MOUNT VERNON — Despite a rocky start to its Northwest Conference game Friday, the Bellingham football team wasn’t done in by its own mistakes — or the Mount Vernon Bulldogs.

Jeremy Rick ran for 121 yards and a touchdown, the Bellingham overcame several costly penalties and the Red Raiders downed Mount Vernon 15-6 Friday in a game where the Bulldogs were hampered by the loss of starting quarterback Ray Walser.

“Bellingham played bigger, stronger and faster than us,” Mount Vernon coach Jaxon Schweikert said. “They flat-out played better.”

Walser, who had 811 yards and eight touchdowns coming into the game, was injured after a run with 7:54 remaining in the second quarter and did not return. Schweikert said he wasn’t certain what the injury was but was confident the senior quarterback would be fine.

Mount Vernon took the lead early when Bellingham quarterback Kris Peterson was called for intentional grounding while in the end zone for a safety, just one of several penalties that hampered the Red Raiders. They were also hurt by a block in the back call that wiped out a 24-yard touchdown run by Rick and later, a holding call that erased a 50-yard touchdown run from Michael Gonzales.

“In the first half, penalties were killing us. We knew if we stopped shooting ourselves in the foot, we would do OK,” Rick said.

The Red Raiders finally got on the board late in the third with a 24-yard scoring run from Rick. They took the lead in the fourth with a 2-yard run by Reid Chivers and added more with a 21-yard field goal from Walker Storrer.

Rick said it took Bellingam a half to adjust to the Bulldogs’ defense.

“They’ve been changing up their defense every week, we saw that on film. We didn’t recognize what they came out in, and it caught us off guard.”

Bellingham’s offense was as run-heavy as usual against the Bulldogs, with the Red Raiders attempting only five passes, none of them completed.

“We wanted to control the clock and keep their offense off the field,” Bellingham coach Doug Trainor said. “Things started clicking for us, and their quarterback went out. That hurt them.”

While Walser is the Bulldogs starter, backup Jake Weber isn’t inexperienced, with 153 yards passing against South Whidbey.

Weber went 17-of-35 for 107 yards against the Red Raiders.

“When the quarterback goes down it affects you, but Jake Weber came in and did some good things. He came in and played hard,” Schweikert said.

Schweikert said the defense played well against the Red Raiders.

“I thought our defense played well enough to win, but we left them out there too much and gave Bellingham too many chances,” he said.

Michael Acode had an interception on defense for the Bulldogs (0-0, 2-1, 2-3) and was their leading receiver with nine catches for 72 yards.

Bellingham improved to 1-1, 2-3, 2-3.

• Trevor Pyle can be reached at 360-416-2156 or by e-mail at