12/4/2025

When talking about patterns and streaks in all sporting events you can many times find odd or coincidental runs of results. However, the road to the Washington 4A State Football Championship is getting plain weird and it’s all tied to an Oregon high school.

West Linn high school is about 20 miles south of Portland and has been a team that Washington schools have been wanting to schedule in their non-league schedule to give their team a big early test.

Lake Stevens scheduled a home and home series in 2022 and 2023. The Vikings lost both of those games but ended up winning the 4A State Championship both years beating Kennedy Catholic in 2022, 24-22 and Graham-Kapowsin in 2023, 31-6.

West Linn at Sumner 2025

Sumner then got West Linn on their schedule in 2024 in which they lost only to go on to win the 4A State Championship 27-24 over Camas. The Spartans hosted West Linn this season and again lost to the Lions and last week stunned undefeated and #1 seed Puyallup for a chance to defend their title against….Lake Stevens.

So far, 3 losses to West Linn have equaled a 4A Washington State Football Championship. And now Sumner has lost again to West Linn and finds themselves back in the big game on Saturday. 

Is that enough of a coincidence for you? Well, we’re just getting started… look at this pattern over the last 4 years and then you can make your guess as to which team will win on Saturday.

In 2022, West Linn beat Lake Stevens and then went on to beat Central Catholic HS in the Oregon semifinals. The Lions finished off the season with a 6A Oregon State Championship with a win over Sheldon HS. Lake Stevens won the 4A Washington Championship 24-22 over Kennedy Catholic.

Lake Stevens 2023 Champs

In 2023, West Linn beat Lake Stevens but lost in the Oregon semifinals to Central Catholic 12-7. Lake Stevens won the 4A Washington Title beating Graham-Kapowsin, 31-6.

In 2024, West Linn beat Sumner and then beat Central Catholic in the semifinals before defeating Lake Oswego for the 6A Title. Sumner beat Camas 27-24 for the 4A Washington Championship.

In 2025, West Linn again beats Sumner. West Linn then loses again in the semifinals to…..yes, Central Catholic 21-14, another close game just like they did in year 2 with Lake Stevens.

One question is left to answer and that is can Sumner go back-to-back just like their opponent Lake Stevens did in 2022 and 2023? Or will the Vikings be able to snap this strange reliance on losing to West Linn as a pathway to the Washington 4A Championship?

If the pattern holds it is not good news for Lake Stevens and in fact the pattern would hint that Sumner would win easy. The pattern had Lake Stevens winning a tight one against Kennedy Catholic 24-22 then cruising to their 2nd title 31-6 over G-K in 2023.

Sumner held that pattern in their win last year squeezing out a 27-24 win over Camas which logically means they will repeat and it will be by a comfortable margin on Saturday.

If this indeed happens you would think every 4A school in Washington State would want to get West Linn on their schedule and oddly get them on there to lose and not beat the Lions.

Lake Stevens can put an end to this deep state conspiracy with their 3rd title in 4 years. A Spartan win of any kind I think we can all agree will certainly continue this weird string of games and make us wonder what the 4A classification did to tick off the witch doctor who cast this Voodoo spell.

The answer will be known by Saturday night as #2 ranked Lake Stevens takes on #5 Sumner at Husky Stadium at 7pm.

www.elisportsnetwork.com

By paulb

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