MARYSVILLE — Jacob Eason might not have been completely perfect Friday night.
But the senior quarterback was darn close.
Eason completed 13-of-13 pass attempts for 292 yards and three touchdowns to lead Lake Stevens to a 42-7 victory over Marysville Pilchuck in a non-conference matchup of former league rivals.
Two sacks in the second half were the only demerits on the night for Eason.
“You can’t get much better than that,” said Lake Stevens head coach Tom Tri. “… Gosh, he was definitely on target tonight, that’s for sure. He was jacked up. He wanted to have a good night.
“I’ll take 13-for-13 for 292 every day of the week.”
Eason completed three touchdown passes of 10, 47 and 66 yards, the last two of which came on Eason’s first two throws in the second half. He went 4-for-4 for 155 yards and two touchdowns in the second half before leaving the game in the fourth quarter.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time, for 20-plus years, and we’ve had some pretty darn good quarterbacks but he’s pretty darn special,” Tri said. “We’re going to try to milk it for as long as we can and enjoy the ride.”
Eason quickly deflected credit for his big game to his teammates.
“My receivers were catching the ball, my line was blocking for me and it all worked out,” Eason said. “Teamwork wins games.”
It was the first win over Marysville Pilchuck for Eason in his Lake Stevens career. The former league rivals’ — the Tomahawks now play in Wesco 3A North while the Vikings are Wesco 4A members — close proximity makes for a much-hyped contest between the two teams.
Marysville Pilchuck won the matchup the past two seasons.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment since we lost (to MP) last year,” Eason said. “We lost the last two years. I’d never beat them in my high school career. It felt great to go out there and win this game. They’re a tremendous team, we have tremendous respect for them and it was just a fun game.”
“It’s a non-league game so it means nothing. But we also talked and it means everything,” Tri said. “It’s a backyard brawl. It’s a neighborhood rivalry. … It meant a lot to our guys. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a non-league game. But at the same time, we’re trying to build momentum and build off of last week’s win (over Meadowdale).”
Andrew Grimes got the scoring started early for Lake Stevens (2-0 overall), the No. 2-ranked team in the Associated Press 4A poll, with a 3-yard touchdown run in the game’s opening minutes. Grimes, who added another pair of 3-yard scores in the game, finished with 83 yards on 16 carries, despite being a little banged up.
“He probably didn’t run as much as we would have had him run as much as we would have had him run, but we’re just trying to keep him a little fresher and try to get him going for league,” Tri said. “So we really didn’t get to showcase all the things that we want with Andrew yet but we’re going to.”
Asi Tupua relieved Grimes late in the game with Lake Stevens up big and ran 18 times for a team-high 102 yards.
Lake Stevens didn’t throw an incomplete pass until there was 8:32 remaining in the contest. The Vikings recorded 305 passing yards before the first incomplete pass from Lake Stevens backup quarterback Conor Bardue.
Eason spread his 13 completions out to Ian Schneider (five receptions for 111 yards), Riley Krenz (four receptions, 108 yards) and Hunter Eckstrom (four receptions, 68 yards).
All three recorded touchdown catches in the game.
“I think we started off a little slow, a little flat,” Eason said. “Then we kind of picked it up. After that, things started rolling and clicking and we started doing our thing. … A lot of our starters have been playing for multiple years with me. We’ve developed that chemistry and it’s clicking now.”
Marysville Pilchuck (1-1) got its lone score on a 2-yard run by Justin Trueax in the second quarter. Trueax’s score, which was set up by a 67-yard pass from quarterback Erik Lind to Galdino Fajardo, cut the Tomahawks’ deficit to 21-7.
However, that is as close as Marysville Pilchuck, currently ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press 3A football poll, would get.
Lind finished 12-of-15 for 131 yards and Trueax, Garrett Anderson, Fajardo and Ray Pimentel led a Marysville Pilchuck rushing attack that finished with 126 yards on the ground.
“They’re a tough team,” Tri said. “They did a great job in the first quarter holding the ball for about five, six minutes there. … Our kids did a great job of keeping everything in front of them tonight.”
At Quil Ceda Stadium
Lake Stevens 7 21 14 0 — 42
M. Pilchuck 0 7 0 0 — 7
LS—Andrew Grimes 4 run (Karsten Knutson kick)
LS—Grimes 3 run (Knutson)
LS—Hunter Eckstrom 10 pass from Jacob Eason (Knutson kick)
MP—Justin Trueax 2 run (Jason Lopp kick)
LS—Grimes 3 run (Knutson kick)
LS—Riley Krenz 47 pass from Eason (Knutson kick)
LS—Ian Schneider 66 pass from Eason (Knutson kick)
Records—Lake Stevens 2-0 overall. Marysville Pilchuck 1-1.
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