Bucky Beaver
The Ballard Beavers football team travelled to the plateau Friday night to take on the No. 1 ranked team in the state, the Skyline Spartans. The Beavers took their first possession of the game and drove 80 yards scoring on a 38 yard pass from Senior Johnny Verduin to senior Nate Rauda. With the PAT by senior Andrew Ingham the Beavers had an early 7-6 lead temporarily quieting the crowd. But then the Spartan’s offensive machine kicked it into high gear. The Spartans ended up scoring on 8 of their 10 possessions in their Homecoming game. Senior Dominique Smith rushed for a touchdown and Andrew Ingham drilled a 39 yard field for the only other Beaver scoring. The Beavers were able to put up 17 points on the first team of top ranked Spartans in the first half.
Although the Spartans shut down the Beavers run game holding them to negative rushing yards the Beavers threw for their highest yardage in over 4 years. Nate Rauda had 171 yards receiving and 1 touchdown on 7 receptions; senior Dominique Smith had 83 yards on 8 receptions; and senior Michael Asefa had 55 yards receiving. Johnny Verduin had a career high 293 yards on 34 attempts surpassing 1,000 passing yards for the season.
Beavers defense was led by Nate Rauda with 11 tackles, senior Justin Simon with five tackles.
The Beavers are now 1-2 in conference play with two games remaining. To make the playoffs they will need to win at least one of their remaining games. This Friday’s 7:00 pm game at Issaquah will be a key game for the Beavers—a win in that game likely seals up a playoff spot.
