The Mercer Island football team fell just short of a KingCo victory on Friday night as the clock wound down with the Islanders trailing the Interlake Saints by a touchdown. The final score was 51-45.

The Islanders kicked off the game with a solid start, scoring first and then later adding points to the scoreboard while the Saints were ahead. In the end, however, a final drive by quarterback Jeff Lindquist and the offensive line in the waning moments of the fourth quarter wasn’t enough to give the team a win.

Three hours earlier, in the opening minutes, the Islanders made a solid push downfield, combining passes and drives to eventually earn the touchdown by Kurtis Rosengreen. Mercer Island went for the two-point conversion play after Conner Bernal faked the Saints and passed to Reid Jackson to start the evening off with an 8-0 lead.

“Offensively they started to click,” said head coach Brett Ogata of the offensive line during Friday’s game. “Jeff, as a young quarterback, has really started to take the reigns with the offense.”

Minutes later, the Saints responded, grabbing their first touchdown of the night off a 2-yard run by Brett Kirschner. Interlake also made the decision to go for the extra two points, and quarterback Matt Malos connected with Jordan Todd in the end zone to tie the score 8-8.

Before long, the ball was back in Lindquist’s hands once again and with 2:44 left to play in the first quarter, Lindquist found a long pass opportunity, streaking the ball to junior Ben Emanuels for a 48-touchdown pass, followed by a kick from Wood to give the Islanders the lead once again.

Interlake tied the game in the last seconds of the first quarter to take the score to 15 points apiece. It was the first of three touchdowns before Mercer Island finally found their chance to respond on the field when Bernal received a 5-yard pass from Lindquist and then moment later ran with the ball for the extra two points to edge the scoreboard tally closer together at 29-23.

Unfortunately for the Islanders, the score did not stay close for long.

A minute into the third quarter Interlake’s Malos found Ricky Aaron in the end zone for a 65-yard pass to make it 36-23. The Saints scored twice more during the game, with Malos finding Todd again for a 43-yard pass in the third quarter and again in the fourth after Malos made a sprint to the goal line himself. Mercer Island was able to reply with another Rosengreen run and a Lindquist pass to Alex Rorem with five minutes left to play, but the team could never overcome the final six point deficit standing between them and a win.

While the score was high, Ogata said credit must be given to Interlake, especially offensively.

“Interlake is really good,” he said. “They have a lot of really good players on offense.”

Defensively, he said, it’s easy to look at 51 points and take it to mean that the Islanders feel way short, but he said that’s just the type of game it was.

“They made big plays when we needed them to,” said Ogata of the defensive line. “They made a goal line stand and it’s a good place to start building. It was just the type of game it was and they did give us a chance to win it at the end.”

In the end the team captured 283 passing yards and 149 rushing yards, the most for the team this season. Lindquist was responsible for 124 of those rushing yards, as well as all of the passing yards for the Islanders during the game. Rorem had 126 receiving yards during the loss and teammate Ben Emanuels had 77 receiving yards.

Several players, including starters Brad Idzik and Erik Swedstedt, did not play Friday due to injuries, which Ogata said will keep them out for at least the next game.

“They’ll be out longer, but we’ll be OK. One thing I’ve learned is kids are very resilient and they are tough,” he said.

This week the Islanders will travel to take on defending state champions Bellevue.

Ogata said this week during practice the team is focusing on making sure the defense is playing team oriented and focusing on their discipline on the field before coming up against the Wolverines wing style of play.

Friday’s game begins at 7 p.m. at Bellevue High School Memorial Stadium. On Oct. 9 the team will return home for a homecoming showdown against Mount Si.