EVERETT – After a woeful first half Friday night, Lake Stevens High football coach Tom Tri scribbled two gruesome numbers on the chalkboard inside his team’s visitor locker room at Everett Memorial Stadium.
The forgettable figures were four and one, representing the mind-boggling four lost fumbles and one interception that Tri’s Vikings coughed up in the first 24 minutes of a Western Conference North Division game against the Cascade Bruins.
“Do you guys expect to win when you turn the ball over like that?” Tri asked his charges. Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
The obvious response was “No.” But the unexpected response, at least for most bystanders, was Lake Stevens’ second-half eruption that ended in a 20-10 comeback victory and spoiled Cascade’s homecoming.
Jon Rossi (21 carries for 173 yards) scored two touchdowns in the second half and quarterback Keefe Driscoll threw a 33-yard TD pass to David McMurray as the Vikings outscored a favored Cascade team 20-0 over the final 24 minutes. Daryl Marlo, a dominant two-way lineman, opened up massive running lanes and spearheaded a resilient Lake Stevens defense that stuffed Cascade throughout the second half.
Lake Stevens evened its record at 3-3 in division and overall – not bad for a program that went 2-7 last season. According to Tri, a first-year head coach, the key Friday night was not getting too down after an ugly first half.
“We didn’t get mad at our guys,” said Tri, whose team plays host to Snohomish (2-3, 3-3) next Friday. ” … The bottom line was, we felt like we could move the ball if we took care of it.
“We just challenged them,” Tri said of his halftime remarks, “and said, ‘Hey, you’re lucky to be down 10-nothing. We’re still in the football game, and we’ve got a chance.”
Issac Molstre, a speedy sophomore back who perfectly complemented Rossi’s more bullish running style, racked up 104 yards for Lake Stevens.
Cascade back J.P. Oliver scored his team’s only touchdown. He rushed a game-high 27 times for 123 yards, but the Bruins squandered too many opportunities in the first half and slipped to 3-2, 4-2. Despite benefiting from all the early Lake Stevens miscues, Cascade managed just 10 points.
“We definitely needed to capitalize,” Cascade quarterback Dirk Snel said. “That’s totally the reason that we lost this game. … We can’t put it in the end zone, and then they come out in the second half all fired up.”
Injuries have hit the Bruins hard – at least five Cascade starters missed all or significant parts of Friday’s game – but Snel thinks he and his teammates underestimated Lake Stevens.
“We need to get more pumped up before the game,” said Snel, who kicked a 30-yard field goal in the first half. “We came out this game and we thought we were going to roll over them. They came out in the second half and took it to us.”
In the second quarter, as rain pummeled the turf, the teams combined for an astonishing seven turnovers. Lake Stevens gave up the ball five times, including four fumbles – two of which directly led to 10 Cascade points.
In a bizarre three-minute sequence, the teams coughed up five turnovers. The fourth one, a Lake Stevens lateral recovered by Cascade’s Travis Warren, set up the Bruins’ first touchdown. Oliver (18 carries for 74 yards in the first half) capped a 17-yard scoring drive with a 5-yard plunge up the middle that put Cascade ahead 7-0.
At Everett Memorial Stadium
Lake Stevens00146-20
Cascade01000-10
Cascade-Oliver 5 run (Snel kick)
Cascade-FG Snel 30
Lake Stevens-Rossi 6 run (Steinruck kick)
Lake Stevens-McMurray 33 pass from K. Driscoll (Steinruck kick)
Lake Stevens-Rossi 11 run (Steinruck kick blocked)
Records-Lake Stevens 3-3 in division and overall. Cascade 3-2, 4-2.
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