By Macerio Clark
The Seattle Medium
The Ingraham Rams traveled to Memorial Stadium in a Metro League matchup against the Ballard Beavers Friday evening. The Beavers struck first as quarterback Ryan Blokker completed a 91-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Dajean Wells on the opening play of the drive. After a successful extra point attempt, Ballard led 7-0 with 9:39 left in the first quarter.
The Beavers offense wouldn’t show any signs of slowing down as they scored on their second drive of the game, which was capped off by Blokker completing a 17-yard touchdown pass junior wide receiver Zed Webster to extend the Beavers lead 14-0 with 10:19 remaining in the second quarter. Trailing 14-0 the Rams loosened up and got their offense rolling scoring on a 9 play, 68 yard scoring drive which concluded with Rams quarterback Connor Richardson completing a 25-yard touchdown pass on a 4th and 7 play to sophomore wide receiver Rodrick Nicholas, as the Rams trailed 14-7 with 6:14 remaining in the second quarter. The Beavers would make a 21-yard field goal to extend their lead over the Rams 17-7 despite having excellent field position starting from the 50-yard line.
Ballard wasted no time extending their lead to start the second half as Blokker connected with senior running back Ian Crocker on a 73-yard touchdown pass extending the Beaver lead to 24-7 with 10:48 remaining in the third quarter. The Rams would find life as junior safety Thomas Axtell had an interception to set-up a Rams 7-yard scoring drive cutting the Beavers lead 24-14 with 7:05 remaining in the third quarter.
Ballard rallied late in the game and pulled away from the Rams. A late fourth quarter touchdown by the Beavers put the game away as Ballard defeated the Rams 45-21.
After the game, Ballard head coach Ross Humphries emphasized the importance of his team finishing games.
“Our first two games we haven’t finished,” said Humphries. “The theme of the week this week was to finish and wanted to come together and play a complete game.”
The Ballard Beavers will look to extend their winning streak to three games as they go on the road to take on the Lakeside Lions next Fri., Sept. 21 at 7:30pm. Ingraham will look to rebound from the loss as they travel to take on Bainbridge next Friday.
