EVERETT — A week ago against Monroe, the Lake Stevens football team started slowly. The Vikings fell behind 14-0 and didn’t score until late in the first half before coming back to win 42-14.
This week against Mariner, the Vikings made sure there was no such drama. Senior quarterback Jacob Eason connected with senior receiver Ian Schneider for a 78-yard touchdown pass on their first offensive play of the game and cruised to a 42-7 victory over the Marauders on Friday.
“We talked about it all week, about not starting slow,” Lake Stevens head coach Tom Tri said. “It’s nice to be the first team to punch. Monroe did that to us last week and we had to counter-attack. We wanted to start fast tonight and finish strong and I really think our kids did a pretty good job of that.”
The Vikings stay unbeaten so far this season, improving to 5-0 in league and 7-0 overall. It was the first league loss for Mariner, which drops to 4-1 and 4-3 overall.
“Every game at this point of the season is huge,” Tri said. “Being the fact that both teams are 4-0 in league (coming into the game) and really the winner kind of emerges as the front-runner, obviously we still have games left.”
Eason finished 17-for-31 for 311 yards and five touchdowns. He threw one interception in the second half, which was just the second time he’s been picked off all season.
“I would like to see the completion percentage a little bit higher, but overall I thought he made really good decisions with the ball. The best thing he did tonight was get rid of the ball. He wanted to hold the ball a little bit long last week and that created some problems. This week that was a big focus of ours too to get the ball out in grass and space quickly. He did a pretty good job.”
Eason spread the ball around to five different receivers, but Schneider did the most damage. He caught three passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns. He also intercepted a pass on defense.
“Teams are so focused on Riley Krenz, Hunter Eckstrom and Andrew Grimes and we’ve got a couple of other receivers that can run and catch,” Tri said. “Ian is certainly one of them. He’s a versatile kid. He runs the deep route well. He’ll run intermediate routes well and he runs the ball well.”
As they have been for much of the season, the Vikings were balanced offensively. Senior running back Andrew Grimes led the way on the ground, rushing for 142 yards on 16 carries and scoring a touchdown. Grimes also caught one of Eason’s five touchdown passes, taking a shovel pass 38 yards for a touchdown late in the third quarter.
“We want to be balanced,” Tri said. “We know we’re going to throw the ball. We’ve got skill receivers and we’re going to throw the ball with Jacob, but we also want to keep teams honest. Andrew is a workhorse. He’s the guy that doesn’t get any of the credit. He’s the unsung hero.”
Darius Brown scored the lone touchdown for the Marauders. Brown did most of his damage in the first half when he rushed for 83 yards on 13 carries to go along with his touchdown.
Mariner faces Monroe next Friday as it looks to rebound from its first league loss.
At Goddard Stadium
Lake Stevens 13 15 14 0 —42
Mariner 0 7 0 0 —7
LS—Ian Schneider 78 pass from Jacob Eason (Karsten Knutson kick)
LS—Riley Krenz 15 pass from Eason (kick failed)
LS—Andrew Grimes 2 run (Krenz pass from Eason)
M—Darius Brown 7 run (Edward Katynskiy kick)
LS—Schneider 17 pass from Eason (Knutson kick)
LS—Hunter Eckstrom 4 pass from Eason (Knutson kick)
LS—Andrew Grimes 38 pass from Eason (Knutson kick)
Records–Lake Stevens 5-0 league, 7-0 overall. Mariner 4-1, 4-3.
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