Lake Stevens’ Blake Moser forging own path at quarterback

LAKE STEVENS — Entering his first game as the starting quarterback for Lake Stevens, Blake Moser was riddled with nerves.

Why wouldn’t he be? Filling the shoes of Kolton Matson, Washington’s 2023 Gatorade Football Player of the Year and a two-time state champion with the Vikings, while making his first start against reigning 4A state champion Sumner on Sept. 5, the junior signal-caller didn’t need a barometer to understand the pressure he faced.

“Those first couple of drives, it was a different feeling,” Moser told The Herald at practice on Wednesday. “The moment was definitely eating me up.”

As much as coach Tom Tri wanted to ease him into the role, that really wasn’t an option. Tri knew Moser — who can throw a baseball in the mid-90s as a pitcher — had the athletic chops, but he couldn’t be 100 percent sure that he could handle the responsibility until the team stepped onto the gridiron.

So when Moser drove the Vikings down the field on an 80-yard game-winning drive, connecting with senior Seth Price on a broken play for a last-second touchdown pass to secure the 31-28 win, it became easier to believe that he had what it took.

But Tri was convinced long before that.

It was the final minutes of the first quarter when, after converting on 3rd-and-6 with a 13-yard completion to Price, Moser tucked the ball and darted up the middle past a pair of Sumner’s all-state linebackers for a 33-yard touchdown, giving Lake Stevens a 14-3 lead.

“He went right by those two dudes and made them two guys (look) like they were standing still, and they are two of the best linebackers in the state,” Tri said. “And when I saw that, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve got a quarterback.’”

A self-described “traditionalist,” Tri is not a fan of running his quarterbacks very often, wanting to protect their health, but he also realizes limiting Moser’s mobility would be wasting his talent. That run gave Tri the confidence that Moser would make good decisions and protect the football. That he could lead the offense.

Since then, the Vikings still have not lost a game, improving to 8-0 with a 49-6 win against Kamiak on Oct. 24. They round out the regular season at home against Arlington on Friday, where a win would lock up the Wesco 4A title.

Win or lose, the Vikings have serious aspirations to compete for even bigger hardware as the state’s top-ranked 4A team. Taking the mantle from a predecessor that seemed impossible to live up to, Moser has made the transition seamless.

Moser, for his part, did not feel the nerves dissipate until the end of the first half against Sumner. He didn’t even truly feel like he started playing his game until the Vikings’ 49-14 win against Glacier Peak on Oct. 3 to improve to 5-0, which likely made him the last person involved with the program to feel that way.

According to teammates, they were sold on Moser at their camp at Central Washington University in June, where the offense continued its work on spacing, timing and all the other details while building chemistry. It didn’t take long for that to translate during game action.

“Since game one, he really stepped up as a young quarterback,” senior wide receiver Kekoa Okiyama said. “So that showed a lot. … He was taking some big hits. He wasn’t afraid to take a hit and get us a first down.”

Off the field, Moser displayed the leadership traits needed from the position right away, with teammates taking note of the way he held himself accountable for mistakes while also staying on top of teammates if the effort slipped below where it needed to be during practice.

“When they’re not going 100 percent, he notices it,” senior offensive lineman Caleb Connolly said. “He’s just really trying to do better for the team and get the team better.”

As much as Moser has grown into the role, he hasn’t had to shoulder the load himself. With a punishing defense and a deep offensive group, Lake Stevens has been in multiple games where Moser passed the ball fewer than 10 times.

Moser credits the coaching staff and everything they put into scheming and preparing the team each week as well as his offensive line’s effort in pass protection to make his job easier, which Tri echoed, pointing to the fact that Moser has only been sacked once all season.

Even with the support he has around him, Moser has still put his own mark on the program. His ability to extend plays with his legs has made the wide receivers unguardable, as it puts opposing cornerbacks in an “impossible” position of defending routes for upwards of eight seconds, according to Price, who believes that’s an element Moser brings more so than Matson did.

“Being able to get out of the pocket and try and keep his eyes down field,” Price said. “(Matson) could do that, too, but it’s just there’s a lot more of it this year.”

As the season has progressed and he’s gained more experience, Moser’s biggest point of growth has been in the mental side of the game. He believes his experience as a pitcher has translated into football when it comes to maintaining confidence in adverse situations.

“Baseball, I feel like that’s one of the most mental sports you can play,” Moser said. “Pitching especially, like I’ve been in big moments before where I’ve been stressed out, it’s been a lot on the mind. … So having baseball under my belt and coming into (playing) quarterback, that for sure has helped me with the mental aspect.”

With a loaded physical toolkit and a sharp mental capacity, Moser has combined the two to learn the plays, understand defensive coverages and execute at a high level.

As a result, Tri has felt comfortable expanding the playbook with more terminology, misdirections and motions because he knows his quarterback can handle it.

“We’re doing things that we weren’t doing with Kolton Matson when he was a freshman and sophomore in his first couple years as a starter,” Tri said. “(…) I haven’t felt like we’ve had to hold anything back at all, even though he’s only started eight games in his career.”

With Moser’s trajectory through the roof, the only thing working against him at the moment is the relative lack of experience, especially once the postseason rolls around. Moser got playing time at wide receiver last season during the Vikings’ run to the state quarterfinals due to injuries higher on the depth chart, but quarterback is a different animal.

The fact he already has wins against Sumner as well as a talented Bellevue squad (21-14 win on Sept. 12) gives the Vikings all the confidence that he’ll be able to handle the moment when it comes.

A chance to secure the league title on Friday will provide yet another building block.

“It really got us mentally prepared at the beginning of the year, and made us go through adversity,” Moser said about the tough opening slate. “To be able to beat big teams, that carries us through the year, and it gives us confidence and just gives us motivation to keep getting better, because we know there’s other teams out there.

“But we know we can compete with the best as well.”