MONROE — Through five weeks, the Lake Stevens football team hadn’t trailed in a single game and star quarterback Jacob Eason hadn’t thrown a single interception.
On Friday, the Vikings found themselves trailing Monroe 14-7 at halftime after trailing 14-0 earlier in the second quarter and Eason had two interceptions.
The second-ranked Vikings responded one of the most emphatic ways possible, scoring 42 unanswered points to defeat the Bearcats 42-14.
“They just came out with a lot of intensity and it was real physical and they smacked us in the mouth a little bit,” Lake Stevens head coach Tom Tri said. “This is the first time all year that we’ve had any adversity at all, so we were a little shell-shocked in the first quarter like ‘Oh, we got a team that’s going to play with us a little bit.’ Our kids settled down and knuckled up and we executed better on both sides of the ball after we got shell-shocked there in the first quarter.”
Monroe scored the game’s first touchdown in the second quarter on its third possession of the game. Junior quarterback Zach Zimmerman found senior wide receiver Jake Morelli for a 16-yard touchdown pass to give the Vikings a 7-0 lead.
Monroe forced a fumble moments later and took advantage of the turnover with a 1-yard touchdown run by junior JJ Jerome to go up 14-0.
It looked like things might get even worse for the Vikings when Eason threw his first interception of the season on the Vikings’ next drive, but Monroe fumbled deep in Vikings’ territory when it had a chance to go up 21-0.
Lake Stevens took advantage of the turnover by quickly marching down the field and scoring on a 5-yard touchdown run by senior Andrew Grimes that cut the deficit to 14-7. The Vikings had another chance to score right before halftime, but Eason was intercepted by sophomore Isaiah Cole, who had both interceptions for the Bearcats.
As good as the first half was for Cole and the Bearcats, the second half couldn’t have got much worse. Lake Stevens scored on the opening possession of the third quarter to tie the score at 14 and Cole fumbled back-to-back kickoffs that both resulted in the Lake Stevens’ offense scoring touchdowns to take a 28-14 lead before the Monroe offense had even seen the field in the second half.
“You’re down 14-7 at halftime and we’re just trying to get back in the game at that point,” Tri said. “The next thing you know were up 28-14 and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, now we’ve got to hold on to the lead. We scored too fast. There’s too much time on the clock.’ Our kids our resilient and they really answered the bell.”
After coming up with the two interceptions in the first half, it turned out to be a tough night for Cole, who turned the ball over on fumbles three times.
“You just have to remind him of the great things that he did,” Monroe head coach Michael Bumpus said. “He’s young and he’s going to make mistakes. You’ve just got to learn from it. I’m sure he will come back next week and fight even harder and I’m sure he will put two hands on the ball every time he’s tackled.”
Eason finished the third half 12-for-20 for 125 yards and two interceptions, but was nearly perfect the rest of the way. His first pass of the second half was incomplete, but he completed his next 11 passes to finish 23-for-32 for 247 yards.
“I’m going to throw picks, it was bound to happen at some point,” Eason said. “I just told myself I’m not going to get down. I came into the locker room and I thought when the team sees how up I am, they’re going to respond to that. I’m the leader and they’re going to respond to how I’m doing. I was pretty beat up, I’m not going to lie, but I went in there and we started getting things done.”
Eason’s favorite target was junior Hunter Eckstrom, who finished with 11 catches for 112 yards.
Eason didn’t throw a touchdown. Grimes took care of most of the scoring. He scored four of the six Lake Stevens’ touchdowns and finished with 84 yards on 15 carries.
After surviving an early scare from Monroe, the Vikings will be tested again next week against Mariner, which is the only other remaining unbeaten team in Wesco 4A league play.
“This was great for us,” Tri said. “We really needed this. It was 14-0 and we had some adversity. We were pretty flat there at 14-0. … We were a little slow there to respond there towards the end of the first quarter, but we started to figure some things out and we made some adjustments there in the second quarter.”
The Bearcats dropped their second straight game after starting the season 4-0, but Bumpus thinks his team will respond to the adversity quickly.
“I think we still will make a run deep in the playoff,” he said. “Now we just have to win out and hope a couple of teams take some (losses) and go from there. What’s good is that everything we wanted to accomplish is still attainable. As long as our guys believe that and come to work next week we’ll be alright.”
At Monroe H.S.
Lake Stevens 0 7 21 14 —42
Monroe 0 14 0 0 —14
M—Jake Morelli 16 pass from Zach Zimmerman (Tanner Ohlsen kick)
M—JJ Jerome 1 run (Ohlsen kick)
LS—Andrew Grimes 5 run (Karsten Knutson kick)
LS—Armado Attipoe 51 run (Karsten Knutson kick)
LS—Grimes 1 run (Knutson kick)
LS—Grimes 1 run (Knutson kick)
LS—Jacob Eason 4 run (Knutson kick)
LS—Grimes 30 run (Knutson kick)
Records–Lake Stevens 4-0 league, 6-0 overall. Monroe 2-2, 4-2.
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