Lake Stevens rallies in fourth quarter

By Aaron Coe

Herald Writer

STANWOOD — Another painful Stanwood loss was Lake Stevens’ gain Friday night.

The Spartans could easily be league contenders if a few things would have gone right this season when they needed it most. Counting the 28-21 Western Conference North Division loss to the Vikings at Stanwood High School, Stanwood has given up three fourth-quarter leads in the five games it has played.

Stanwood "is a very good football team," said Lake Stevens coach Ken Collins, whose team scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to improve to 4-0 in the division.

Stanwood dropped to 1-4, but just as easily could be 4-1, Collins stressed.

"They get better every week," Collins said of the Spartans. "I’m just glad we didn’t play them next week, or the week after that."

Justin Balunsat, who didn’t practice all week because of a slight knee sprain, looked just fine during his TD runs of 4, 44 and 3 yards in the final period. The 5-foot-8, 150-pound running back sped through the right side of the line on the 44-yarder and avoided an official to give the Vikings a 21-13 lead with 9:51 remaining.

His 4-yard TD had made it 14-13 Lake Stevens with 11:24 remaining in the contest.

Stanwood couldn’t move on its ensuing possession, but later got the ball back when Joe Christianson forced a Lake Stevens fumble with his third hard-hitting blindside sack of the game.

Stanwood then moved the ball down to the Lake Stevens’ 21, but wound up facing fourth-and-21 from the 36 after a couple of penalties.

No problem.

Jake Herigstad threw a desperation pass while being hit and found Justin Taylor in the end zone. He then passed to Joe Webb for the 2-point conversion to tie the score at 21 with 3:49 left.

But back came the Vikings with a 65-yard drive, capped by Balunsat’s 3-yard run to give Lake Stevens a 28-21 advantage with 1:04 left in the game.

The Vikings’ defense forced four incompletions to close out the victory.

"I think we took them a little lightly," said Balunsat, who finished with 89 yards on 17 carries. "We were 3-0 and they were 1-3 and we let it affect us. Coach (Collins) gave us an earful at halftime."

Stanwood used some trickery on its first offensive play of the game, and used four plays to take a 7-0 lead over the stunned Vikings.

It was no surprise to anyone when the Spartans’ standout tailback, Julian Bomar, took a pitch on Stanwood’s first play. But, Bomar surprised everyone but his teammates when he pulled up an threw a halfback pass to wide open teammate Jared Burke, who was hauled down from behind by Vikings speedster David Johnson after a gain of 36 yards.

After a short running play, fullback Joe Webb ran 29 yards up the middle then hauled in an 11-yard TD pass from Jake Herigstad 4:19 into the game.

Lake Stevens regrouped quickly, however, and drove 59 yards in eight plays for a 7-7 tie with 3:15 remaining in the first. Joey Daube capped the drive 1-yard TD plunge.

Stanwood’s Julian Bomar carried three times for 49 yards and Herigstad capped a 98-yard drive with his second TD pass of the game to Webb. The 2-yard bootleg pass gave the Spartans a 13-7 lead with 4:56 left in the half.

Herigstad was a perfect 4-for-4 for 61 yards in the half and finished the game 7-for-17 for 121 yards. The Vikings gained 134 yards in the first half, but lost yardage on seven of 27 plays.

The Spartans opened the second half with a promising drive, but Balunsat blocked Stanwood’s 25-yard attempt.

Canham completed seven of 12 passes for 127 yards. Daube gained 50 yards on nine attempts. Bomar gained 94 yards on 12 rushes.