Sports - High Schools

POSTED: Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008

PREP FOOTBALL: Lions advance to 2A final

TACOMA - Throughout the year, the Lynden football team has been using its season-opening loss to Archbishop Murphy as a means to motivate itself.

After knocking the Wildcats out of the state playoffs on Saturday, Nov. 29, the Lions might have to find another source of inspiration over the final week of the season.

Lynden wrapped up its second trip to the state championship game in the last three seasons, shocking Archbishop Murphy 21-13 in the state semifinals at the Tacoma Dome. The Lions (11-2) now meet Prosser (13-0) in the title game at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6. That game will also be played in the Tacoma Dome.

"Our guys battled the whole way," Lynden senior David Gaylord said. "It's a great feeling. It's redemption."

Gaylord took the first shot at redemption on the Lions' first play from scrimmage, tossing a deep pass to Blair Bomber to start the game. The ball fell into Bomber's waiting hands for an 80-yard touchdown pass and run that gave Lynden a 7-0 lead after just 13 seconds of play. It also gave the Lions a quick shot of confidence against a team that beat them 26-15 at the start of the season.

"Every week after that loss to Archbishop Murphy, we kept thinking that if we had played as well as we had this week against Archbishop then we would have played a lot better against them," Bomber said. "There wasn't one person on this team who didn't improve a tremendous amount each week. We wanted this one. We played a great game."

Gaylord gave Lynden a 14-0 lead a few minutes later when he snuck behind the Wildcats' secondary for a 25-yard touchdown pass from Jordan Hastings. Those first two scores were a direct result of what the Lions learned from their first meeting with the Wildcats, Gaylord said.

"We utilized more of our playmakers," Gaylord said. "It definitely helped having played them in the first game of the season. We could pick apart their zones with our offense and had a pretty good idea where they were weak with their coverages."

Still, the game was anything but easy for Lynden. Archbishop Murphy (12-1) pulled within 21-13 early in the fourth quarter when C.J. Milburn ran into the end zone from 10-yards out for his second score of the game. After exchanging possessions the Wildcats took over again with 2 minutes and 15 seconds left in the contest and marched down to the Lynden 32-yard line with less than a minute to play.

But on fourth-and-five Ryan Seto sacked Archbishop Murphy's Austin VanderWel, giving the ball back to Lynden and effectively ending the game. Lynden held the Wildcats to just 274 total yards of offense.

"We've been playing error free football and shutdown football all season," Archbishop Murphy coach Dave Ward said. "But today we just couldn't get their offense off the field and our offense couldn't capitalize on a few opportunities."

After the game, while the Wildcats mulled around the field with disappointed looks on their faces, the Lions seemed relieved and a little stunned to have won the game themselves. Bomber paced the Lions with 118 yards receiving, two touchdowns, and a blocked extra point. Hastings went 13 for 27 for 172 yards.

"I didn't think we'd make it this far," Hastings said. "And I didn't think we'd come together like this. But we came together as a family and just worked really hard at it."

Lynden coach Curt Kramme didn't stay long after the finish of the game, instead opting to drive to Moses Lake to get a look at the Lions' next opponent in the state championship game. He had said during the week leading up to the game that he thought the semifinal matchup would come down to desire and heart rather than game planning.

For the Lions, the win was a result of a lot of all three.

"The big thing is our guys kept battling," Kramme said in a phone interview. "Archbishop Murphy is a very good team, but we just kept working hard and our guys found a way to beat them."