By Bucky Beaver
The Ballard Beavers football team travelled to West Seattle Friday night to take on the state’s second ranked team, the O’Dea Fighting Irish. Ballard got behind early fumbling the opening kickoff turning the ball over to O’Dea on their 24 yard line. O’Dea punched the first play of the game in for a touchdown taking a 7-0 lead only 4 seconds into the game. Ballard’s offense struggled in the first half turning the ball over two additional times. The Beavers defense was very solid in the first half forcing O’Dea to punt on their first 4 series. O’Dea scored with 10 seconds left in the first half to go up 14-0 at halftime.
The Beaver’s offense picked it up in the second half putting together two long drives but only scoring once on an 83 yard drive. Senior quarterback Johnny Verduin connected with senior receiver Nate Rauda for a 24 yard touchdown. That score wasn’t enough as O’Dea added two more touchdowns for a final score of 28-6.
Senior Dominique Smith had a big evening rushing for 69 yards, receiving 30 yards, returning punts and kickoffs for 109 yards and having 9 tackles. Nate Rauda had 107 yards receiving with one touchdown and 10 tackles. Johnny Verduin threw for 155 yards and 1 touchdown. Seniors Justin Simon and Jordan McColloch had 7 and 5 tackles, respectively.
The Beavers are on the road again travelling to Redmond this Friday for a 7:00 pm game against the 0-2 Mustangs. You can also follow Beaver Sports action on Twitter.
