Balunsat’s multi-position prowess powers Vikes
By Aaron Coe
Herald Writer
LAKE STEVENS —Justin Balunsat may not have been a starter last year, but fans of the Lake Stevens High School football team knew who he was.
He was the little guy who always seemed to make a big play when he got a chance.
These weren’t garbage-time plays. They came when his team needed them most during the biggest games of the year.
There was the momentum-changing interception return for a touchdown against Arlington in a game that decided last season’s Western Conference 3A championship.
He was the one intercepting a Mercer Island pass to preserve a 21-17 victory in the first round of the state playoffs.
Twin brothers Matt and Nik Williams, who are getting ready to run track at the University of Washington this year, were the face of Lake Stevens football last season.
Balunsat led the team with four interceptions gathered in relief duty of the twins.
Matt Williams was a member of the East-West All-Star state football team after running for more than 1,300 yards and his brother was a gamebreaking receiver.
Balunsat averaged a team-best 7.1 yards per carry on his 26 rushing attempts last year as a junior.
"A coach came up to me after the Arlington game last year and said, ‘Are you sure you’re starting the right guy?’" Vikings coach Ken Collins said. "We knew when we put him into a game last year to relieve Matt, there would not be a dropoff. And we knew he was going to be good this year."
Now that the Williams twins have moved on to the UW, Balunsat is proving there will be no dropoff in the Lake Stevens rushing attack. The Vikings, who have moved up to Class 4A this season, opened against perennial 4A power Cascade last week. Like the shirts Lake Stevens players are wearing this year, Balunsat was thinking "Wesco 4A, Bring it on!"
Balunsat brought it to the Bruins with 190 yards and two touchdowns.
"I knew the biggest question in people’s minds was, ‘How are they going to replace Matt Williams?’" said Balunsat, who also had two long gains in the Cascade game erased by Lake Stevens penalties. "I knew I had a big job ahead of me. It’s hard to fill someone’s shoes like that, but being behind him for all these years, I learned a lot from him."
Like Williams, Balunsat is an undersized back who finds a way to get tough yards. Balunsat barely casts a shadow when he’s not wearing pads. He’s 5 feet, 7 inches and 150 pounds — and is small enough to wrestle at 135 pounds during the winter. Most of his weight is in his legs, which allow him to push back much bigger defenders and are quick enough to step around them. Balunsat, who carries a 3.6 grade-point average, is also a quick thinker on the field. He reads the blocks of his solid offensive line well and knows when and where to make moves on both offense and defense.
Now that he has his chance to shine, Balunsat will be the busiest man in Lake Stevens. He’ll get the bulk of the carries on offense. He’ll be a full-time starter at cornerback. He’ll return punts and kickoffs. He won’t even get to leave the field after he scores a touchdown. As the team’s kicker, he’ll be the guy kicking the extra points.
Balunsat and his Viking teammates will face an even bigger challenge tonight than they did last Friday. They’ll travel to a hostile Veterans Memorial Stadium, where they’ll play the Snohomish Panthers, who did not lose a Western Conference game last season. Balunsat likes to visualize himself breaking a long touchdown run to silence an expected crowd of more than 5,000 fans.
"All I’ve heard about their crowd is that they’re huge," said Balunsat, who is also the center fielder for the Lake Stevens baseball team. "To have a long run or score a touchdown against a crowd like that is everyone’s dream. Everyone wants to be the star, and if I could do that, it would be amazing."
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