Bellevue High School's 2024 home opener was Wolverine Junior Football night at BHS, and the crowd was as full as Bellevue Memorial Stadium has had in recent memory.  

Befitting of the Junior program celebration, the high school Wolverines were playing a familiar foe from their youth football days: the Mount Si Wildcats.  It would be the first conference game in Bellevue's new, 4A-laden KingCo schedule.  If you need a quick catch-up, the new KingCo setup combines all 2A, 3A, and 4A teams into one pool, then divides them into equitable divisions (based on recent success) for the regular season, before sending them to the state tournament bracket for their respective classification.  

Atop this new alignment sits the highest tier -- the five most successful teams in 4A KingCo, and 3A Bellevue High School.  4A KingCo has long been heralded as one of (if not the) strongest conference in the state -- for the teams in this highest tier, the new alignment strips away games against historically weaker opponents, leaving only teams with excellent football pedigree and legitimate state tournament aspirations: Bothell, Eastlake, Woodinville, Skyline, Mount Si, and Bellevue. 

Certainly a new challenge for the Wolverines, after nearly three decades of dominance in the old KingCo 3A.

On a beautiful late September night, wearing their all black uniforms, the Wolverines kicked off this new era of conference play. 

Bellevue wasted little time, getting things moving in the right direction, as Max Jones (stop me if you've heard this one before) broke through the line and raced 58 yards for a Bellevue touchdown.  After the second Mount Si drive stalled, the Bellevue offense went right back to work, culminating in a 31-yard TD pass from sophomore QB Kasen Carta to senior RB Ryken Moon.  

In the second quarter, it was Moon again, this time on a 15-yard run to give the Wolverines a 21-0 lead.  Just before the half, the Wolverine defense forced a fumble to end a Mount Si drive, and BHS took the three score lead to the half. 

After some back-and-forth to start the second half, junior RB Trevin King capped Bellevue's second drive of the quarter with a 10-yard touchdown run.  On the next offense play for Mount Si, a fumbled handoff would find its way into the hands of senior DL Darieon Davis, who took it 21 yards to the house.   

From that point, the Wolverines' stifling defense did their job, and rode out the 34-0 victory. 

On the defensive side of the ball, senior LB Olly Sharp led with 4.5 tackles, and sophomore DL Kaden Kooner had 4. Kooner and junior DB AJ Morton both registered a sack each.  Offensively, Max Jones had 147 on the ground, Bryce Smith had 94 on the ground and another 23 on returns, for 117 all-purpose. Moon caught Carta's only pass of the day, bringing him to 59 all-purpose yards.

The Bellevue JV got a great win on Monday, 29-7 over Mount Si, and the Freshmen continued their dominance Wednesday night with a 61-14 win against the Mt. Si freshmen. 

The varsity visits storied Pop Keeney Stadium this Saturday, to take on the Bothell Cougars.  JV will be at home on Monday, October 7th, and Freshmen will be at Bothell on Wednesday, October 9th. 

Go Blue!

Friday night of Week 2 was the third meeting in as many years for two of the states most dominant football programs. On one side, the Bellevue Wolverines, carrying two of the last three 3A state titles; on the other, the Lake Stevens Vikings, defending back-to-back 4A state title winners.  

From the word go, this rainy September evening was a heavyweight fight between two blue bloods.  Bellevue's first drive stalled, giving way to a Lake Stevens touchdown drive, but the Wolverines took the fight right back to the Vikings on the next drive.  Following a 26-yard run from junior Reylen Witherspoon, junior RB Max Jones pushed his way into the end zone from 4 yards out.       

A Viking 3-&-out to end the first quarter left Bellevue with a short field to start their next drive, which would end 7 plays later with a 13-yard Ryken Moon touchdown run.  A couple solid defensive stands from both teams, a couple untimely penalties on long BHS TD runs, and a TD pass by Lake Stevens would give the Vikings a 14-13 lead at the half.      

The Vikings received the second half kick, but only got two plays into their new drive before junior LB Desmond Lloyd picked off a pass from 2023 Gatorade Player of the Year, Kolton Matson.  Again on a short field, Max Jones found the end zone for his second time, with an 11-yard run (and senior Bryce Smith converted the 2-point try).  The two superpowers traded unsuccessful drives for the rest of Q3, highlighted by two huge plays from the Bellevue defense -- a blocked field goal by senior Johnny O'Connor, and another Kolton Matson interception, this time by junior Keigo Aoyagi.

Four minutes into Q4, Bellevue added a field goal by senior Charlie Miller, before a long Lake Stevens drive cut the Bellevue deficit to 24-21.  With just 1:30 on the clock, and needing a first down to seal it, Max Jones figured a bigger cushion might be nice, and 78-yards later, the Bellevue lead was back to ten.  As time expired, an AJ Morton INT closed the book on another exciting chapter in the BHS/LSHS series.      

Defensively, Bryce Smith led the way, with 8.5 tackles; Lloyd (6.5), Brody Treves (6), and Darieon Davis (5) were also standouts. Jones led the offense with 246 yards on the ground, Moon finished with 71. 

The following Monday, JV took a hard fought, 35-18 loss to Lake Stevens at home, and on Wednesday, the Freshmen kicked off their season with a 27-0 win, at Lake Stevens. 

After their Week 3 bye, Bellevue will have their home opener, 9/27 against Mount Si.

Go Blue!

After two years of tough Week 1 losses, the Bellevue High School football team made its way to historic Art Crate Field, in Spanaway, WA, to try and right that trend. 

The opponent on this warm summer night would be the Bethel Bison, and Rivals' #1 overall player in the state, UW-commit Zaydarius Rainey-Sale.  Of course, Bellevue fans know that the boys in blue have their own Pac-12... I mean, Big 10... commits, Willi Wascher (USC) and Demetri Manning (Oregon). 

In typical Bellevue fashion, the offense started the game off with a methodical 18-play drive, capped with a 2-yard touchdown run from junior fullback Max Jones.  After a quick three-and-out for the Bison offense, the Wolverines looked ready to roll, chunking out several big runs on their next drive; but assignment errors got BHS behind the chains, ending the drive prematurely. Luckily, it was Week 1 for Bethel too, and after a couple miscues of their own, junior cornerback AJ Morton made a great play on a desperate 3rd-&-19 Bison pass, and came up with the interception. 

On the ensuing drive, a Bellevue 4th-&-3 turned into a 45-yard Max Jones breakaway touchdown, putting the Wolverines up 14-0.  Following that, another AJ Morton interception led to a 45-yard TD run, this time by junior RB Bryce Smith.  A two-point conversion from Max Jones made it 22-0 at the half. 

After a long but unsuccessful Bethel drive to start the second half, Bellevue took over and saw senior RB Ryken Moon break a 70-yard run to get the Wolverines in the red zone.  Three plays later, senior RB Matt Reed was in the end zone with a 2-yard TD plunge, making it 28-0. 

Q4 started with Bethel and Bellevue trading short drives, before a coverage miscue led to a long Bethel TD pass. Not to be outdone, on the ensuing kick off, Ryken Moon took the squib 71 yards to the house, to seal the evening, 35-7. 

Defensively, senior linebacker Olly Sharp led the way with 7.5 tackles, and AJ Morton's two INTs were a standout -- sophomore linebacker Asher Cook also added a coup-de-grace INT in the waning minutes of the game. Sophomores Troy Masunu (DT) and Mose Kalepo (Edge) both had sacks in their first official varsity action, and Moon added a sack to his big night. Offensively, Jones led with 144 yards on the ground, followed by Moon with 107, and Smith with 73. 

With both JV and Freshmen games cancelled this week, the next time a Bellevue team is in action will be Friday, September 13th, when they travel to 2-time defending 4A state champion, the Lake Stevens Vikings. 

JV (9/16) and Freshmen (9/18) games vs Lake Stevens are both scheduled for next week. 

Go Blue!

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