Woods and Ootsey broke up three passes each.
After forcing a three-and-out, Ferndale quickly got the ball again, and methodically drove down the field. One big play in this drive, however, was an unexpected deep pass down the field from Ootsey to a diving Conner Walcker. The play covered 37 yards, which gained almost half of the drive itself.
The Lion defense clamped up inside the red zone, which it’s known to do, and the Golden Eagles had to settle for a 26-yard field goal attempt by Phoenyx Finkbonner, but the kick was wide right by less than a foot.
Time was beginning to become an issue, but Lynden had the ball back with 4:30 to go in the game, and four incomplete passes on the next four plays gave the ball back to Ferndale.
The Golden Eagles were able to gain six yards in three plays, and again tried for that field goal that they desperately wanted on the earlier drive, only this time it was from 31 yards out. Finkbonner hit it just right, and it gave Ferndale a much needed 10-point cushion at 17-7 with a 2:39 remaining.
The Lion offense roared back with a 6-play 75-yard drive that Heppner orchestrated beautifully, and it ended with him connecting on a slant to junior Isaiah Oudman who muscled his way into the end zone.
Now down three with 1:14 left, an onside kick was on the menu, but when Bungard recovered the onside try it meant victory for Ferndale.
Bungard rushed for a game-high 142 yards on 30 carries.
Walcker led the Golden Eagle defense with eight tackles, while Lynden senior linebacker Charlie Ayres had a whopping 15.5 tackles as he met with Bungard numerous times between the tackles.
Ferndale (1-0) will begin conference play next week at Oak Harbor (0-1) when they take on the Wildcats at 7:00 on Friday, while the Lions (0-1) will try to bounce back at home against W.F. West (0-1) on Friday at 7:00.
Ferndale 17 Lynden 14 FER 7 0 7 3 - 17 LYN 0 7 0 7 - 14 FER - Bungard 7 pass from Ootsey (Finkbonner kick) LYN - Bowler 28 pass from Heppner (Koenen kick) FER - Bungard 3 run (Finkbonner kick) FER - Finkbonner 31 FG LYN - Oudman 17 pass from Heppner (Koenen kick) FER LYN 55-244 Rush Att-Yards 13-32 5-8-0 Comp-Att-Int 10-26-0 62 Passing Yards 158 Individual Leaders RUSHING - FER: Bungard 30-142, Ootsey 11-52, Finkbonner 8-34, Moore 2-7, Gandy 2-6, Walcker 2-3. LYN: Human 8-16, Heppner 3-9, Ayres 2-7. PASSING - FER: Ootsey 5-8-0-62. LYN: Heppner 10-26-0-158. RECEIVING - FER: Bungard 3-25, Walcker 2-37. LYN: Moore 4-53, Bowler 3-55, Oudman 2-29, Elsner 1-21.
