BELLINGHAM – Although they were outgained in total yards from scrimmage, the Bayhawks did what they needed to do to close out their season on a high note as they defeated Cedar Park Christian 21-14 on Friday night at Civic Stadium.
Bellingham got on the board early after senior linebacker Calvin VanHofwegen blocked a punt on the Eagles’ first drive of the game, and he was rewarded on the other end by a touchdown pass from senior quarterback Ben Leonard from 10 yards out.
It was Leonard’s 47th career touchdown pass, which broke the school record that was set by Nick Knutson nine years ago.
Cedar Park Christian’s rebutted with a scoring drive of its own, and tied the game at 7-7 late in the first quarter.
It looked like the Bayhawks weren’t going to let the score remained tied for long as freshman Jayden Delaney returned the ensuing kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown, but it ended up being called back due to a penalty, and Bellingham eventually punted the ball away.
The Eagles were then also forced to punt, which set Leonard up for his second touchdown pass of the game, a 43-yard bullet to senior wide receiver Matthew Steel to give the home team the lead.
Cedar Park Christian was then able to do the same, by getting into the end zone on a 10-yard touchdown pass and tie the game. Both teams then traded punts before the halftime break.
Bellingham received the opening kickoff, and wasted no time on getting back into the lead as Leonard and Steel did it one last time, a 57-yarder down the far sideline and the Bayhawks took the lead once again, and this time for good.
Steel came into this season with one career varsity catch for 15 yards. He finished this season with 73 receptions for 1075 yards and 16 touchdowns. His receiving yards and receiving touchdowns both established new school records for a season, and his 73 receptions were only two shy of the school record.
The momentum remained with Bellingham as freshman outside linebacker Huxley Jones intercepted a pass on the following drive, but the Bayhawks ultimately had to punt.
Both defenses stepped up from there on out, as each team had to punt multiple times in the second half. However, each team had one big drive left in them, but were both snuffed out in the red zone.
Bellingham had a drive in the third quarter that ended at the 2-yard line as it turned the ball over on downs, and the Eagles had a chance to tie the game in the final minutes, but a sack on third down by juniors Danny Flefel and Camden Chartier forced a 4th-and-long. The final desperation pass into the end zone fell incomplete, and the Bayhawks were able to hang on for the victory.
Leonard also finished his career with 4661 passing yards, which also broke Nick Knutson’s nine-year old school record.
Bellingham ended its season with a record of 4-6.
Bellingham 21
Cedar Park Christian 14
CPC 7 7 0 0 - 14
BEL 7 7 7 0 - 21
BEL - VanHofwegen 10 pass from B. Leonard (Diaz kick)
CPC - 8 yard touchdown run (kick good)
BEL - Steel 43 pass from B. Leonard (Diaz kick)
CPC - 10 yard touchdown pass (kick good)
BEL - Steel 57 pass from B. Leonard (Diaz kick)
CPC BEL
35-121 Rush Att-Yards 8-19
17-30-1 Comp-Att-Int 18-31-0
185 Passing Yards 230
Individual Leaders
RUSHING - CPC: N/A. BEL: Malone 5-12, B. Leonard 1-3, Maina 1-2, Miller 1-2.
PASSING - CPC: N/A. BEL: B. Leonard 18-31-0-230.
RECEIVING - CPC: N/A. BEL: Steel 10-167, VanHofwegen 3-45, White 2-10, Chartier 1-3, McGerr 1-3, Schupbach 1-2.
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