HS Football: Lakes Lancers spoil new KW Conks HC debut with 50-23 victory

Lakes 50, Kentwood 23
9/2/2022

(Kent, WA) The Lakes Lancers were facing a familiar face on a new sideline Friday night when their former assistant coach Matt Roth led the Kentwood Conquerers out onto the field as their new Head Football Coach. The Lancers players and staff were happy for their former coach to get a shot like this but they were in no mood to give them a win to begin his new career.

Lakes came out firing and looked strong in all aspects except for penalties which took literally several hundred yards of offense and kick yardage off the board. Despite the mistakes they built a 28-7 halftime lead. After a nice drive to the Conks 2 on their opening possession the drive was stalled and they turned it over on downs back inside the 5.

Kentwood then had a high snap on their 1st play and the ball eventually went out the back of the end zone and Lakes took a 2-0 lead on the safety. The Lancers then received the kick-off and began on their own 44 yard line. They drove it down to the 12 when Freshman QB Legend Galeai took a low snap that hit the ground and instead of just falling on the ball calmly picked it up and tossed a floater to Leo Pulalasi who grabbed it turned and plowed into the end zone for the score. Kalum Ford added the PAT and it was 9-0.

Kentwood then answered with their most impressive drive of the game which began on their own 42. The Conks mixed it up with QB Anthony Tucker spreading the ball around and Antoine Lee finishing it off with a 2 yard run off a draw play. Shayden Phillip kicked the PAT and it was a game 9-7.

Lakes didn’t flinch and answered with a 54-yard drive and capped it with Pulalasi’s 2nd TD of the game running it in from 6 yards out, the extra point failed and it was 15-7. The next series the Lancer defense made what we thought was the play-of-the-game in a game with tons of plays-of-the-game. Kentwood was looking to keep their offense flowing when Tucker threw a short pass but the ball bounced off the receiver and a heads up E’lijah McChristian snatched the loose ball and sped 39 yards for the pick 6. The 2 point try failed and the score was 21-7.

The Lakes defense wasn’t done as they knocked Tucker out of the game near the end of the half and Phillip came in to run the offense but was sacked and stripped of the ball on their own 1 yard line. Pulalasi came in and they lined up in the wildcat and he burst in for the score, his 3rd of the game and they went to the break leading 28-7.

In the 3rd Kentwood came out with a strong drive but the Lancer defense would stiffen and the Conks turned it over on downs. The Lancers then began on their own 32 and marched down the field topped off by a nifty 19-yard scamper from Ki’Marree Washington into the end zone with 7:10 to go in the 3rd. On the PAT we’re still not sure if it was a planned fake or if holder David Wells had planned to pull up and toss a little pass to Chayanne Fonti-Savea for the 2-point conversion, planned fake or just an excellent fire drill either way it worked and Lakes was up 36-7.

The impressive thing for Kentwood on this night was how they never gave up and Coach Roth will find plenty of good things to point out as they work to correct their mistakes. Tucker who was out of the game at the end of the half came back in the 2nd half and ran the offense with a new confidence and they did move the ball well against a tough Lancer defense.

The Conks scored on the following possession when Antoine Lee powered in from the 4 yard line. Lee who we had for negative yardage in the 1st half came out running in the 2nd and quickly got to the positive side and at one point had him at 85 yards. Our unofficial numbers had him end with 79 yards on 23 carries and the touchdown.

KW’s also Tucker continued to take big hits but he refused to back down and would score their final touchdown on a 7 yard scramble into the teeth of the Lancer defense and trailed at that time 43-21. The Conks defense would actually get a safety of their own which is how they got to 23.

Lakes’ last two touchdowns when they took over on the Conks 30 and Galeai ran down the near sideline for 29 and half yards just missing a rushing TD, Pulalasi came in again at the wildcat and punished the defense with his 4th TD of the game.

The with 2:41 left to play the Lancers got the ball again on the Kentwood 46. 1st play was a handoff to Washington who ran it down to the 24 yard line. Next play Washington finished what he started and ran in for a 24-yard TD to make it 50-23.

Our MVP award went to Ki’Marree Washington as we had him for 159 yards and 2 touchdowns but he also had at least 10-150 yards of rushing and return yards wiped off the scoresheet due to penalties. The award could have easily gone to several Lancers including Frosh QB Legend Galeai, Pulalasi for his 4 TD’;s but also on defense.

A few other standouts to us were Elijah Comoza who was a beast on defense with several sacks and big on the offensive line as well. E’lijah McChristian’s pick 6, Chayanne Fonti-Savea was big on defense, David Wells, Chris Macon and Matai Sarte also made some big plays for the Lancers.

For Kentwood players that shined for us included the toughness and grittiness of Anthony Tucker, Antoine Lee especially how hard he ran in the 2nd half, Palamveer Dhaliwal, Jabez Tuaoa and Brandon Bail stuck out to us. But we thought Damian Alvarez was especially outstanding on defense. Alvarez got the assignment of covering Oregon State commit David Wells and kept him under wraps for the most part which is not an easy thing to do. Wells is an extremely talented WR and part of it was still getting in synch with his new QB but Alzarez made it especially difficult and had an excellent game.

Lakes is now 1-0 and will host River Ridge next Saturday night. Kentwood now 0-1 will look to bounce back on the road at Peninsula next Thursday night.