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Bellevue Holds On, Downs Mercer Island 43-28

Wolverines rush for 330 yards in key KingCo win.

Bellevue built a dominating lead before holding on late to remain undefeated with a 43-28 defeat of Mercer Island in front of a huge crowd on Friday night at Mercer Island High School.

The game, which featured a pre-game procession by the sizeable Mercer Island marching band, was billed as a matchup between the top two teams in the KingCo 3A conference and drew a packed house, with 90 percent of the fans cheering for the Islanders.

Bellevue, however, was eager to spoil the experience for the partisan crowd and justify its number-one state ranking and top-15 national ranking. The Wolverines, behind its usual potent running attack and stellar play from quarterback Tyler Hasty, built a 43-7 late in the third quarter, before a spirited Mercer Island comeback made a game of it. Bellevue rushed for 330 yards in the game, with Ari Morales leading the way with 115 yards on eight carries.

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Bellevue took a 22-7 halftime lead, but opened up a big lead with strong offensive play in the third quarter. Facing third-and-16 on its opening drive of the second half, Bellevue handed off to Morales, who took it around the right side for a 54-yard gain. Four plays later, John Nguyen punched it in from 1-yard out for his second touchdown of the game to make it 29-7.

Hasty hit Nathan Derider from 46 yards out on the next drive to make it 36-7 and a another touchdown catch from Derider, this one from Jack Meggs, made it 43-7 midway through the third quarter.

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The Islanders forced back-to-back Bellevue turnovers in the four quarter to close the gap and had the ball with over three minutes remaining, trailing by 15, but failed to cut into the lead any further. Mercer Island again had the ball with under two minutes remaining, but time ran out on its final drive.

“You’ve got to learn to play a complete game, we’ve just got to be smarter than that,” Bellevue head coach Butch Goncharoff said.

Bellevue was hurt by a couple of big injuries in the game. Offensive lineman Jake Eldrenkamp went down with an ankle sprain in the first half and, after giving it a shot in the second half, ultimately left the game. Goncharoff said the injury was not serious and that Eldrenkamp would be ok.

“He has an ankle sprain, it’s not a high ankle sprain, he’ll be ok,” Goncharoff said. “We tried to go in the second half, tried to get it out, he wasn’t ready to go. It’s a lot of weight to push around on a bad ankle.”

For the better part of the first three quarters, it looked like Bellevue would apply its usual beat down of the Islanders. The Wolverines scored on eight of their first nine possessions, steadily building a lead that look insurmountable.

The Mercer Island offense, which had looked stagnant through much of the game, finally came to life beginning in the third quarter. Mercer Island quarterback Jeff Lindquist was benched for a series in the third quarter and, after re-entering the game, looked much more comfortable and led the Islanders on three straight scoring drives, rushing for two touchdowns and passing for another. Lindquist finished with 147 rushing yards and 162 through the air with four total touchowns.

“Jeff calmed down and that was obviously a big key to the whole thing," Ogata said of the comeback. "Jeff realized that he could really do some things out there and I think that will build confidence for us in the future.”

The Islanders defense took advantage of an ankle injury to Bellevue quarterback Tyler Hasty to get the offense back on the field, recovering fumbles on back-to-back possessions and nearly recovering one on the third possession.

“They did pretty good," Ogata said of the defense. "It’s just that the offense was so bad for a while, that it really put a lot of pressure on the defense. The defense really responded and they did a great job. We missed some tackles and a couple of reads here and there, but , for the most part, if the offense did their part in the first half and scored, then the defense wouldn’t have been on their heels and we would have done a lot better.”

But, after icing his ankle on the sideline, Hasty re-entered the game and calmed the Bellevue offense long enough for the Wolverines to get out with the victory. Hasty finished with 67 yards rushing on three carries and another 107 passing with one touchdown.

“We felt it was going to be one of our biggest games of the year, obviously," Hasty said after the game. "Jeff’s a great quarterback, he’s probably one of the best coming out of Washington.”

The points were the most the Islanders have scored on Bellevue in a ten-year span. Mercer Island finished with 324 yards of total offense on the night, compared to 454 with Bellevue.

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