Mountaineers March Into the Semifinals

MEAD – When the Mount Baker football team was 3-4 in mid-October, a chance for the state playoffs looked slim. The Mountaineers have basically been playing playoff-football ever since, knowing that a loss along the way would likely end their season.

The “why not us?” battle cry continued on Saturday night against the only undefeated team left in the 1A classification, and the Mounties pulled out a 35-20 victory over Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) at Union Stadium in the quarterfinal round of the state tournament.

The Eagles looked sharp to open the game, and used their speed to quickly drove down the field with sweeps and other plays designed for the perimeter. They also scored a touchdown on their opening possession and held an early 6-0 lead. The two-point conversion was quickly snuffed out by senior linebacker Marcques George.

The Mountaineers then went to work, and used their trademark running game to power down the field. But, it was a 24-yard passing play from senior quarterback Landon Smith to junior wide receiver Landen Hanstead on the 13th play of the drive that got Baker into the end zone. Tanyen Staton’s extra point gave Mount Baker the 7-6 lead late in the first quarter.

Lakeside put together another strong drive, but stalled inside the Mountie 10-yard line and had to settle for a 25-yard field goal attempt, which was missed.

Nine plays later, Mount Baker put George in motion to the left out of the backfield, and with two Eagle linebackers following him it opened up the middle of the field for senior running back Wilhem Maloley who followed his clock from senior left guard Ethan Larson, broke a few tackles and powered his way 20 yards for a touchdown run with 7:22 left in the second quarter.

On the following drive the Eagles got inside the Baker 25-yard line but turned the ball over on downs when Larson batted the ball down on a 4th down passing play.

Lakeside quickly intercepted a pass, but was turned away quickly after and forced to punt back to the Mountaineers.

Mount Baker took possession at its own 38-yard line with 1:44 left until halftime, and a 28-yard run by George put the Mounties at the Lakeside 34-yard line.

Three plays later, on 3rd-and-10, Maloley took the handoff, and quickly handed the ball to Hanstead who followed his block from sophomore Dylan Moa and sprinted 34 yards for a touchdown. Staton’s extra point gave Baker a 21-6 lead with 44 seconds to go in the half.

Mount Baker opened up the second half by driving 68 yards on eight plays, and ended the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run by Smith.

The powerful Eagles couldn’t be held down all game, and their offense is built to score quickly. They drove 94 yards on 16 plays, and scored their second touchdown of the game, this one coming with five seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Baker was forced to punt on the following possession, and Lakeside got right to work, three plays later when senior quarterback Kole Hunsaker threw a quick wide receiver screen to junior Sadahiro Patterson who quickly spun out of two tackles back to back and turned on the jets to go 72 yards for a touchdown. The two Eagles connected on the two-point conversion, and just like that Mount Baker’s lead was now 28-20 with 7:47 left in the game.

The Lakeside sideline erupted moments later when junior Caleb Kakuda intercepted a pass and the Eagles now had the ball at their 37-yard line with plenty of time and down by eight.

They were able to drive down to the Mount Baker 26-yard line, but on 3rd-and-14 Larson was able to get to Hunsaker for a strip sack, and the ball was recovered by junior defensive end Vance Lawrence to give the ball back to the Mounties with 4:16 left in the game.

The Eagles continued to key on George, and Mount Baker countered by giving the ball to Maloley, who picked up a few first downs. That was followed by a 32-yard run down the Baker sideline by Smith which brought his team inside the 10-yard line.

Maloley then scored a few plays later on the dreaded Mount Baker counter trey run from eight yards out with 1:15 left to ice the game.

Although George didn’t reach the end zone, he did finish with a game-high 214 yards rushing on 26 carries. Larson led the defense with 10 tackles, to go along with his strip sack and pass batted down. Junior defensive end Alex Maloley also had 5.5 tackles and two quarterback sacks, while Moa had 7.5 tackles and a tackle for loss.

The Mountaineers (7-4) will face Nooksack Valley (9-1) at 1:00 this Saturday at Civic Stadium for a chance to go to the state championship game.

Mount Baker                 35
Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls)  20

MB        7    14     7     7  - 35
LAK       6     0     6     8  - 20

LAK - Yamada 21 pass from Hunsaker (run failed)
MB - Hanstead 24 pass from Smith (Staton kick)
MB - W. Maloley 20 run (Staton kick)
MB - Hanstead 34 run (Staton kick)
MB - Smith 2 run (Staton kick)
LAK - Mikkelsen 8 pass from Hunsaker (pass failed)
LAK - Patterson 72 pass from Hunsaker (Patterson pass from Hunsaker)
MB - W. Maloley 8 run (Staton kick)

MB                          LAK
52-385   Rush Att-Yards     30-108
2-8-2    Comp-Att-Int       19-39-0
38       Passing Yards      298

Individual Leaders
   RUSHING - MB: George 26-214, W. Maloley 12-72, Smith 11-62, Hanstead 2-37, West 1-0. LAK: N/A.
   PASSING - MB: Smith 2-8-2-38. LAK: N/A.
   RECEIVING - MB: Hanstead 2-38. LAK: N/A.