Bellevue ends Arlington's perfect season, reaches WIAA 3A football semifinals

Sixth-seeded Wolverines give up first touchdown, then scored 21 unanswered points in 35-17 Class 3A victory

ARLINGTON, Wash. - For the 17th time in program history, Bellevue High School is headed to the WIAA football semifinals.

The sixth-seeded Wolverines handed third-seeded Arlington its first loss of the season in a 35-17 win Saturday afternoon.

Arlington struck first, but Bellevue rattled off 21 unanswered points in response before halftime. The Wolverines took a 21-11 lead to half and tacked on two more scores in the second half.

All five Bellevue touchdowns were scored by different players. Four came on runs by Blake Teets (5 yards), Bryce Smith (42 yards), Max Jones (13 yards) and Carson Rubin (11 yards). Quarterback Lucas Razore connected with Colin Miller for a 34-yard passing score.

Bellevue moves on to next week’s semifinal round where it will play second-seeded O’Dea.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

BELLEVUE FINDS A WAY TO SHUT DOWN ARLINGTON OFFENSE

Coming into the game, Bellevue coach Michael Kneip and the rest of his team knew how electric Arlington's offense could be.

The Eagles had scored at least 35 points in every game coming into their contest with the Wolverines, but outside of Arlington's first touchdown early in the game and a field goal, Bellevue kept the Eagles off the scoreboard until the end of the game.

"We just wanted to play physical – they're a good football team," Kneip said. "They're an awesome football team, they score a lot of points, but our defense is really good."

FIVE DIFFERENT PLAYERS SCORE FOR BELLEVUE

Every time the Wolverines found the end zone, it was a different player than the touchdown before.

Playing with five or six different running backs will allow that to happen, but that kind of depth in the postseason could be what keeps Bellevue chugging right along.

"We're really dynamic and our coaches have always done a great job," he said. "We spread the wealth and were able to play some (more) guys in the backfield."

BELLEVUE PUTS NAIL IN COFFIN...IN THIRD QUARTER?

Up by 16 points late in the third quarter, the Wolverines were facing a fourth-and-one from their own 10-yard line.

After initially lining up to punt, Bellevue opted to put the offense back out on the field and go for it deep in its own territory. The Wolverines picked up the first down and eventually scored on the drive, pushing their lead to three scores and put a grim outlook on the game for Arlington.

"We just trust our o-line and trust our running backs," Kneip said. "We knew what we had and had the look we wanted to get. I think if you can't get one yard you don't deserve to win the football game."