LAKE STEVENS — Football is a complementary sport, through and through. That is, until one side of a team has a perfect game.
The No. 2-seeded Lake Stevens Vikings (12-0) tested that theory in their state quarterfinal matchup with the No. 7 Moses Lake Mavericks (11-1), which they won 76-41 to set up a semifinal date with No. 6 Graham Kapowsin. The Vikings scored on 11 of 13 possessions, with the only two non-scoring possessions coming at the end of each half in late-clock situations. Behind a tremendous performance from the Lake Stevens offensive line, which didn’t allow a sack, junior QB Blake Moser announced himself to the state.
Lake Stevens’ Blake Moser yells after scoring a touchdown during the 4A state football quarterfinal game against Moses Lake on Nov. 22, 2025 in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Moser threw for 333 yards and five touchdowns on 14 completions in 16 attempts, adding two more scores and 81 yards on the ground. Moser has now surpassed 2,000 passing yards on the season and boasts 36 TDs by air and 10 on the ground in his first season as a starter at Lake.
Opposite of Moser was Moses Lake three-star senior Brady Jay (367 pass yards, 5 TD, 1 INT), who broke the state record for passing scores in a season with his 71st of the year on Saturday. Knowing the notoriety of his opponent, who led Moses Lake to its best season in program history, Moser took the challenge head-on.
“(Jay) is a great player, but I feel like I deserve some recognition as well,” Moser said postgame. “Coming into this, it was all ‘Brady Jay, Brady Jay,’ but I feel like we came out of this and people are going to know Blake Moser.”
Lake Stevens’ Jayvian Ferrell runs the ball into the end zone for a touchdown during the 4A state football quarterfinal game against Moses Lake on Nov. 22, 2025 in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
With Moser delivering accurate throws to perpetually open receivers like Kekoa Okiyama (3 receptions, 49 yards, 2 TDs) and Max Cook (5 receptions, 124 yards, TD) all night, junior star RB Jayvian Ferrell got to work. He scored three times on the ground while totaling 223 yards on the ground and. The back delivered the boom with his shoulder pads and outran the Mavericks at almost every turn on his 21 carries.
Lake Stevens head coach Tom Tri spoke to the media postgame, but it was clear that he felt his team had done most of the talking.
“Every time we had the ball, we scored. And so I don’t think I know what else I can ask my quarterback to do other than be perfect with execution,” Tri said.
Although the Vikings defense gave up a season-worst 41 points, Tri credited that unit with getting stops at the right moments, allowing the offense to pull ahead early.
Indeed, the first half was a dream for the Vikings offense, which scored on all five of its possessions and got four TDs from Moser. A 31-yard rush from Ferrell on the opening drive created space in the secondary for Moser and co. to work, and he found Seth Price (4 receptions, 93 yards, TD) wide open on the left side to set up a four-yard TD pass to Okiyama after some elaborate fake jet motion to bring the receiver across the formation.
That jet motion would keep Mavericks defenders guessing all night as Tri purposefully utilized it multiple times per drive.
“They were taking the edge away and we knew that, but by that jet motion, it really forces their hand to step up and take the edge away. That allows us to attack up the middle,” Tri said, as many of Ferrell’s big runs came on draw plays. “We had success with it and thought, ‘Well, let’s just keep doing it until they stop it.’”
The ensuing Moses Lake drive lasted just three plays, as star defensive lineman Ty Tautolo blew up a run on 3rd and 1 to get his squad off the field in just under 80 seconds of game time. Moser set the tone on the next Lake drive, tucking the ball to scamper past Moses Lake defenders for a 32-yard gain on the first play. Four plays later, Moser scrambled left to find a wide-open Deuce Wilson running the left sideline for a 34-yard score on his lone catch of the night.
A heads-up play by Vikings defensive back Dylan Phinney to blow up a screen pass highlighted another three-and-out for Lake Stevens’ defense, which Cook paid off with a 61-yard TD in which he was wide open on over the middle to make it 21-0.
Playing a team that was in the midst of its best season in program history, Tri’s squad was looking like the big bad early on.
Moses Lakes’s Brady Jay scrambles with the ball during the 4A state football quarterfinal game against Lake Stevens on Nov. 22, 2025 in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Feeling the pressure, Jay and the Mavericks offense came out in empty-backfield sets — knowing they needed chunk plays to claw back into the game. With Lake Stevens’ pass rush being somewhat contained, Jay got to work.
The Montana-commit rolled right and launched a contested ball to RB Elijah Burns, who made a sensational catch and ran for a 65-yard TD to make the game that much more interesting at the top of the second quarter.
Moser and the Vikings spent the next three minutes of gametime undoing that Mavericks turning point, as a 33-yard TD strike to Okiyama on a post route ended another successful campaign. After another score from Moses Lake on a 12-play drive, Ferrell found the endzone from 16 yards by breaking tackle and hitting the left side with speed to score.
A combined tackle-for-loss by Kenny Buckmiller and Keegan Brown on third and short finally got the Vikings defense off the field, as Lake Stevens took a 35-14 lead into the second half.
Moses Lake capitalized on a pass interference by the Vikings to score on an eight-play drive to open the half, as the Mavericks’ sideline tried to drum up some hype in a 35-21 game. But any team needs stops to mount any comeback, and the Mavericks were helpless to get off the field.
A long kick return from Greyson Eggers set the Vikings up at the Moses Lake 47-yard line right away, and Ferrell took care of the rest. The junior found the edge again on the right side to outrun the entire defense, restoring a 42-21 advantage. With his team up 21, Tri wasn’t satisfied. He sent his special teams out for an onside kick, which kicker Lucas Mooring operated with perfection to recover it himself at the 50.
Lake Stevens’ Lucas Mooring reacts to recovering the ball during an onside kick during the 4A state football quarterfinal game against Moses Lake on Nov. 22, 2025 in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
“We just wanted to keep the momentum and we knew we were having a hard time stopping them,” Tri said of his decision. “We noticed that their kick return bailing early … so thought it was a good time right after halftime (to try the onside kick).”
On the very next play, Moser found a streaking Price down the right seam to balloon the lead back to 48-21. The Moses Lake offense maintained its heat, as Grant Smith (14 receptions, 164 yards, 2 TDs) hauled in multiple long passes to make it 48-27. The Vikings, yet to be stopped on the night, put together a three-minute drive punctuated by an easy read-option score for Moser from a yard out.
After a long score from Mavs RB Elijah Burns (49 rush yards, 13 receptions, 195 receiving yards, 3 TDs) on a swing pass, the Viks found themselves in their first danger of the night on offense. Tri decided to trot his team out to go for a 4th and 15 in Moses Lake territory, which was shortened by a hard-count-induced offsides call. Moser did the rest from 32 yards out, tucking the ball and breaking tackles to notch the first down. Moser wasn’t finished, turning the corner around 15 yards from the endzone, having saved a final burst for the last few yards to score a heart-snatching TD.
Lake Stevens’ Blake Moser runs the ball into the end zone for a touchdown during the 4A state football quarterfinal game against Moses Lake on Nov. 22, 2025 in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Vikings on the sideline had their hands on their heads, in disbelief of what their QB had just pulled off with his legs in a pivotal moment.
“I’m thinking, ‘Wow, that’s one heck of an athlete,’” Tri said of Moser’s improbable score. “That is special, that’s a once-in-a-generation type of kid that is making guys miss at the high-school level. I think he could make guys miss at the college level. … There’s fast and then there’s Blake Moser fast.”
That score was enough to put the game away, but the Vikings defense managed to force a turnover-on-downs and get an interception from Phinney to finish the game out and build confidence for next week’s game against Graham-Kapowsin.
Tri may have given his defense credit for getting timely stops, but he noted how he would like to see his typically disruptive defensive line make more of an impact going forward. For the defense, it’s onto the next challenge.
“We’ll have small mistakes here and there, but we don’t let it affect us; we just learn from it,” Okiyama said of the Vikings’ defense, having played on both ends for Lake Stevens.
On the offensive end, Moser has all the confidence in the world in his offense. He credited his receivers for finding space and his offensive line for controlling the physical aspect all night, setting up a predicament for the Vikings’ future opponents.
“It’s a statement,” Moser said of his team’s performance. “I think (Graham-Kapowsin) should be nervous preparing for us.”
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