It was business as usual Friday night for the Bellevue football team.
The Wolverines, winners of two straight state championships, clinched a 10th consecutive berth in the Class 3A state playoffs by running over Bainbridge 54-7.
Bellevue piled up 365 yards rushing and senior Joey Mangialardi scored three touchdowns to help the No.1 Wolverines advance to the round of 16.
“After last week’s game, we didn’t feel real good,” said quarterback Kendrick Van Ackeren, referencing the Wolverines 23-20 win over No.8 Liberty. “We came out weak and soft. And we needed to pick up our intensity and our strength.”
After letting Bainbridge drive down to their own 12-yard line using their own Wing-T offense, the Wolverines took over. A missed field goal gave Bellevue (9-1) the ball at their own 20. Six plays later, Mangialardi was in the end zone from 10 yards out.
Michael Carlson picked off Bainbridge quarterback Chris Bell two plays later and Van Ackeren made the Spartans (7-3) pay, hooking up with Elan Richards on a 17-yard touchdown pass to make it 13-0 Bellevue after one quarter.
The Spartans could do very little offensively from that point. Bainbridge’s next three possessions ended with a punt, an interception by Richards, a turnover on downs and a final running play to end the half. In that time Mangialardi ran in two more touchdowns from 32 and 30 yards out and the Wolverines led 27-0 at the half.
“It was all the offensive line,” Mangialardi said. “Their defense was perfect for our offense, but our line just stepped it up.”
To add insult to injury, Bellevue sophomore Myles Jack returned the second half kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, after the ball squirted through his legs at the 10-yard line. He raced back to the one, picked up the ball, broke one tackle and outran the Spartans to the end zone.
“We played well,” said Bellevue coach Butch Goncharoff. “We made some big plays and the playoffs are always fun.”
After the Spartans initial drive, they only made it into Bellevue territory once, when Corey Touchette scored a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter after a long kickoff return.
“We know the Wing-T pretty well and we had a pretty good idea of what they wanted to do,” said Goncharoff, who has won seven state titles with the offense. “It always helps to have that.”
Bellevue added second-half rushing touchdowns by Dakota Jones, who scored from 3 and 30 yards out, and John Nguyen, who put the final points on the board with a 41-yard run late in the fourth quarter.
Bellevue will play the winner of tomorrow’s Mountain View-Timberline game.
“It’s always tough,” Goncharoff said about the playoffs. “You don’t know a lot about the teams you play and every week is tougher. We’ll see what happens.”
