BELLINGHAM – Going 3-0 just wasn’t meant to be for the Bayhawks, as the Tigers came into town and shut Bellingham out 34-0 at Civic Stadium on Thursday night.
An even played first half saw both teams make big plays, but also saw both teams rack up unforced errors. Granite Falls got on the board with 4:45 left until half time on a perfectly placed pass, and Bellingham was down just 7-0 at halftime.
After nearly eight minutes of play in the third quarter, the Tigers scored again on a very similar pass play, this time from 55 yards out. The ensuing kickoff was a short line drive that was ultimately recovered by Granite Falls, who then scored a few plays later.
A fumbled snap on the next offensive play by the Bayhawks gave the Tigers tremendous field position, and a touchdown moments later seemed to really take the sail out of the winds for Bellingham. Granite Falls had scored 21 points in a matter of three minutes and 17 seconds.
Bayhawk senior quarterback completed his first two pass attempts of the game for a combined 82 yards, which made him the 15th player in school history to surpass 1,000 career passing yards.
Senior wide receiver Isaac Bates was on the receiving end of both of those passes, and finished with four catches for 107 yards. It was his first game of the season after recovering from an early injury. Senior running back Logan Steeves rushed for a team-high 42 yards on 12 carries, and he caught a pair of passes for 17 yards.
Sophomore middle linebacker Tyler Frost led on defense with 14 tackles, including four tackles for loss. Sophomore strong safety Gabriel Van Hofwegen also had a big game defensively, as he chipped in with 6.5 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, a sack and a pass broken up.
The Bayhawks (2-1) will attempt to get back on track next Friday when they travel to South Whidbey to take on the Falcons at 7:00.
Granite Falls 34 Bellingham 0 GF 0 7 21 6 - 34 BEL 0 0 0 0 - 0 GF - 34 yard touchdown pass (kick good) GF - 55 yard touchdown pass (kick good) GF - 7 yard touchdown run (kick good) GF - 8 yard touchdown pass (kick good) GF - 7 yard touchdown run (kick blocked) GF BEL 39-115 Rush Att-Yards 27-3 6-12-1 Comp-Att-Int 7-28-0 123 Passing Yards 135 Individual Leaders RUSHING - GF: N/A. BEL: Steeves 12-42, Frost 5-9, Poulton-Claypool 1-6, Cousens 1-1, Wells 2-(-16), Rasset 6-(-39). PASSING - GF: N/A. BEL: Rasset 6-24-0-130, Wells 1-3-0-5. Poulton-Claypool 0-1-0-0. RECEIVING - GF: N/A. BEL: Bates 4-107, Steeves 2-17, Cousens 1-11.
