In a rare Saturday night game, the Lake Stevens Vikings football team played their toughest game of the season against the Graham-Kapowsin Eagles in the first round of the state playoffs at Lake Stevens High School, but despite having the upper hand on the offensive side of the ball and on penalties, they come up short to end their season with a 38-31 loss to the Eagles.

The game didn’t start well for the Vikings, as, after a fumble, the Eagles get on the board with an 8-yard run by senior Micah Smith to take a 7-0 lead with 10:24 left in the first quarter.

But the Vikings never backed down after the fumble, and scored on a 6-play, 80-yard drive on a 7-yard run by senior Austin Calvin to tie the game at 7 with 9:19.

After a 45-yard kickoff return by the Eagles to start the ensuing drive, they retake the lead on a 36-yard touchdown (TD) pass from junior quarterback Dylan Morris to senior Tre Mason to make it 14-7 with 8:16 left in the first quarter. After a 24-yard field goal by Lake Stevens junior Brock Widmann, the first quarter ends in a 14-10 G-K lead.

Then, just when Lake Stevens has the advantage on the Eagles, tragedy struck the lake.

With 8:13 left in the first half, Lake Stevens junior quarterback Tre Long throws a floater pass to senior running back Kayshawn Mounarath, who was wide open in the middle of the field. After bobbling the ball a couple times, he runs towards the right sideline, where he’s tripped up by a Graham-Kapowsin defender and steps out of bounds at the 3 yard line for a 54-yard pass play.

On the next play, the Vikings fumble the ball on the handoff from Long to Mounarath, and the Eagles recover it on their own 8 yard line. To make things worse for the Vikings, on the first play of the drive for the Eagles, Micah Smith scores on a 92-yard run to make the score, and eventual halftime score, 21-10 Eagles.

The start of the second half started the same, but the places were switched, as Graham-Kapowsin fumbles the ball in their own territory, and Lake Stevens responds with an 8-yard run by Mounarath to trim the Eagles’ lead to 21-17 with 10:02 left in the third quarter.

The Eagles, continuing their pattern of scoring after a Viking’s touchdown, increase their lead once again with Dylan Morris’ second touchdown pass of the night, as the UW-bound junior throws a 9-yard pass to senior Villami Hansen to make the score 28-17 with 8:55 left in the third quarter. After a 24-yard field goal by senior Colin Manners, the third quarter comes to a close with a 31-17 G-K lead.

The fourth quarter immediately starts with another Eagle touchdown, as Hansen runs it in from 9 yards out to make it 38-17 Eagles seven seconds into the quarter. That’s when Lake Stevens started to come back.

Lake Stevens made it 38-24 after Long throws a 10-yard pass in the back of the end zone to senior wide receiver Anthony Hutchinson with 5:31 left in the game.

After a Graham-Kapowsin punt, Lake Stevens was at it again, this time it was another touchdown pass from Long to Hutchinson, this time it was from 31 yards and no defender was within 15 yards of Hutchinson when he made the catch, to make it 38-31 Eagles with 3:00 left in the game.

Once again, the Eagles punt the ball into the end zone, and the Vikings had to start at their own 20 yard line, down by 7, with 35 seconds left in the game. After a couple good pass plays near the sideline to stop the clock at 27 seconds, the Vikings were called on a holding penalty, which stopped their chances of scoring for good, and ended the game with a 38-31 Graham-Kapowsin victory.

Tre Long had the game of his life, completing 25 of 41 passes for 461 yards, throwing two touchdown passes and one interception. Long also led the team in rushing with 13 carries for 45 yards despite getting sacked 5 times. Austin Murren led the team in receiving, catching 8 passes for 190 yards.