BELLEVUE — Bellevue High School's football team isn't leaving its pedestal just yet.

In fact, Bellevue is not budging.

The second-ranked Wolverines scored three times on their first five plays from scrimmage en route to a 50-7 win over ninth-ranked Juanita in a KingCo 3A/2A matchup Friday night.

Seven-time state champion Bellevue (5-2 overall, 4-0 league), the defending Class 3A champ, enjoyed a celebratory homecoming triumph and its fourth win in a row.

Bellevue proved it wasn't vulnerable despite a pair of losses this season.

"They're a great team, there's no doubt about it," Juanita coach Shaun Tarantola said. "They were a way better team top to bottom. They outhit us. They out-tackled us. Our weakness is our depth right now, but if everyone's healthy, I don't think it makes a difference tonight.

"It's a game I know we're going to learn from and get better from."

The Rebels (5-2, 2-2) faced a ranked opponent for the third consecutive week, after a 28-21 loss to Class 3A's No. 3 Liberty on Oct. 2 and then Class 2A No. 5 Interlake 47-34 last Friday. This was by far their toughest test.

Bellevue took a 7-0 lead 52 seconds into the game as Sean Coley burst around right end and back up the middle for a 65-yard touchdown run on the second play from scrimmage.

"It's the same thing as like 2006 when we lost to Skyline and everybody didn't think we'd do that good and now everybody's talking smack about us," said Coley, who finished with 72 yards rushing and two TDs on just three carries as Bellevue piled up 395 yards of total offense to Juanita's 148. "So, we're just getting better every week and coming out there and bangin' people."

The Wolverines pushed the advantage to 14-0 just 2:08 into the contest when Joey Mangialardi raced 25 yards for a TD one play after Joe Joe Connor recovered a Juanita fumble.

The lead grew to 21-0 when Kendrick Van Ackeren hit Coley down the right sideline for a 57-yard TD pass at the 6:57 mark of the first quarter. That mark three scores in Bellevue's first five plays from scrimmage.

Race Sciabica booted a 40-yard field goal to push the Bellevue lead to 24-0 with 3:51 left in the first quarter.

Connor burst 41 yards up the middle for another Bellevue score and a 31-0 lead with 7:57 left before halftime.

When the lead grew to 44-0 just before halftime, Bellevue had pulled its starters and given plays to third-string players. Bellevue was missing at least six starters, but it limited Juanita to 45 yards heading into the fourth quarter.

"I think our defense really set the tone tonight," said Bellevue coach Butch Goncharoff. "We're starting to get a few [injured] guys back next week and that's exciting for us.

"It will be interesting to see where the ceiling is for this team.

We're not a finished product. I think [Class 3A state] is wide open, I really do."

Connor added another TD and finished with 79 yards rushing on five attempts.

The Wolverines benefited from the return to health of senior linebacker John Kanongata'a, who missed action with a high-ankle sprain.

The two teams played with a running clock in the second half. The rule is a 45-point margin to do so unless both coaches agreed to the running clock.

Juanita averted the shutout inside the final minute when Charles Benjamin crashed into the end zone for a 1-yard score.

"We get on a team early like we did, it's tough and it just kind of snowballed on [Juanita]," Goncharoff said.

(Full story at Seattle Times)