EVERETT — Lakewood head coach Dan Teeter recently broke a bone in his right hand getting “too involved” during a Cougars’ football practice.
Friday night’s win took a little bit of the pain away.
Lakewood took on Archbishop Murphy and, for the fourth consecutive season, hung on to defeat the Wildcats, this time 18-17 at Terry Ennis Stadium.
“Any time you can win a football game, especially against Archbishop Murphy, it’s a quality win,” Teeter said. “I’m really proud of the boys.”
In a back-and-forth battle, the Cougars had the advantage early, using an option-focused offense to take a 12-3 lead at halftime. Paulmer Gregory — who is listed on the Lakewood roster as a quarterback, wide receiver and safety — threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to start the scoring and ran for a 15-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
Gregory finished with 160 yards rushing on 22 carries, and completed eight of 15 passes for 140 yards.
“We’re not surprised. He’s a phenomenal athlete,” Teeter said. “I think he would have been first-team, all-league on both sides of the ball last year had he not been hurt and missed several games.”
Archbishop Murphy took its first lead of the game midway through the third quarter when sophomore Anfernee Gurley returned a Lakewood punt 63 yards for a touchdown. That, along with a 21-yard touchdown pass from Nolan Rogge to Reagan Gordon, gave the Wildcats a 17-12 advantage.
But Lakewood (1-0 league, 1-2 overall), which held a 26:45 to 21:15 time of possession advantage, got the ball back and scored on a five-yard run by Tyler Courtney with 5:46 to play in the game. The Cougars then held off the Wildcats to secure its first win of the season.
“It was a great game,” Archbishop Murphy head coach Jerry Jensen said. “Lakewood came out big up front. We weren’t able to move the ball like we thought we could in the first half. Credit to them for getting the job done at the line of scrimmage.”
Gordon rushed nine times for 39 yards to lead Archbishop Murphy (0-1, 2-1).
Jensen said his halftime speech, which seemed to rally the Wildcats, was essentially telling the players to take care of business.
“It was just, ‘Go out and take care of your responsibility.’ And the kids came out and they did that,” Jensen said. “But we’re still making mistakes and we need to clean those up. … (Penalties) are things that when you’re playing a championship team you can’t do.”
Gregory and the 22 Cougar seniors were happy to complete the career sweep of Archbishop Murphy.
“It’s great to go out — starting freshman year was our first win over them — and sweeping them, beating them,” Gregory said. “It’s a great place to come play. It’s a hard fight. They’re a good team and they’re getting better. We were expecting a fight.
After taking on defending 2A champion Lynden and playing a tough non-league game against Liberty, Lakewood continued its difficult early season schedule with the Wildcats. Teeter said the first two games helped prepare the Cougars for tough league contests, like Friday night’s.
“Our goal for scheduling the tough competition was to be at our best by the end of the season,” Teeter said. “If we can make it there and make a little bit of a run we want to do that.”
Lakewood’s tough schedule continues when the defending Cascade Conference champions take on King’s next week.
“It gets us off to a good start,” Teeter said. “… We’re kind of flying under the radar, which we haven’t done for a few years, and we’re OK with that. All I know is our boys worked their tails off all offseason and they’re not quite ready to give up on that league title yet. There’s some other games we’ve got to win. This is win No. 1. King’s is coming to town next week and that’s going to be a battle like it always is.
“We find out right away how good we are.”
At Terry Ennis Stadium
Lakewood 6 6 0 6 — 18
Archbishop Murphy 3 0 14 0 — 17
L–Drake Chaves 33 pass from Paulmer Gregory (kick failed)
AM–Ryan Henderson 27 FG
L–Gregory 15 run (pass failed)
AM–Reagan Gordon 21 pass from Nolan Rogge (Henderson kick)
AM–Anfernee Gurley 63 yard punt return (Henderson kick)
L–Tyler Courtney 5 run (run failed)
Records–Lakewood 1-0 league, 1-2 overall. Archbishop Murphy 0-1, 2-1.
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