Coach: Blake VanDalen, 3rd season with Lynden (17-7)
Home Field: Rollie DeKoster Field at Lynden High School
Last Season: 12-1 (4-0 NWC 2A Sky Division)
Key Losses: QB/WR/S James Marsh; OL/DL Jacob Kettels; RB/S Eric Martin-Mann; DL Payton Scott; WR/CB Grant VanderYacht; WR/CB Kobe Elsner; RB/OLB Trevin Melendez; S Brendan Kleindel; LB Preston King; OL/DL Kevin Antonio; G Cooper Brown; OL Kaden Mayberry; WR/OLB Carson Bode.
Top Returnees: QB/WR/OLB Brock Heppner; LB Bodie Human; K Marko Samoukovic; RB Steven DiLorenzo; OL Harley Vandenberg; OL/DL Marty Karb.
2018 RESULTS
Lynden 35, Mount Baker 34
Lynden 30, Ferndale 6
Lynden 23, Lord Tweedsmuir (BC) 0
Lynden 24, Archbishop Murphy 21
Lynden 31, Lakewood 14
Lynden 17, Burlington-Edison 14
Lynden 55, Sedro-Woolley 21
Lynden 38, Vancouver College (BC) 16
Lynden 47, Blaine 0
Lynden 34, Eatonville 14
Lynden 28, Tumwater 27
Lynden 31, Fife 0
Hockinson 42, Lynden 37
2019 SCHEDULE
09/06 – Mount Baker – 7 PM
09/13 – at Ferndale – 7 PM
09/20 – Steilacoom – 7 PM
09/27 – at Archbishop Murphy – 7 PM
10/04 – Lakewood – 7 PM
10/11 – at Burlington-Edison – 7 PM
10/18 – Sedro Woolley – 7 PM
10/25 – Blaine – 7 PM
Brock Heppner – Senior – Quarterback/Wide Receiver/Outside Linebacker
Everyone is expecting a big year behind center from Heppner, but his calling card is still on defense. He was tremendous last season at quarterback (119.2 rating, 9 TD’s and 1 INT), but Heppner can control the edge as an outside linebacker. A fearless leader and a tremendous competitor.
Bodie Human – Senior – Linebacker
How do you improve upon the season that Human had in 2018? He led the entire county in tackles and was named All-State 1st Team. He continues a long line of tackling machines from the inside linebacker spot in Lynden. He could also be used in spot situations this year at running back.
Marko Samoukovic – Senior – Kicker/Punter
Lynden’s secret weapon isn’t a secret any longer. His tremendous left foot was on display all season in 2018, and he was named All-State 1st Team. He’s been working in the offseason on improving his distance on kickoffs, and he has picked up punting skills.
Steven DiLorenzo – Senior – Running Back
He started 2018 with a bang, rushing for 225 yards on only nine carries against a strong Mount Baker team. However, a gruesome hamstring injury against Archbishop Murphy put him on the shelf for 10 months. A miraculous full recovery is upon us, and he will look to have a giant senior season.
Biggest Strengths: Tradition and size. The Lions don’t rebuild, they reload. Yes, many players have moved on from last season’s team that reached the state championship game. But a new crop of seniors that had to practice against those players every week is ready to make a statement. The offensive line could be one of the biggest it’s ever had. Lynden also has a new group of tall receivers coming up.
Biggest Weakness: Inexperience at the skill positions. Heppner returns with the most varsity receptions, by a land slide, but he will spend most of his time at quarterback. The Lions like to go four-wide, so you will likely see four brand new players in green and gold. The secondary is also completely new, and it will get tested early and often.
Who will be Lynden’s break-out player?
Christian Bethea – Junior – Offensive Line/Defensive Line
This junior transfer from Oak Harbor has impressed the coaching staff. He made it into the weight room more than any other player over the summer, and he has gotten into tremendous football playing shape. He should have an immediate impact at both left guard and defensive tackle.
A tremendous season in 2018 ended in heart break when Hockinson came back in the second half to win the state championship, but the Lions will bring another great group to Rollie DeKoster Field in 2019.
Brock Heppner will start at quarterback, and despite sharing time at the position, he brings big numbers from last season (10 rushing touchdowns, and nine passing touchdowns). Last season’s rotating quarterback project worked to perfection, and most would think that Heppner will likely stay behind center for the entire year in 2019. Not so fast, my friends. Junior Baylor Ayers is a great talent, and when he’s ready, look for him to see plenty of time at quarterback along with Heppner.
Steven DiLorenzo returns at running back, and with a clean bill of health. His strength and speed combination could allow him to lead the county in rushing, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to me. Junior Caleb Wheeler has extremely quick feet and will back up DiLorenzo. Bodie Human will begin the season as the third back.
Many players are vying for the four wide receiver spots in the dynamic Lion offense. The front runners look to be seniors Lukas Lohrer, Elijah Diacongiannis, Eric Bode and sophomore Kaleo Jandoc. Those four players have a combined two varsity receptions, but they are very talented. 6-foot-5 junior Ian Jacob is also in the mix and he could provide some mismatch problems on the outside, and senior Evan Potter is a first-year football player that has the physical tools to make plays in space.
Replacing three-year starter, and All-State performer, Jacob Kettels at left tackle won’t be easy, but Lynden is confident in the talent that senior Harley Vandenberg (6-5 260) has shown. He started at right tackle last season, and has continued to grow. Christian Bethea (6-3 295) has been a pleasant surprise at left guard, and along with senior Marty Karb (6-1 240) returning at center, the left side of the line should be able to shield DiLorenzo quite well. Junior Matthew Furdyk (6-1 210) and sophomore Case Zweegman (6-4 200) are competing for the right guard spot, and junior James Sorensen (6-2 260) will also play on the right side once he returns from a foot/ankle injury.
A player that I will be watching with great interest will be senior Michael Bareman. He’s a first-year football player that passes the eye test (6-6 265). With offensive line coach Ed Bomber coaching him up, he could turn into a dominating player. He will get a chance early to start at right tackle.
Lynden has always been able to hang its hat on its defense, and 2019 should be no different. The defensive line will have great size with Zweegman, Furdyk, Bethea and Karb all competing for spots. The Lions also like to have one smaller defensive lineman that relies on quickness and stunting. Junior Carter VanDiest (5-9 160) has caught the attention of the coaching staff, and he could get a lot of playing time up front as part of the three-man line.
Human was super-human last year at inside linebacker, and he could lead the entire county in tackles again. He will be joined in the middle of the field by senior Jordan Elsner. Heppner led Lynden in sacks and tackles for loss last season, and his tenacity at outside linebacker should allow him to play at the next level. Fellow senior Elijah Lyons will start opposite of Heppner.
The secondary will have a lot of new faces, but they have talent. Jandoc, Bode and Wheeler are battling for the two corner back spots, and they all have great speed and agility. Diacongiannis will start at safety, and his ball-hawking abilities should shine this season. Lohrer and 6-foot-2 sophomore Taivin VanDalen will split time at the other safety spot. Potter is learning all of the defensive backfield positions, and could become very valuable deep into the season.
The Lions also return the best kicker in the state at the 2A level in Marko Samoukovic. He’s on the brink of breaking the Whatcom County record for most career field goals, which is held by former Lynden All-State kicker, Santiago Lopez. He will also pick up punting duties. Potter, who is a dynamic soccer player, can also kick if needed.
2018 STATISTICAL LEADERS
RUSHING
| PLAYER | ATT | YARDS | AVG | TD |
| James Marsh | 142 | 725 | 5.1 | 14 |
| Eric Martin-Mann | 71 | 586 | 8.3 | 6 |
| Brock Heppner | 103 | 441 | 4.3 | 10 |
| Steven DiLorenzo | 41 | 411 | 10.0 | 2 |
| Trevin Melendez | 58 | 260 | 4.5 | 0 |
PASSING
| PLAYER | ATT | COM | COM% | YARDS | AVG | TD | INT | RATING |
| James Marsh | 143 | 79 | 55.2% | 1158 | 8.10 | 14 | 5 | 99.9 |
| Brock Heppner | 91 | 49 | 53.8% | 957 | 10.52 | 9 | 1 | 119.2 |
| Baylor Ayres | 10 | 8 | 80.0% | 132 | 13.20 | 1 | 0 | 152.1 |
RECEIVING
| PLAYER | REC | YARDS | AVG | TD |
| Grant VanderYacht | 40 | 709 | 17.7 | 4 |
| Kobe Elsner | 24 | 534 | 22.3 | 10 |
| Brock Heppner | 24 | 263 | 11.0 | 4 |
| Carson Bode | 13 | 233 | 17.9 | 1 |
| James Marsh | 8 | 173 | 21.6 | 3 |
KICK RETURNING
| PLAYER | KR | YARDS | AVG | TD |
| Grant VanderYacht | 9 | 278 | 30.9 | 0 |
| Eric Martin-Mann | 9 | 250 | 27.8 | 0 |
| Brendan Kleindel | 10 | 128 | 12.8 | 0 |
| Trevin Melendez | 5 | 51 | 10.2 | 0 |
| Caleb Wheeler | 1 | 26 | 26.0 | 0 |
PUNT RETURNING
| PLAYER | PR | YARDS | AVG | TD |
| Kobe Elsner | 3 | 38 | 12.7 | 0 |
| Grant VanderYacht | 4 | 29 | 7.3 | 0 |
PUNTING
| PLAYER | ATT | YARDS | AVG |
| Trevin Melendez | 19 | 694 | 36.5 |
| James Marsh | 6 | 200 | 33.3 |
DEFENSE (Assisted tackles are worth half of a tackle)
| PLAYER | TKLS | TFL | SACKS | INT | FF | FR | PD |
| Bodie Human | 117.5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Brendan Kleindel | 88 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Preston King | 100.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Brock Heppner | 48 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Kobe Elsner | 40.5 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Grant VanderYacht | 54 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Payton Scott | 46 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Carson Bode | 32.5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Trevin Melendez | 23.5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Eric Martin-Mann | 26 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jacob Kettels | 21 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| James Marsh | 21 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Marty Karb | 19 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Anthony Baird | 16.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Kevin Antonio | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Owen Bode | 13.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Steven DiLorenzo | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Cooper Brown | 12.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Eric Bode | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Jordan Elsner | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Elijah Lyons | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Elijah Diacongiannis | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Luke Caspian | 10.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lane Smith | 7.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kaden Mayberry | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Caleb Wheeler | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Houston DeJong | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dakota Baar | 5.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Elijah VanderHaak | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Lane Roorda | 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Matthew Furdyk | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Connor White | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nicholas Tellefsen | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aidan Baldwin | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| James Sorensen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lukas Lohrer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kole Antypas | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Max Moore | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Josh Blackton | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Marko Samoukovic | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tate Langstraat | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
SCORING
| PLAYER | TD | FG | 2PT | XP | PTS |
| James Marsh | 17 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 104 |
| Brock Heppner | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 90 |
| Marko Samoukovic | 0 | 9 | 0 | 51 | 78 |
| Kobe Elsner | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 60 |
| Eric Martin-Mann | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| Grant VanderYacht | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| Steven DiLorenzo | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Luke Caspian | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Carson Bode | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Dakota Baar | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Caleb Wheeler | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Ethan Scotter | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2019 ROSTER:
| # | Name | HT | WT | POS | YR |
| 1 | Baylor Ayres | 6′ 1″ | 200 | QB/DB | 11 |
| 2 | Connor White | 5′ 11″ | 160 | WR/LB/S | 11 |
| 3 | Brock Heppner | 6′ 1″ | 195 | QB/WR/DE | 12 |
| 4 | Ian Jacob | 6′ 5″ | 195 | WR/DE | 11 |
| 5 | Austin Anderson | 5′ 11″ | 170 | WR/DB | 12 |
| 6 | Kaleo Jandoc | 5′ 10″ | 155 | WR/DB | 10 |
| 7 | Tate Langstraat | 5′ 11″ | 160 | WR/DB | 11 |
| 8 | Eric Bode | 5′ 9″ | 165 | WR/DB | 12 |
| 9 | Ryan Kleindel | 5′ 10″ | 140 | WR/DB | 10 |
| 10 | Cade Slayton | 6′ 2″ | 200 | QB/DB | 10 |
| 11 | Elijah Lyons | 6′ 1″ | 170 | WR/DB | 12 |
| 12 | Max Moore | 5′ 8″ | 145 | RB/DB | 10 |
| 14 | Nicholas Tellefsen | 5′ 8″ | 170 | WR/DB | 11 |
| 15 | Edgar Antonio | 5′ 4″ | 140 | WR/DB | 10 |
| 16 | Kole Antypas | 5′ 11″ | 150 | WR/DB/K | 10 |
| 17 | Jonathan Sebastiani | 5′ 9″ | 170 | WR/DB | 11 |
| 18 | Masen Burks | 5′ 11″ | 140 | WR/DB | 11 |
| 20 | Steven DiLorenzo | 5′ 8″ | 170 | RB/DB | 12 |
| 21 | Jordan Elsner | 6′ 1″ | 170 | WR/LB | 12 |
| 22 | Evan Potter | 6′ 0″ | 190 | WR/DB | 12 |
| 23 | Dawson Adams | 5′ 11″ | 155 | WR/DB | 10 |
| 24 | Marko Samoukovic | 6′ 0″ | 175 | K | 12 |
| 25 | Gurpreet Brar | 5′ 9″ | 185 | RB/LB | 12 |
| 26 | Taivin VanDalen | 6′ 1″ | 185 | WR/LB | 10 |
| 29 | Carter VanDiest | 5′ 9″ | 160 | RB/LB | 11 |
| 30 | Ignacio “JR” Rodriguez | 5′ 6″ | 150 | RB/LB | 10 |
| 31 | Elijah Diacogiannis | 6′ 0″ | 160 | WR/DB | 12 |
| 32 | Logan Terpstra | 5′ 11″ | 170 | WR/DB | 11 |
| 33 | Caleb Wheeler | 5′ 7″ | 175 | RB/DB | 11 |
| 36 | Bodie Human | 5′ 7″ | 170 | RB/LB | 12 |
| 39 | Leah Rossell | 5′ 6″ | 115 | K | 11 |
| 42 | David Hernandez | 5′ 5″ | 165 | K/DL | 10 |
| 55 | Lane Thomas | 6′ 1″ | 210 | OL/DL | 11 |
| 56 | Case Zweegman | 6′ 4″ | 200 | OL/DL | 10 |
| 57 | Hunter Holman | 5′ 11″ | 190 | OL/DL | 10 |
| 58 | Christian Bethea | 6′ 3″ | 295 | OL/DL | 11 |
| 59 | Matthew Furdyk | 6′ 1″ | 210 | OL/DE | 11 |
| 60 | James Sorensen | 6′ 2″ | 260 | OL/DE | 11 |
| 62 | Lucas Gunderson | 6′ 2″ | 205 | OL/DL | 10 |
| 63 | Hunter Elenbaas | 6′ 2″ | 160 | OL/DL | 11 |
| 66 | Gresham Assink | 6′ 0″ | 230 | OL/DL | 10 |
| 68 | Marty Karb | 6′ 1″ | 240 | OL/DL | 12 |
| 70 | Joseph Blackton | 5′ 10″ | 280 | OL/DL | 12 |
| 71 | Christian Koop | 5′ 11″ | 150 | OL/DL | 10 |
| 72 | Michael Bareman | 6′ 6″ | 265 | OL/DL | 12 |
| 75 | Mariana Mendoza | 5′ 2″ | 175 | OL/DL | 12 |
| 76 | Caelan Dietrich | 6′ 2″ | 200 | OL/DL | 11 |
| 77 | Harley Vandenberg | 6′ 5″ | 260 | OL/DL | 12 |
| 78 | Gilbert Luna | 5′ 8″ | 255 | OL/DL | 10 |
| 80 | Joel Bode | 5′ 11″ | 160 | WR/DB | 10 |
| 81 | Isaac VanderVeen | 5′ 6″ | 150 | WR/DB | 10 |
| 87 | Houston Henderson | 5′ 11″ | 140 | WR/DB | 10 |
| 88 | Lukas Lohrer | 6′ 0″ | 190 | WR/DB | 12 |
| 99 | Miles Baldwin | 5′ 11″ | 150 | WR/DB | 11 |
