Bellevue finishes strong to beat Perkins

Finish strong.

After a 5-5 season in 2009, the team mantra for the Bellevue Redmen this season is to finish games strong.

Trailing 17-7 with less than eight minutes left against visiting Perkins in the season opener at Bellevue Athletic Field Friday night, the Redmen rallied with 13 unanswered points for a 20-17 win.

"We have a lot of character on this team and it's a credit to the kids to stay in there and fight like they did," Bellevue coach Ed Nasonti said. "We had a lot of adversity and things happen against us that was of no fault of our own.

"Perkins has a good team, their game plan was to pound us and they executed it pretty well. But our kids didn't cave in and I'm proud of the way we hung in there and got some key stops."

A bizarre moment took place early in the fourth quarter that swung the momentum to the Pirates. Leading 10-7 and forced to punt, the snap sailed high and long over punter Nick Howard's head. The senior managed to get a short punt off before he could be tackled, and the ball bounced around as players from both teams avoided the ball.

But the whistle had not blown the play dead, and Brett Haeuptle picked up the ball along the Bellevue sideline and ran more than 30 yards as players stood around until he was tackled. Since the ball was punted behind the line of scrimmage and no Bellevue player fell on it, the possession stayed with Perkins.

"I've seen that happen twice in 30 years," Nasonti said. "I don't even think their kid knew. We're yelling at our kids to jump on it, and he picked it up instead."

Five consecutive running plays to Richard Hohler covered 40 yards to a touchdown for the Pirates. The senior scored on a three-yard run with 8:34 left and JJ Gasteier's second extra point gave the Pirates a 17-7 lead.

"We were playing good football at that point, but you can't relax against anybody, especially an Ed Nasonti Bellevue team," Perkins coach Jason Ziegler said. "You can't let your guard down for a minute, and we did. Our kids got comfortable, and we just can't do that."

The Pirate score seemed to turn the light on for a Redmen offense that had struggled for three quarters. Bellevue responded with a six-play, 69-yard drive that took just 1:08 off the clock as quarterback Jeff Roth scored on a five-yard run with 7:22 left.

Sam Ish's extra point was short to the left, leaving the score at 17-13. On the ensuing kickoff, Bellevue attempted a surprise onsides kick that failed to go 10 yards, giving Perkins the ball at the Redmen 48.

Faced with a fourth-and-10 at the Bellevue 34 with just under five minutes left, Pirate quarterback Evan Laser came under heavy pressure and his last-ditch pass attempt was intercepted by Bellevue's Matt Siegert and returned to the Perkins 39.

"That was huge," Nasonti said. "That got everyone rejuvenated."

On the first play, Roth connected with Miles Foos for a 37-yard pass to the Pirate 2-yard line. A false start and a loss of a yard pushed Bellevue back to the 7, but Roth sliced to the left side of the Perkins defense to cover the distance and give Bellevue the lead with 3:32 left.

Ish's extra point made it 20-17. Mitch Benkey returned the ensuing kickoff 38 yards to set up the Pirate offense at the Bellevue 43, and seven plays later the Pirates were at the Bellevue 17 with 1:14 left.

On third-and-four, Laser was thrown for a 14-yard loss back to the 28. With under a minute left, Laser again came under heavy pressure and ran into Hohler while trying to make a desperate throw that fell short.

A penalty for intentional grounding on Laser was waved off and Bellevue took over on downs and ran out the clock for the win.

In the first half, Perkins took a 3-0 lead at the 3:46 mark of the first quarter on a 31-yard field goal by Gasteier. But much like late in the game, Bellevue had a quick answer. A 41-yard kick return by Adam Manner put the ball in Perkins territory and four plays later Roth found Foos in the left corner of the end zone on a 23-yard scoring strike for a 7-3 lead.

Perkins drove 33 yards in 13 plays that took 5:58 off the second quarter clock, however, a 26-yard field goal attempt by Gasteier was blocked to leave the score at 7-3 at halftime.

Roth finished 10 of 18 passing for 135 yards and a score while running for 67 yards and two scores on 12 attempts. Foos caught five passes for 91 yards.

For Perkins, which ran the ball 61 times, Hohler picked up 115 yards and a score on 31 attempts. Laser picked up 104 yards and a score on 18 attempts. Tyson Moore added 11 attempts for 56 yards.

"I'm proud of the effort. It was a fun game to watch," Ziegler said. "It's not the outcome we were looking for, but we'll learn off that and get better for the 'hometown showdown' next week.

Perkins 3 0 7 7 -- 17

Bellevue 7 0 0 13 -- 20

P -- JJ Gasteier 31 FG

B -- Miles Foos 23 pass from Jeff Roth (Sam Ish kick)

P -- Evan Laser 14 run (Gasteir kick)

P -- Richard Hohler 3 run (Gasteier kick)

B -- Jeff Roth 5 run (kick failed)

B -- Jeff Roth 7 run (Ish kick)

First downs 18 9

Rushes-yards 61-269 15-80

Passing 20 135

Comp-Att-Int 3-9-1 10-18-0

Fumbles-Lost 2-0 1-0

Penalties-yards 2-15 3-15

RUSHING

Perkins -- Richard Hohler 31-115, Evan Laser 18-104, Tyson Moore 11-56; Bellevue -- Jeff Roth 12-67, Jalen Santoro 2-11, Dalton Jarvis 1-2

PASSING

Perkins -- Laser 3-8-0-20; Bellevue -- Roth 10-18-1-135

RECEIVING

Perkins -- Caleb Balduff 1-6, Moore 1-4, Hohler 1-10; Bellevue -- Miles Foos 5-91, Garrett Alt 1-21, Jarvis 1-2, Matt Agee 1-6, Trent Stahm 1-12, Smith 1-3.