BLAINE – It has been 16 years since the Borderites bested the Mountaineers, and they’ll have to wait another year get that shot again as Mount Baker defeated Blaine 49-20 on Friday night, and walked away with the 1A Northwest Conference Championship.
The Mountaineers went heavy run and ended up with 408 yards on the ground and six touchdowns.
The first two came in the first quarter when senior Brice Cooper scored on an 11-yard scamper, and senior Kamden Moa punched one in from two yards out.
Mount Baker went to the air in the second quarter as senior quarterback Toga Tigilau threw a perfect pass down the middle of the field and found junior Gage Smith in stride for a 57-yard touchdown. The Mounties were up 21-0 early in the second quarter, but over the next 10 minutes of play it was back-and-forth.
Borderite sophomore quarterback Connor Brown hit fellow sophomore wide receiver Hunter Candanoza on a 47-yard touchdown pass to get the home team on the scoreboard, and the Baker lead was cut to 21-7 at the half.
After forcing the Mountaineers to punt to start the second half, Blaine stalled and wound up in punt formation, but a high snap coupled with an oncoming defender forced Brown to tuck the ball and run, but he was caught from behind by Moa. It was followed by a 17-yard run by Smith, and another 17-yard run, this time by Cooper who found the endzone.
The Borderites found some magic on the following drive when Brown stepped up in the pocket and fired down the middle of the field. Peyton Bouma used all 6-foot-3 of his frame to reach out a snatch the ball out of mid air, and then the junior wide receiver turned on the jets to split the defense and go 63 yards for a touchdown.
The ensuing kickoff was bunted 10 yards and recovered by sophomore Saihou Kanagie, and the momentum fully shifted towards the home team.
However, a bad snap, a sack by junior defensive end Kell Reardon and an interception by junior cornerback Zyan Paglia took place over the next three plays, and just like that, the momentum was fully behind the Mountaineers.
Mount Baker went on to score the next three touchdowns, a 24-yarder by Cooper, a 1-yard sneak by Tigilau and a perfectly blocked 53-yard dash by Cooper that put the star senior over 200 yards rushing for the night on just 14 carries.
Brown tossed his third touchdown of the night late in the game on a 32-yard pass to Candanoza.
Baker was led defensively by Moa who had eight tackles, two tackles for loss and a pass broken up. Paglia had nine tackles, a pass broken up and the interception and junior linebacker Noah Nicol-Mills had a team-high 10 tackles and one tackle for loss.
Leading the Blaine defense was Bouma who had seven tackles and a forced fumble, and junior linebacker Axel Shelton who finished with 6.5 tackles.
The Mountaineers (7-1) will host Omak (6-2) on Thursday at 6:00, and the Borderites (2-6) will travel to Meridian (5-3) on Thursday to take on the Trojans at 7:00.
Mount Baker 49 Blaine 20 MB 14 7 14 14 - 49 BLA 0 7 6 7 - 20 MB - Cooper 11 run (E. Smith kick) MB - Moa 2 run (E. Smith kick) MB - G. Smith 57 pass from Tigilau (E. Smith kick) BLA - Candanoza 47 pass from C. Brown (P. Bouma kick) MB - Cooper 17 run (E. Smith kcik) BLA - P. Bouma 63 pass from C. Brown (run failed) MB - Cooper 24 run (E. Smith kick) MB - Tigilau 1 run (E. Smith kick) MB - Cooper 53 run (E. Smith kick) BLA - Candanoza 32 pass from C. Brown (P. Bouma kick) MB BLA 40-408 Rush Att-Yards 29-74 4-10-0 Comp-Att-Int 21-34-1 86 Passing Yards 275 Individual Leaders RUSHING - MB: Cooper 14-209, Moa 11-73, G. Smith 5-69, N. Nicol-Mills 5-29, McGrath 3-23, Tigilau 2-5. BLA: Hagee 4-33, C. Brown 16-22, Kerwin 9-19. PASSING - MB: Tigilau 4-10-0-86. BLA: C. Brown 20-33-1-272, Kerwin 1-1-0-2. RECEIVING - MB: Ross 2-14, G. Smith 1-57, Paglia 1-15. BLA: Kerwin 6-22, Candanoza 5-108, P. Bouma 5-86, I. Bouma 4-57, C. Brown 1-2.
