BELLINGHAM – Fife took advantage of almost every mistake that the Storm made, and walked away with a 23-14 victory over Squalicum on Friday night at Civic Stadium.
In fact, all 23 points scored by the Trojans came off of turnovers and short fields.
Fife was able to control the clock, and ran 14 more plays than the Storm, but Squalicum’s defense was more than up for the task. The Storm stopped the Trojans for loss on 13 times, but it didn’t matter in the end.
Fife scored the first three touchdowns of the game, the first two on touchdown runs, and the third on an errant snap that sailed over quarterback Josh Leonard’s head. The ball wound up being pinballed between bodies in the end zone before a Trojan player secured it.
The Storm rallied strong in the second quarter with a pair of touchdown passes by Leonard. The first was a 49-yard bomb to sophomore Marcus Nixon who ran his route out of the backfield and he was able to get behind the defense. The second was a perfectly placed 26-yarder to 6-foot-3 senior Jacob Sorenson who caught it in the end zone.
Leonard finished with 165 yards passing, on 10 completions, with most of it coming in the first half.
Nixon had 45 yards rushing late in the game to lead his team, but fell on another sailed center snap, and lost 20 yards on the play.
The only scoring in the second half came one play after Nixon recovered the ball, when another high snap was bobbled in the end zone, and by the time Leonard had full control of the ball, he was pushed out the back of the end zone for a Fife safety.
Defensively, junior linebacker Deandre Dunmore had a huge game with 11.5 tackles and four tackles for loss. Senior safety was all over the field with 11.5 tackles and two tackles for loss.
Squalicum (1-1) will begin conference play on Friday against Lynden (2-0) at Civic Stadium at 7:00.
Fife 23 Squalicum 14 FIFE 7 14 0 2 - 23 SQU 0 14 0 0 - 14 FIFE - 2 yard touchdown run (kick good) FIFE - 18 yard touchdown run (kick good) FIFE - Recovered fumble in end zone (kick good) SQU - Nixon 49 pass from Leonard (Sonnon kick) SQU - Sorenson 26 pass from Leonard (Sonnon kick) FIFE - Safety, Leonard pushed out of end zone FIFE SQU 48-179 Rush Att-Yards 20-37 4-11-0 Comp-Att-Int 10-25-1 18 Passing Yards 165 Individual Leaders RUSHING - FIFE: N/A. SQU: Nixon 16-25, Dunmore 3-13, Leonard 1-(-1). PASSING - FIFE: N/A. SQU: Leonard 10-25-1-165. RECEIVING - FIFE: N/A. SQU: Sorenson 3-59, Egging 3-29, Nixon 2-52, Watt 1-18, Ortiz-McAlister 1-7.
