Lake Stevens wins with balanced attack

Published 11:15 pm Friday, September 5, 2014

LAKE STEVENS — Before the season started, Lake Stevens head football coach Tom Tri said he expected the Vikings’ passing game, led by junior quarterback Jacob Eason, to be dynamic.

In Friday night’s season-opener against Meadowdale, it was.

What he failed to mention was that their running game is pretty good, too.

Junior running back Andrew Grimes ran the ball 26 times for 218 yards and a touchdown, helping lead the Vikings to a 28-21 non-conference victory over the Mavericks.

“I came out here and I wanted to play hard and make a difference for the team,” Grimes said. “I wanted to show that I could run hard. We knew that Meadowdale was going to expect us to pass the ball, but we knew if we could run the ball between the tackles and make them come up with the coverage then we’d have a lot more success down field.”

It was hard to tell if the run set up the pass or the pass set up the run. What was clear is that both factions of the offense were clicking and feeding off of each other.

“We knew that everyone knew who Jacob Eason was,” Tri said. “We wanted to make sure that we sold the fact that we were going to throw the ball. We knew that teams knew that. What we were trying to keep under wraps a little bit, at least through week one, was the fact that we’ve got some guys up front, an offensive line, that is pretty strong and physical and we got a back that likes to pound it between the tackles too.”

Eason struggled in the early going, completing three of his first eight passes and throwing an interception, but he settled quickly, finishing the game 25-for-40 with 294 yards and three touchdowns.

“It wasn’t that he had a bad night, he had a good night,” Tri said. “He can play a lot better.”

Meadowdale took advantage of Eason’s early struggles with a touchdown drive capped off by Rory Spillum’s 7-yard touchdown run.

Eason answered by throwing touchdowns on back-to-back drives — the first a 20-yard pass to Josh Rasmussen and the second a 23-yard pass to Riley Krenz.

That sent Vikings into the locker room with a 14-7 lead at halftime.

Meadowdale tied the score at 14 in the third quarter when JP Routen connected with Donavon Evans on a 37-yard touchdown strike. Routen, who is in his first year at quarterback for the Mavericks, finished the game 10-for-16 with 231 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

“I thought he played pretty well,” Meadowdale head coach Mike Don said of Routen. “He managed the game and he missed a couple, but he played varsity football last year, so it’s not like it’s his first time being through the fire. I thought our receivers did a pretty good job of going up and getting balls and I thought we took advantage some of the plays we needed to and made some big plays.”

The Vikings just made more big plays.

Grimes’ 8-yard touchdown late in the third quarter gave Lake Stevens a 21-14 lead, and Eason connected with Krenz on a 15-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter to increase their lead to 28-14.

The Mavericks answered with a four-play touchdown drive that took less than a minute off the clock, but there simply wasn’t enough time remaining to pull of the comeback.

“We learned,” Don said. “I think it’s a great learning opportunity. I think if we come out and make some of the mistakes we made tonight against some other teams, they may be hidden. But when you play a really good football team like Lake Stevens, they exploit mistakes and they take advantage of them. I thought tonight they took advantage of more opportunities than we did when it counted.”

Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.

At Lake Stevens Stadium

Meadowdale 7 0 7 7—21

Lake Stevens 7 7 7 7—28

At Lake Stevens Stadium

M–Rory Spillum 7 run (Brett Schafer kick)

LS–Josh Rasmussen 20 pass from Jacob Eason (Ignacio Ponce kick)

LS–Riley Krenz 23 pass from Jacob Eason (Ponce kick)

M–Donavon Evans 37 pass from JP Routen (Schafer kick)

LS–Andrew Grimes 8 run (Ponce kick)

LS–Krenz 15 pass from Eason (Ponce kick)

M–Spillum 1 run (Schafer kick)

Records – Meadowdale 0-1. Lake Stevens 1-0.