Gilbreath returns, scores three touchdowns in the first half.

After two tough games back-to-back, the Bainbridge football team got a bit of a breather with an undermanned Lakeside team coming to the island.

But head coach Andy Grimm wasn’t taking them lightly.

“I really like their team,” he said. “I knew they would come out and play hard. They hung with (Seattle) Prep, so that told me if we weren’t ready to play, they would give us trouble.”

The Spartans kept that from happening as Dayton Gilbreath rushed for 112 yards and scored three times – all in the first half – as the Spartans defeated the Lions 35-7 in the annual Homecoming game.

Gilbreath had sat out last week with a high ankle sprain, but said he “felt really good out there, actually.”

“The trainer taped it up real well,” he said. “It was real sore on some plays, but I sucked it up and got through it.”

Grimm said Gilbreath was able to practice, but didn’t take much contact.

“It’s debilitating because it’s your whole motion of your foot when you push off,” he said. “But I thought we did a good job with him… we need him the rest of the way.”

On their first drive, Bainbridge got big runs from their trio of backs in Gilbreath, Ross Cobb and Kauika Peleti.

Gilbreath also caught a pass from Jordan Wagner for a first down.

He scored on a nine-yard run on third and goal, but a bad snap doomed the Spartans’ chances on the extra point attempt.

Lakeside’s Elliot Shum made some nice runs of his own to lead his team down the field, but a fumble – recovered by Gilbreath – ended their drive.

Bainbridge didn’t let the opportunity go to waste, as a Wagner pass to Anthony Carter and another big run by Gilbreath set up a 17-yard touchdown run by Kauika Peleti.

Gilbreath scored on the two-point conversion.

On the Spartans’ next drive, Wagner used his feet – he had two rushes for first downs – to help put the offense in position for Gilbreath to score on a one-yard plunge.

It only took the Spartans two plays to turn a negative into a positive and score on their next drive.

After Cobb was pushed back for a loss of five yards and a holding penalty negated a big run by Cobb for the first on third down, Wagner connected with Walsh for a 46-yard gain to enter Lakeside territory.

Once again Gilbreath took care of the rest, breaking a few tackles to score on a 32-yard run.

Bainbridge rounded out the half a perfect five for five on all five of their drives after Joe Haley intercepted a pass on a diving catch in Lion territory to set it up.

Wagner connected with Gilbreath on a 48-yard screen pass, followed by Cobb running it in from 17 yards out to wrap it up.

“We don’t want to put pressure on our quarterbacks so we set up the pass with the running game,” Grimm said. “So they’re not in tough situations.

“I think the difference tonight was that we made some big plays on third down early in the game on passes, which was nice.”

That ended the scoring and Gibreath’s night, as he sat out the second half on the sideline sans pads.

Gilbreath said the team was fired up and ready to go, no matter who was out there.

“We just wanted to come out and support our school,” he said. “We wanted to bring it to them. It’s the best time of the year.”

Lakeside got on the board in the fourth quarter when Billy Crutcher ran it in from two yards out.

The Lions recovered the onside kick, but couldn’t get anything going. Jeff Blake picked off a pass to seal the deal with less than a minute left.

The win keeps them a game behind Bishop Blanchet for third place in the Metro League Mountain Division with two to go.

Bainbridge doesn’t have long to prepare for Seattle Prep, as the game was moved from Friday to yesterday.

It’s the last home game of the season.

Gilbreath said he and the other captains – Peleti and Walsh – are ready to lead their teammates into the postseason.

“We gotta come out right away and get fired up,” he said. “The captains try to get everyone fired up and ready.

“We have a lot of young players starting so we gotta get them fired up, but once we get them going, we can’t be stopped.”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

Spikers split two games

The up and down season for the Bainbridge volleyball team continues.

After defeating Eastside Catholic in another tough five game set at Lakeside Tuesday by the scores of 25-23, 25-23, 16-25, 22-25 and 18-16, the Spartans lost to Holy Names on the road Thursday three games to one by the scores of 19-25, 22-25, 27-25 and 17-25.

“(Eastside Catholic) played really well but we did not play well,” head coach Julie Miller said. “We eked that one out. So that was the second game in a row where we kept the other team in the game by making a lot of errors and not finishing when we’re supposed to.”

Against Holy Names, the Spartans were without libero Hillary Grant, who sat out due to problems with her kidney.

She went through a bunch of tests to see what the problem was, but Grant, who was born with one kidney, said she’s feeling a lot better.

“Luckily it wasn’t anything too serious,” she said.

“Not having Hillary was tough just because of the talking part of it,” Miller said of Grant. “Then the passing part and digging part as well.

“We started off really slow and couldn’t get into a rhythm until the third game,” she continued.

Miller felt they’re still working on becoming a consistent team.

With Dominique Atherley working her way back from a knee injury and not having Grant in meant Miller had to change her rotation around.

“I think with all that” we struggled, she said. “Holy Names played well. They came out ready to play and I don’t think we were ready to play.

“The way we were playing we were bound to lose sooner or later, because we weren’t finishing when we needed to finish.”

It doesn’t get any easier, as Bainbridge played Seattle Prep yesterday, then take on division leading Bishop Blanchet tomorrow.

Then, the Spartans travel to Monroe for an invitational tournament where they’re placed in a bracket with Kamiak, Central Kitsap and several other top ranked teams in the state.

“We’ll get some good competition and find out what the girls are made of,” Miller said. “We’ll have some time to work on some stuff.”

She hopes the team can come away from this week with a renewed sense of confidence in their abilities.

“They have not played to their potential as a team and as individuals,” Miller said. “That concerns me in the fact that they still haven’t figured out the fact that they have more potential than they’re using.

“You don’t want them to end the season not playing to their potential,” she continued. “I’m hoping things will work out over the next two weeks.”

Grant, a senior co-captain, feels they’re on their way as they recently held a meeting to clear the air and get back on good standing with each other.

“It ended up being pretty productive,” she said. “A lot of people got some stuff out that they wanted to say.

“It feels a lot more cohesive now,” Grant continued. “Your skills don’t matter unless you’re together. Unless you have that sense that you can count on one another, skills mean nothing.”

Against the Crusaders, Kelcey Dunaway had 18 kills, 10 digs, two blocks and three aces.

Grant had 13 digs and three aces while Chelsea Bell had 33 assists, 13 digs and two aces.

Against the Cougars, Dunaway had 14 kills, 12 digs and four blocks.

Emily Donohue had 13 kills, 14 digs, two aces and two blocks while Bell had 34 assists and nine digs.

Becky Gottlieb had 20 digs.

Game time against the Braves is at 6 p.m.