The WHSBLA Quarterfinals wrapped up Saturday at Bellevue High School when the Coach John Baumann and the Wolverines hosted Coach Drew Snider’s O’Dea Fighting Irish for the first meeting between the schools in 2016. After finishing the season with a record of 17-3, Bellevue earned the top seed and cruised past Stanwood in the first round to meet O’Dea, who finished the regular season 7-5, coming in off a 10-8 win at Sehome-Bellingham in the opening round. A cold and windy night deterred a large crowd from gathering, yet those in attendance were treated to a game much closer than the scoreboard allowed.

The first quarter remained fairly quiet as both defensive units, backed by excellent goaltending, worked to keep the offenses from firing up. Junior attackman Cameron McMahon lit the scoreboard up with the game’s first goal before he would find the back of the net again to give the Wolverines the 2-0 lead. Senior goalie John Hyatt stood strong behind his defensive backline, keeping the knocking Bellevue scorers at bay, but at the other end the Irish offense would come up fruitless through the first frame.

Opening things up in the second quarter, captain Joe Bethke put Bellevue back on the board with the senior’s first strike of the game. Stepping up for O’Dea, sophomore attackman Kyle Martinez fought through the lockdown Wolverine defense to work the ball past goaltender Cabe Edelhertz, registering the first Irish goal of the game and cutting the deficit to two. In the quarter’s final minutes, midfielder Jackson Fredman sent the ball through the irons, giving the Wolverines a 4-1 lead rolling into halftime

Whatever was said to the Bellevue boys during the break changed the tone for the entire second half. Leading his team to battle, Bethke struck first to open up the quarter before he would register his hat trick on a rip just moments later. Next it was sophomore Paul Johnson doing his part to keep the streak alive, scoring the 7th Wolverine goal of the game. Johnson’s finish set up dominant face-off man Andrew Choe to win the ball cleanly to Bethke for a quick finish moments after the draw. Despite multiple offensive attempts, the Irish couldn’t slow down the hail fire of shots Bellevue was sending at the cage at the other end. It would be star middie Augie Fratt making his voice heard next, punching in his first goal not long before Matt Marino would close out the 6 goal quarter with Bellevue up 10-1.

Keeping momentum in their favor, it didn’t take long for Fratt to connect on his second tally, the first score of the fourth quarter. Joe Albrecht would go stand up for the Wolverines, pounding in the 9th goal of the scoring flurry before Marino would get back in the mix with his second, and final, point. Once again, the O’Dea shooters were getting their looks, but ultimately got denied on all of their attempts. Carson Lombardi would eventually knock down the final goal of the game, allowing Bellevue to maintain possession through the final minutes of the game, running off the remainder of the clock for a 14-1 victory.

The top-seeded Bellevue Wolverines return home on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. when the Bainbridge Spartans come to town, hot off a 14-9 win over Skyline. The two final semifinalist schools didn’t meet in 2016, so we won’t have a clear picture of the match-up until game time. The winner of the semi-final match-up will be off to the Washington State Championship at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila on Saturday. By Mark Donahue.