BELLINGHAM – He touched the ball 40 times, he racked up 322 offensive yards, he scored five touchdowns and he’s just a junior. He is Djouvensky Schlenbaker. The Storm leaned heavily on their college-bound running back, and he delivered in a big way, helping his team beat Sehome 54-20 on Friday night.
Schlenbaker set a lofty goal of rushing for 1,000 yards during this shortened season, and with one game remaining, and 178 yards to go, it is very much in his grasp.
Squalicum pounded the ball inside for much of the first quarter, which resulted in time-consuming drives that ended with short touchdown runs by Schlenbaker. He then ripped off a 73-yarder in the second quarter, and the Storm would be hard to catch after that.
Quarterback Mason Binning also found junior wide receiver Reed Richardson on a 6-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter.
Sehome answered back on a blistering-quick 24-yard touchdown run by senior Colin Dorsch. He finished with a team-high 104 yards rushing on 16 carries.
Squalicum also got a touchdown run on a fly sweep by junior Kaleb Hawkinson, who also happened to boot through four extra points during the contest.
Binning hooked up for a touchdown again with Richardson late in the game, and the senior quarterback ended with 235 yards passing while completing 13-of-26 passes. Richardson led his team with five receptions, and junior wide receiver Kai Posey led with 112 receiving yards on his four catches.
Mariner senior quarterback Jacob Kaepernick tossed touchdowns to Dorsch and Luke Evans in the second half, and Kaepernick became the ninth player in Whatcom County history to surpass 5,000 passing yards and 50 passing touchdowns in a career.
Squalicum (3-1) will play its final game on Saturday against Oak Harbor, while Sehome (3-1) will wrap up its season at Lynden (3-1) on Saturday.
Squalicum 54
Sehome 20
SQU 14 19 14 7 – 54
SE 0 7 13 0 – 20
SQU – Schlenbaker 2 run (Hawkinson kick)
SQU – Schlenbaker 5 run (Hawkinson kick)
SQU – Schlenbaker 73 run (kick blocked)
SQU – Richardson 6 pass from Binning (Hawkinson kick)
SE – Dorsch 24 run (Andrews kick)
SQU – Hawkinson 15 run (kick failed)
SQU – Schlenbaker 3 run (Hawkinson kick)
SE – L. Evans 31 pass from Kaepernick (kick blocked)
SQU – Schlenbaker 38 run (Wilson kick)
SE – Dorsch 33 pass from Kaepernick (Andrews kick)
SQU – Richardson 32 pass from Binning (Wilson kick)
SQU SE
49-308 Rushing Att-Yards 18-91
13-26-0 Comp-Att-Int 9-34-0
235 Passing yards 126
Individual Leaders
RUSHING – SQU: Schlenbaker 38-297, Hawkinson 1-15, Thompson 4-9, Morris 3-1, Flaherty 2-(-4), Nielsen 1-(-10). SE: Dorsch 16-104, Kaepernick 2-(-13).
PASSING – SQU: Binning 13-26-0-235. SE: Kaepernick 9-33-0-126, Neff 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING – SQU: Richardson 5-73, Posey 4-112, Schlenbaker 2-25, Sheedy 1-18, Takabe 1-0. SE: L. Evans 5-75, Dorsch 2-47, M. Malo 2-4.
