Lake Stevens football thumps Kamiakin in State opener

Published 8:12 pm Saturday, November 15, 2025

LAKE STEVENS — The Lake Stevens football team took its time getting into a rhythm against the 3-6 Woodinville Falcons last week to open the postseason, leading by just seven at the half. Saturday saw the No. 2 Vikings (11-0) put their pedal to the metal from minute in to minute out in their state playoffs first round matchup with No. 15 Kamiakin.

Lake Stevens got out to a 41-0 lead in the first half, recovering from a fumble on the first play from scrimmage to watch junior star quarterback Blake Moser sling five TDs while the defense forced five turnovers. By the end of the afternoon, the scoreboard read 55-14, pushing the Vikings to a quarterfinal matchup with No. 7 Moses Lake as head coach Tom Tri’s squad kicked off its bid at its third state title in four years.

Things didn’t look so dominant in the early going, as Lake Stevens fumbled on the first play from scrimmage to put the Vikings defense in a pinch early. On the fourth play of the drive, Braves quarterback Jagger McEwen went for the drive’s killing blow on a throw over the middle to the endzone.

Vikings senior defensive back Brian Tilghman saw it from a mile away, high-pointing the ball for a touchdown-preventing interception. While the Vikings would punt, Tilghman’s play proved to be a key moment in canceling out the early miscue by the offense.

The Braves put together another long drive on the ensuing possession, going for it on 4th and 8 at Lake Stevens’ 28. That was when junior lineman Ty Tautolo and senior Kenny Buckmiller combined for a quick sack to put an end to the opportunity. The pass rush would only get more disruptive as the afternoon wore on.

“We came out as an offense and we started slow, but our defense was able to come out and get a turnover and give us the ball back over and over and over,” Moser said after the game. “That’s really why we were able to score 55 tonight.”

Moser and company got started after the timely sack, beginning a streak of TDs on three consecutive completions with a 10-yard strike to Okiyama over the middle on a designed rollout right.

After a Kamiakin three-and-out, the Vikings felt comfortable instilling their game plan — attack the deep space in the middle of the field left by the Braves’ two-high safety look. Sophomore Maxten Cook found himself assigned to run a seam route on the first play of the drive, and was led through the heart of the Kamiakin defense by Moser for a 58-yard strike to blow the game open at 13-0.

After Tilghman ended another three-and-out drive with a last-second pass breakup at the sticks, Moser reloaded. This time, it was junior Seth Price running free up the seam, as he hauled in another ball in stride to make it 20-0 by the end of the first quarter.

Despite the demoralizing blows his team just landed, Tri wasn’t ready to declare it a blowout just yet. The Vikings took a hit directly to the ball, fumbling to give the Braves another chance.

That was when sophomore DB Akio Yonesaka made his presence felt, blowing up two plays for a loss on the next drive before diving for an interception that went through a Kamiakin receiver’s hands.

“That really catapulted us to just playing great,” Yonesaka said of the Vikings’ third forced turnover of the night. “We were just hype and we were just going crazy.”

With the Braves defense backed up to prevent more long balls, the Vikings went to the ground. A 30-yard jetsweep from Okiyama and an 11-yard TD scamper from junior running back Jayvian Ferrell made it 27-0 midway through the second to capitalize on Yonesaka’s heads-up play.

“I was like, ‘We got them now,’ because we can run the ball, we can throw the ball, we got them on their heels,” Tri said.

With the offense firing on all cylinders, Yonesaka broke up a pass for the Vikings defense, sending the ball to senior defensive lineman Will Lynch, who rumbled into Braves territory.

The last score of the half, Moser’s fourth. pic.twitter.com/2E7bakljCS

— Qasim Ali (@qasimasports) November 16, 2025

Ferrell then scored from 36 yards out, and after another fumble recovered by junior Kayden Blanchard, Moser found senior tight end Grayson Eggers to make it 41-0 at the half.

With a running clock, Tri and his staff were ready to pull the starters early in the third. But the Braves had other plans, breaking off a long screen courtesy of junior Korbyn Hopwood to set up their first points on a trick play throw back to McEwen.

The Vikings weren’t phased, trotting out their starters once more. Moser hit Price on a go route down the right sideline after converting on fourth down to make it 48-7. Moser exited the game having thrown for five TDs in just 10 drives, while Ferrell found the end zone twice.

The reserves engineered some success of their own for Lake Stevens, as sophomore Deuce Wilson took a jet-sweep in on the first play of the fourth to make it 55-7 as the game came to a close. The Vikings finished with 219 yards on the ground, giving the team nearly 750 rushing yards in its past two contests, while Moser finished with 215 yards through the air.

“It gives our kids confidence to know that if we execute and play the way we’re capable of, that we can put a lot of points up on the board and shut down opposing offenses,” Tri said of the dominant victory. “In reality, we’ve still got to start 0-0 against Moses Lake next week.”

The No. 7 Mavericks feature a three-star Montana-commit in QB Brady Jay, and Tri is looking for more of the same from his defense to counter.

“We’re going to have to find a way to get pressure on them, we’re going to have to cover well and do kind of what we did tonight,” Tri said.

Moser is confident his unit can keep evolving to match their upcoming opponent.

“We’re getting better every week; we haven’t reached our full potential yet,” Moser said.