BELLINGHAM – After going blow-for-blow with the Lions for the first quarter and a half, the Mariner football team eventually succumbed to Lynden 48-21 at Civic Stadium on Friday night.
It was the darting run game of Steven DiLorenzo for Lynden against the pin-point passing of Sehome’s Jacob Kaepernick early on.
DiLorenzo carried the ball four times for 79 yards on the first drive of the game, including a dynamic 41-yard touchdown run. Kaepernick then completed 9-of-10 passes for 66 yards on the Mariners’ first drive of the game, which ended with a 6-yard touchdown strike to sophomore Luke Evans.
The defenses got the best of the offenses on the next drives as both teams traded punts. DiLorenzo scored his second touchdown of the game on the following drive from five yards away by hurdling left guard Christian Bethea and diving into the end zone.
Sehome followed that with an 80-yard touchdown pass down the left seam from Kaepernick to senior wide receiver Melloy Nelson. Nelson appeared to be injured on the play, and wasn’t able to attempt the extra point. Sophomore Zach Chisolm booted the P.A.T. to give Sehome the 14-13 lead, but Nelson was unable to continue the rest of the game.
The Mariners were also without junior standout Tim Malo who was injured early on, and from there on out the Lions poured it on by scoring the next five touchdowns of the game.
Lynden junior quarterback Baylor Ayres (who is the son of former Sehome great Evan Ayres) didn’t go to the air often (6-of-8 passing), but was extremely efficient when he did. He completed four touchdown passes to three different receivers. Senior Brock Heppner was the recipient of two of his touchdown passes, and he also scored on a 3-yard touchdown run just before halftime.
Freshman quarterback Carson Neff entered the game in the fourth quarter for the Mariners, and threw his first varsity touchdown pass to sophomore Caleb Ryan. Ryan finished with a game-high seven receptions for 105 yards.
The loss for ended the season for Sehome (7-3), and the Lions (7-2) will now wait to find out who they will be playing in the first round of the 2A state tournament.
Sehome 21
Lynden 48
SEH 7 7 0 7 – 21
LYN 6 28 14 0 – 48
LYN – DiLorenzo 41 run (kick blocked)
SE – L. Evans 6 pass from Kaepernick (Nelson kick)
LYN – DiLorenzo 5 run (Samoukovic kick)
SE – Nelson 80 pass from Kaepernick (Chisolm kick)
LYN – DiLorenzo 4 pass from Ayres (Samoukovic kick)
LYN – Heppner 9 pass from Ayres (Smoukovic kick)
LYN – Heppner 3 run (Samoukovic kick)
LYN – Heppner 20 pass from Ayres (Samoukovic kick)
LYN – E. Bode 37 pass from Ayres (Samoukovic kick)
SE – Ryan 14 pass from Neff (Chisolm kick)
SEH LYN
21-31 Rushing Att-Yards 47-314
19-34-1 Comp-Att-Int 7-10-0
268 Passing yards 122
Individual Leaders
RUSHING – SE: Smith 10-24, Dorsch 6-13, Nelson 1-1, Kaepernick 4-(-7). LYN: DiLorenzo 15-181, Ayres 13-71, Heppner 5-28, Moore 5-19, Slayton 5-18, White 1-2, Anker 1-2, Heeringa 1-(-1), Hermanutz 1-(-6)..
PASSING – SE: Kaepernick 17-29-1-240, Neff 2-5-0-28. LYN: Ayres 6-8-0-106, Moore 1-1-0-16, Heppner 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING – SE: Ryan 7-105, L. Evans 5-45, Nelson 2-86, Malo 2-5, Chisolm 1-14, Smith 1-7, I. Evans 1-6. LYN: DiLorenzo 2-37, Heppner 2-29, E.Bode 1-37, Anderson 1-16, Jandoc 1-3.
