Lake Stevens football dominates Glacier Peak in battle atop Wesco 4A

Published 11:40 pm Friday, October 3, 2025

SNOHOMISH — Maxten Cook wanted the ball in his hands. Even with 45 seconds left in the first half at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Friday, the Lake Stevens sophomore knew he had enough time to make a big play.

Glacier Peak had just cut its deficit to 21-7 on a six-yard rush from senior Isaiah Owens, and while Lake Stevens was due to receive the second-half kickoff, the home squad was 45 seconds away from entering the locker room with momentum.

Glacier Peak booted the ball all the way down to the five-yard line, where Cook got his wish. He caught the kick and charged upfield, following his blockers before squeezing through a hole in the middle and bursting out the other side with nothing but grass ahead of him. Cook cruised into the end zone as the visitor section erupted.

“I knew I was going to return it. … I want to thank everybody on kick return (unit),” Cook said. “Without them, I really couldn’t do none of that. None of that would’ve happened without them. They had some amazing blocks, they set it all up.

“Bang, scored.”

With the Vikings (5-0, 3-0) seizing back momentum by entering the break with a 21-point lead, they rolled through the second half to secure a 49-14 win against the Grizzlies (4-1, 1-1) in a crucial Wesco 4A matchup between undefeated rivals.

Lake Stevens quarterback Blake Moser went 15-for-20 with 245 passing yards and two touchdowns, adding 42 yards and two more scores on the ground. Junior running back Jayvian Ferrell-Gilkey rushed for 149 yards on 16 attempts, including a 68-yard touchdown, while seniors Kekoa Okiyama (57 receiving yards, 18 rushing yards) and Greyson Eggers each had 75 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown. The Vikings scored on all six of their offensive drives before running out the clock to end the game.

Moser connected with Eggers on arguably the most consequential play of the first half prior to Cook’s kick return. Faced with 4th-and-12 on Glacier Peak’s 30 during their first offensive drive, the Vikings went for it, and Moser hit Eggers over the middle for a 23-yard gain. The quarterback kept it for himself on the next play, opening the scoring with a seven-yard rushing touchdown.

The fourth-down conversion was a similar play they ran against the Grizzlies last year, with since-graduated Keagan Howard at tight end, and after noticing a hole in the middle of the defense while studying film this week, Lake Stevens coach Tom Tri took an early risk.

“Just wanted momentum, really,” Tri said. “It felt like we had a play in the back of our playbook that we could use when we needed it. Just took a little bit of a gamble, felt like our kids could execute it well, and they did. … I don’t know if 4th-and-12 is the right opportunity, but it was as good an opportunity as any, and so we went for it and hit it.”

Meanwhile, Glacier Peak’s Owens led the Grizzlies with 143 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, powering the offense to a strong start on the ground before penalties stalled each of their first two drives, resulting in punts. The Grizzlies also struggled with fumbles on a kick return and a snap on their third drive, which they recovered but ultimately resulted in yet another punt. The Vikings responded with touchdowns each time to put Glacier Peak in a hole early.

“I thought that was the key to our game,” Grizzlies coach Shane Keck said. “For us to be successful, we couldn’t get behind the sticks, and that happened. So you know, good teams will put you in bad positions and take advantage of it, so that’s something we got to learn from.”

The Lake Stevens offense fed off a strong defensive effort in the beginning, but it was the special teams breakthrough to end the half that really put the Vikings in the driver’s seat.

“We felt like if we could go down and score (in the last 45 seconds), that would kind of be— not the dagger, but that would put a severe blow on their morale,” Tri said. “So it felt like that was a huge moment swing for us, because we did. We scored on the kick return, and then marched 80 yards right after halftime to score again, and that kind of felt like that gave us a little bit of a buffer in case we made some mistakes.

“Crazy enough, we did make a mistake.”

Indeed, after extending their lead to 35-7 with an eight-play, 80-yard touchdown drive capped by an 18-yard rush from Okiyama just 2:59 into the third quarter, Owens punched back for Glacier Peak with an 80-yard rushing touchdown on the next play from scrimmage. The Grizzlies were set up with a gift after Lake Stevens muffed the ensuing kick, and sophomore Grant Woods recovered the ball to set up the Glacier Peak offense on the Vikings’ 11-yard line.

With a touchdown, the Grizzlies would be right back in the game.

A couple of rushes and a penalty set the offense up on the seven for third-and-5, and quarterback Oliver Setterberg lofted a pass for junior Zachary Albright in the end zone. Lake Stevens senior Dreshaun Harding recognized Glacier Peak’s alignment from this week’s film sessions, and had been beaten on it a couple of times in practice, but he was ready when it counted. The defensive back leapt in the air and pulled down an interception to stop the comeback effort dead in its tracks.

“I just had to go and make a play on the ball, and I did,” Harding said. “I had to make that play for my team, give us some momentum back.”

The Vikings followed the pick with another 80-yard touchdown drive, with junior Seth Price hauling in a 21-yard touchdown reception after burning 5:19 off the clock, which more or less sealed the game. After forcing two more punts and squeezing in one more touchdown drive completed by Eggers, Lake Stevens walked away with a meaningful victory.

Officials had to pause the game briefly several times in order to cool emotions on the field. Cook said that he and his teammates need to focus on not talking back to the other team, especially when ahead by a large margin.

“It’s a rivalry game, it’s just a lot of hate for that team,” Cook said. “I mean, we got to win. We gotta win that game.”

As big as the win was for bragging rights, it was even bigger for the Wesco 4A picture.

“It’s midway through the season, but that might have been for a Wesco championship,” Tri said. “I don’t want to call the cards early — We still gotta play Arlington, we still have Kamiak, we still have Jackson on our schedule — but I thought that that was a really important shift for us just to know that, hey, we got by GP at their place, which kind of helps set up the table for us for the playoffs, and hopefully everything else.”