LYNDEN – After winning it’s last 19 conference games in a row, the powerful Archbishop Murphy football team moved to the Northwest Conference Sky Division. In its first conference game in the NWC, Lynden stood up to the Wildcats and defeated them 24-21 in a come from behind victory at Rollie DeKoster Field on Friday night.
The two teams almost looked like mirror images of each other. Both had big, strong lines. Both had diminutive, but extremely quick running backs. Both had fantastic left-footed kickers, and both had tall, strong quarterbacks. Luckily, for Lynden, the Lions had a second tall, strong quarterback.
Down 21-10 in the fourth quarter, Lynden senior quarterback James Marsh was driving his team down the field, and on an eight-yard run to the goal line he took a strong shot to the head that stopped him at the one-yard line. Junior Brock Heppner came into the game, and after a penalty and a play later, Heppner scored on a 4-yard touchdown run to make it 21-17.
The Lion defense forced a punt on the next series, and the Lions offense went to work after that. Heppner, who had started at wide receiver and played some tight end, competed a 32-yard pass to his replacement at tight end, 6-foot-5 senior Dakota Baar. Heppner then connected with Baar again, this time for nine yards, but a bad snap over the head of Heppner forced Lynden to punt.
Archbishop Murphy was running the clock out, and did pick up some first downs, but was ultimately forced to punt again. The Lions took over from their own 23-yard line and needed to score a touchdown.
Heppner looked like Jonathan Moxon from “Varsity Blues” as the backup quarterback put the team on his back, and drove down the field against the mighty Wildcats. He hit on quick strikes to senior wide receiver Grant VanderYacht, and he guided senior running back Eric Martin-Mann to some bruising runs. Heppner also ran hard over the left side of his offensive line which was led by senior left tackle Jacob Kettels. Heppner was brought down by his face mask on one play, and ultimately got his team to the ATM 15-yard line. Heppner tried a fade into the end zone with Baar on first down, but came up unsuccessful. On second down and ten he lofted one up for senior wide receiver Kobe Elsner who came down with the game-winning touchdown.
The ensuing kickoff was squibbed and recovered by senior Lane Smith. Heppner ran hard up the middle on four consecutive plays, forcing the Wildcats to use all of their timeouts before turning the ball over on downs. Archbishop Murphy had one last chance, but was sacked by Kettels.
Marsh played like a warrior in the first three quarters, completing five passes for 116 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for a team-high 33 yards.
Defensively, inside linebackers Bodie Human and Preston King were all over the field making tackles. Human had a pair of tackles for loss, and senior safety Brendan Kleindel also had a stop behind the line. The Lions also had quarterback sacks from defensive tackle Steven DiLorenzo and defensive end Trevin Melendez, while Elsner picked off his Whatcom County-leading fourth interception of the season.
Lynden (4-0) will travel to Lakewood (3-1) to take on the Cougars this Friday night. That game will be broadcasted on The Doug Lange Network.
Archbishop Murphy 21
Lynden 24
ATM 7 0 14 0 – 21
LYN 7 3 0 14 – 24
LYN – VanderYacht 66 pass from Marsh (Samoukovic kick)
ATM – Mathis 2 run (Henderson kick)
LYN – Samoukovic 33 FG
ATM – Halpin 39 pass from Gabalis (Henderson kick)
ATM – McCaron 6 fumble recovery (Henderson kick)
LYN – Heppner 4 run (Samoukovic kick)
LYN – Elsner 15 pass from Heppner (Samoukovic kick)
ATM LYN
41-148 Rushing Att-Yards 33-87
3-7-1 Comp-Att-Int 10-18-0
51 Passing yards 185
Individual Leaders
RUSHING – ATM: N/A. LYN: Marsh 11-33, Heppner 10-31, Martin-Mann 6-28, DiLorenzo 3-22, Melendez 1-(-1), bad snap 2-(-26).
PASSING – ATM: N/A. LYN: Marsh 5-10-0-116, Heppner 5-8-0-69.
RECEIVING – ATM: N/A. LYN: VanderYacht 5-89, Baar 2-41, Elsner 2-38, Heppner 1-8.
