For the last few years, the rivalry between the Lake Stevens Vikings and the Monroe Bearcats’ varsity football teams has been the pinnacle of high profile excellence in the Wesco Conference, but has also been one-sided, as the Vikings have been dominating the Bearcats, winning their last 5 games, including their last 2 for the Wesco championship, but even though the result was the same, it was more of a fair fight from both sides.

Even though Monroe was led with their passing attack, Lake Stevens just had enough power from both sides to hold off the hungry Bearcats 49-31 at Monroe High School for their first conference game, as not only was the stadium packed, but it was also packed with action as well.

Unlike the last few games, where the Vikings have struck first and never looked back, it was Monroe who got on the board with a 57-yard touchdown (TD) pass on their first drive to take a 7-0 lead, but Lake Stevens responds on their first drive with a 3-yard touchdown run by senior Tom Lewis to tie the game at 7 with 5:48 left in the first quarter, but what happens next catches everyone by surprise.

On the ensuing kickoff, instead of a normal kick with a long hang time before being caught, senior Brock Widmann instead kicks a squib kick to the right side of the field, bounces past a couple of Monroe returners before being recovered by Lewis on the Monroe 35-yard line, who later runs for another Vikings touchdown to end the first quarter with a 14-7 Vikings lead.

After both teams exchanged punts to start the second quarter, Lake Stevens scores on another rushing touchdown, this time by junior Dallas Landeros from 8 yards out to take a 21-7 lead and, after a Monroe rushing touchdown cut the lead to 21-14, the Vikings respond with a huge 55-yard pass play from senior quarterback Tre Long to junior Kasen Kinchen to give the Vikings a 28-14 lead to try and keep the game out of reach and would go into the locker room with a 35-14 lead after a 9-yard touchdown (TD) run by Long.

Even though this game was closer than past meetings, Lake Stevens wasn’t going to keep it close for long, as the Vikings get on the board first in the second half with a 16-yard touchdown run by Landeros, his second of the game, to make it a 42-14 game early in the third quarter.

Monroe quickly responds with another passing touchdown to make it 42-21, but not before the Vikings end the quarter with another rushing touchdown by Long, this time for 8 yards to make it 49-21.

Although the fourth quarter ended in Monroe’s favor, the Vikings were able to keep the Bearcats offense at bay, keeping them only to a field goal and a touchdown with 1:49 left in the game to make the score 49-31 at the end of regulation.

Long finished the night completing 10 of 15 passes for 150 yards, throwing a touchdown pass and an interception, bringing his total up to completing 40 of 61 passes for 486 yards and  5 touchdowns through two games, while Dallas Landeros had a career night on the ground, carrying the ball 24 times for a team-leading 244 yards and two touchdowns and with only two catches for 71 yards, Kinchen leads the team in receiving to go with the 55-yard touchdown pass.

The Lake Stevens Vikings, who entered this game tied for 4th in the latest Associated Press (AP) 4A Rankings, moves up to 3-0 and beats the Bearcats for the sixth consecutive season and for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons, with the only loss being a 9-7 Monroe victory in 2013 at Lake Stevens High School, while the Bearcats move down to 0-3 after losing back-to-back games against teams from the Kingco Conference.

Next week, your Lake Stevens Vikings will put their 32-game conference winning streak on the line as they play on the road once again, this time against the Mount Vernon Bulldogs on September 21st, who also enter this game with an undefeated 3-0 record after beating Cascade 52-6 in their first conference game.