BY JEFF WOOD – For Whatcom Preps
BELLINGHAM – The visiting Archbishop Murphy Wildcats had zero yards passing on their Halloween night game against the Sehome Mariners at Civic Stadium. For some teams, that may be a bad omen, but not for ATM. 49 rushes for 457 yards rushing produced eight touchdowns and the Wildcats beat Sehome 56-14 in the final regular season game for both squads.
Playing shorthanded due to five starters being out, the Mariner defense had a tough Archbishop Wing T attack to contend with.
The Wildcats got out early with drives of 72 and 66 yards in the first quarter. A dose of belly, down, and sweep plays generated two touchdowns and a 14-0 lead for ATM.
The Mariners, employing the exact opposite strategy on offense, did not have a called rushing play in the first half.
Nolan Wright found Andre Watson for a 67-yard touchdown on a fade pass to put Sehome on the scoreboard. This play came after Logan Rogers recovered a Wildcat fumble.
The Mariner two-point play was unsuccessful as kicker Grady Evans was one of the Mariners unable to play on Senior Night. Archbishop Murphy put two more touchdowns on the board before halftime as they held a comfortable 28-6 lead at intermission.
Starting off with a nice 80-yard drive in the third quarter, the Mariners closed the margin to 28-14 on another Wright to Watson connection.
That was as close as Sehome would get, however, as the attrition continued with more injuries to some key players. Archbishop Murphy continued to pound the rock and scored three more times extending their lead to 49-14 at the end of the third quarter.
Sehome battled hard the whole way getting strong efforts from tight ends/defensive ends Cooper McAtee and Tyson Goodman on both sides of the ball. Despite the score not going their way, the Mariner air attack continued to move the ball.
Wright finished with 320 yards passing with 12 of his completions to Watson for an eye-popping 277 yards, which established yet another school record.
The Wildcats were the better team on this night, putting one more score on the board and taking a 56-14 victory over Sehome. The Mariners look to get healthy going into week 10 as the 4th seed from the Northwest Conference 2A into the round of 32.
Archbishop Murphy 56 Sehome 14 ATM 14 14 21 7 - 56 SEH 0 6 8 0 - 14 ATM - 25 yard touchdown run (kick good) ATM - 3 yard touchdown run (kick good) ATM - 8 yard touchdown run (kick good) SEH - Watson 67 pass from Wright (pass failed) ATM - 53 yard touchdown run (kick good) SEH - Watson 58 pass from Wright (Watson pass from Wright) ATM - 36 yard touchdown run (kick good) ATM - 102 yard interception return for a touchdown (kick good) ATM - 17 yard touchdown run (kick good) ATM - 2 yard touchdown run (kick good) ATM SEH 49-457 Rush Att-Yards 13-22 0-1-0 Comp-Att-Int 17-41-2 0 Passing Yards 320 Individual Leaders RUSHING - ATM: N/A. SEH: Wright 5-14, McAlister 7-11, Chambers 1-(-3). PASSING - ATM: N/A. SEH: Wright 17-41-2-320. RECEIVING - ATM: N/A. SEH: Watson 12-277, Quiggle 2-22, McAtee 2-18, Rogers 1-3.
