Re: Week 8 Bellevue at Liberty

Postby Gandolf on Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:45 pm

What an incredible night. I will call it "Friday Night No-Lights..."
It was just a fabulous high school football experience and in a few ways unique.
The stands were packed on the Liberty side almost an hour and twenty minutes prior to kickoff. the smoke from the grill filled the air with wonderful smells and the energy from the fans was intoxicating. Truly this high school football rivalry game was one of the purest all-American events I have attended.
There was a delay because some of the lights went dark and required a re-cycle restart. the energy only grew during the 'blackout". Kids cheering and the sense that something special was about to happen seemed to heighten.
The cheers went up when the lights came on and the drum corps only added to the drowning den from the stands.
An interesting phenomenon happened with the singing of the national anthem. Since it was Senior night, one of the LIberty players, a Sr., held the microphone waiting for the prompt to begin his rendition. When he began, the mike failed and yet he marshalled on. The fans on both sides of the field realizing the potential embarassment for this young man quickly came to his support. The resulting spontaneous breakout of song was by far the most heart felt and robust crowd participation in the singing of our National Anthem that I have experienced since the days of 9/11. We all smiled at each other when it ended realizing that something special was going on. Truly this was already going to be an epic night and a remarkable experience for us all...and the game had not even started yet.
Liberty took the initial possession from the 20 (following an unbeleivable k-o from the BV kicker) and displayed an efficiency and skill level rarely seen in a high school football game. 80 yards, 5 perfect pass plays and a couple of runs and Liberty held a 7-0 lead. The home fans were just going absolutely wild for their team. Bellevue then took the rest of the first half and showed just why they have won 6 of 8 state championships. The ball handling was deft and precise, phenomenal misdirection...the line showed their usual get off. Bellevue was able to pin Liberty deep with some decent punts mis-played by the returners. That's when the bellevue D showed their stuff. 17-7 at half. The two big plays were a fumble return for 6 and a great 2nd and 35 conversion by Bellevue Van Akeran pass benefitting from a blown coverage.
The second half was all Bellevue early and all Liberty late. Bellevue methodical, tough blocking and tricky JoeJoe Connor drove for a 7+ minute drive to start. 24-7 BV. Liberty rose to the occasion with their answer. Some nice running by Jenkins and some outstanding pass plays from Wheeler to Jenkins/Bainton brought Liberty back to wthin striking distance.
Bellevue held tough and came away with the win.
My hat is off to both squads and the fans from both schools for a great night of exciting high quality football. Bellevue's Moore suffered from cramps but still looked like he might be a Pac 10 player. Mangialardi was a big surprise and ran very well for BV. Jenkins showed versatility and flashes that may take him places we have not forecasted...yet. Bainton displayed his skills leading this watcher to predict his future will include Saturday games. Wheeler was as skilled and as poised as the very best throwing qb to come through this area. Liberty's passing game could use a few schematic tweaks but it provides hope for their fans to take them deep in a playoff run.
Any rematch of these two teams will be an even more epic event. Gandolf looks for these two to be the last two standing in Tacoma in November. As far as a phenomenal experience in high school footbal, this will be a tough game to top. Best of luck to both schools to represent KingCo 3A in the playoffs.