The Lake Stevens Vikings rolled to a 61-10 victory over Tahoma in the 4A quad-district playoffs last Friday, but their victory came with a price. Running back and linebacker Andrew Grimes limped off the field in the first quarter and did not return.
As of midweek, Grimes had not practiced and Vikings coach Tom Tri said Grimes’ status for Friday night’s state-tournament opener against Issaquah would be a game-time decision.
The good news for the Vikings is they didn’t miss a beat with senior Asi Tupua filling in last week. Tupua finished the game with 175 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries.
“It’s great because with Asi, our run game hasn’t really skipped a beat,” Tri said. “We’ve been able to run the ball between the tackles and off the edge and so it’s forced defenses to honor the run game and that’s allowed our passing game to continue to flourish.”
Grimes leads the Vikings with 1,049 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns, but Tupua has provided more than just a serviceable backup. Tupua has run for 803 yards and seven touchdowns.
That presents problems for opponents, who can’t afford to focus too much attention on the Vikings’ high-powered passing attack — quarterback Jacob Eason has thrown for 2,659 yards and 34 touchdowns — lest they get burned by the ground game.
“Are they going to focus more on stopping the pass or are they going to worry about all the things that we’re doing? I don’t know what we’re going to see on Friday from Issaquah,” Tri said. “I think I know what front we’re going to see, but I don’t know what coverages are going to be and where the linebackers are going to be. Are they going to be devoted to stopping the run or dropping back into a pass zone or blitzing off the edge?”
A victory over Issaquah (9-3) would send the Vikings (10-0) to the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2011. Lake Stevens has reached the playoffs every season since, but hasn’t advanced past the first round of state.
“We’ve talked about it,” Tri said. “We’re playing a Kingco opponent and trying to get past the first round of the state playoffs. It’s been a while since we’ve done that, so that’s been an emphasis here this week at practice.”
When Tri looks at the Eagles’ offense, he sees a squad similar to his own — a spread team that has good balance between the running and passing games — which could give the Vikings a boost in their preparations.
“It’s easy for our scout team to simulate those type of actions,” Tri said. “I think we give our defense a pretty good look as a scout team being able to do that type of stuff versus a Wing-T team or single-wing team or a team that runs the ball and does things under center. That’s a little harder to prepare for overall. That being said, they’re really good. I don’t want to give the impression that it’s going to be a cake walk because we know how they operate and know what type of routes they run. They’re really effective at it.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
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