BELLINGHAM – The offense, defense and special teams all had a big game as the Storm blew by Meadowdale 48-28 at Civic Stadium on Friday night.
In his first action this season, senior wide receiver Dedrick Mitchell must have been itching to get his hands on the ball, and the Squalicum coaching staff was probably thinking the same thing. On the Storm’s first play from scrimmage, Mitchell went in motion and took a shovel pass from Mason Binning and sped 40 yard for a touchdown.
The Mavericks scored on a 24-yard pass to answer, but Binning connected with Mitchell twice more for touchdowns, and before you knew it, it was 21-7.
Whatcom County’s leading rusher Ben Schlenbaker broke off an 85-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, and Binning tossed his fourth touchdown pass of the first half when he connected on a 19-yard pass to junior Bryce Pennock.
Late in the second quarter, Meadowdale scored on a 71-yard touchdown pass, but Schlenbaker had another big run in him before halftime. The powerful sophomore took the handoff and bounced to his right, and met up with a few Maverick defenders. He quickly shed then and cut to the middle of the field and split two more defenders, broke right off of a Bryson Lamb block, made his way to the side line, broke one last tackle at the 45-yard line and he was gone for a 78-yard touchdown run.
The defense was strong all game, and finished with eight stops behind the line of scrimmage. Senior defensive lineman Adam McCluskey had three tackles for loss and was constantly in the opposing quarterback’s face. Outside linebackers Lamb and Schlenbaker each had a sack, and Mitchell intercepted a pass.
The first two drives of the second half stalled for Squalicum, but it was still able to put points on the board thanks to first-year football player, and star forward on the soccer team, Addison Shrock. The left-footed senior connected on field goals from 27 yards and 21 yards, and when he hit the second one he broke the school record for kicking points in a game with 12. Ben Peterson and Alex Everett each had 11 kicking points in a single game.
Meadowdale scored two touchdowns late in the game against mostly backup defenders.
There were big numbers all around as Schlenbaker finished with 237 yards rushing on just 14 carries. Binning completed 12-of-16 passes for 213 yards and Mitchell ended his brilliant night with seven receptions for 119 yards.
The Storm (3-2) will be back in conference play this Saturday when they host Ferndale (3-2) at Civic Stadium.
Meadowdale 28
Squalicum 48
MEA 7 7 0 14 – 28
SQU 14 28 6 0 – 48
SQU – Mitchell 40 pass from Binning (Shrock kick)
MEA – 24 yard touchdown run (kick good)
SQU – Mitchell 23 pass from Binning (Shrock kick)
SQU – Mitchell 9 pass from Binning (Shrock kick)
SQU – Schlenbaker 85 run (Shrock kick)
SQU – Pennock 19 pass from Binning (Shrock kick)
MEA – 71 yard touchdown pass (kick good)
SQU – Schlenbaker 78 run (Shrock kick)
SQU – 27 FG Shrock
SQU – 21 FG Shrock
MEA – 55 yard touchdown run (kick good)
MEA – 22 yard touchdown pass (kick good)
MEA SQU
30-148 Rushing Att-Yards 33-312
4-15-1 Comp-Att-Int 13-19-0
117 Passing yards 213
Individual Leaders
RUSHING – SQU: Schlenbaker 14-237, Owens 9-44, Aslan 3-30, Bersola 3-12, Nielsen 1-1, Mitchell 1-(-3), Flaherty 1-(-3), Binning 1-(-6). MEA: N/A.
PASSING – SQU: Binning 12-16-0-213, Nielsen 1-3-0-0. MEA: N/A.
RECEIVING – SQU: Mitchell 7-119, Pennock 3-70, Richardson 1-19, Owens 1-5, Hawkinson 1-0. MEA: N/A.
