Lake Stevens wins back-and-forth contest against Kennedy Catholic to secure 4A state title

Lake Stevens High School won a back-and-forth contest Saturday night to secure the Class 4A state championship with a 24-22 win over Kennedy Catholic.

One season after finishing as the runner-up to South Sound power Graham-Kapowsin, the Vikings returned to Mount Tahoma Stadium in Tacoma — and this time completed their season by lifting the 4A trophy.

Macray Flanders kicked the winning 22-yard field goal for Lake Stevens with 5:13 remaining, and the Vikings’ defense forced a punt and a turnover on downs on the Lancers’ final two drives to close out the victory.

“It’s a long time coming,” said Lake Stevens running back Jayden Limar, a Notre Dame commit. “My team was able to get this thing done, first time in school history. It’s amazing.

“It was a fight. Things happen in a championship game you never expect. You’re getting a team’s absolute best. We knew it was gonna be a battle, but as long as you fight back from it, I knew we could and we got it done.”

The field goal was the final of six lead changes during the contest.

Lake Stevens got on the board first midway through the first quarter, efficiently driving down the field following a quick interception from Ashten Henrickson on the game’s opening possession.

Limar collected six carries on the seven-play scoring drive, including the 5-yard touchdown that gave the Vikings their early 7-0 lead.

The score remained there until there were less than five minutes remaining the second half.

Lake Stevens drove to the Kennedy Catholic 30 on a pair of long runs from Limar, and seemed in position to add on before halftime. But, Mason Hayes brought down Vikings quarterback Kolton Matson in the backfield, Arizona State commit Xe’ree Alexander scooped up the fumble and ran it back 64 yards for a score, and the Lancers evened the game at 7-7.

“He’s such a good player, he’s amazing,” Kennedy Catholic coach Sheldon Cross said of Alexander.

The Vikings regained the lead less than three minutes later, when Matson connected with Isaac Redford for a 16-yard touchdown to complete a nine-play drive with 1:25 left in the half.

The Lancers’ offense didn’t reach the end zone until the final minute of the quarter, but gave Kennedy Catholic a lead entering the break after completing a quick three-play scoring drive with 38.4 seconds remaining in the half.

Payton Faker entered the game at quarterback for the drive in place of Devon Forehand, and connected with Hayes, Nate Barnes and Maclane Watkins on consecutive passes — the final to Watkins for a 31-yard touchdown — to give the Lancers their 15-14 lead.

Lake Stevens took the lead back in the final seconds of the third quarter when Cole Becker hauled in a short pass from Matson across the middle and outran the defense down the left sideline for a 23-yard touchdown to make it 21-15.

Again, the Lancers responded on the ensuing drive. This time a 53-yard connection between Faker and Isaac Syph gave Kennedy Catholic a quick red zone opportunity. Alexander then carried the ball on four consecutive plays, eventually completing the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.

The Lancers took a 22-21 lead on Hayes’ extra point attempt with 10:32 left, but were held scoreless the rest of the way.

Kennedy Catholic forced a quick three-and-out on Lake Stevens’ next drive, but the Vikings’ defense responded by forcing a Lancers turnover on downs at midfield with 8:34 to play.

The Vikings drove to the Kennedy Catholic 5 on the next seven plays, and Flanders kicked the go-ahead field goal with 5:13 to play.

“That was huge,” Limar said. “The whole game, I was telling everybody, if we can start scoring on offense, this game’s been done. We knew that our defense was killing it. Thank God we were able to go put some points on the board after that drive.”

Lake Stevens sacked Faker twice on back-to-back plays to stymie the Lancers’ ensuing drive, causing a quick punt, but Kennedy Catholic got the ball back immediately, after Alexander caused a fumble on the first play of the Vikings’ possession and Dante Saldino recovered with 3:22 to go.

The Lancers drove as far as the Lake Stevens 49, but turned the ball over on downs following three consecutive incompletions with 1:55 left.

Limar carried the ball on four consecutive plays, including picking up a first down on a 9-yard direct snap on third-and-3, to secure the win and Lake Stevens ran out the clock.

“What a grind,” said Lake Stevens coach Tom Tri, who won his first state title on Saturday. “That’s a great football team. They had a great gameplan against us. Our kids were just fighting, they kept fighting the whole time and we found a way to put enough points on the board to win the game.”

Last year, Lake Stevens fell to juggernaut Graham-Kapowsin in the 4A state championship game, 44-7. That game was also held at Mount Tahoma. A year later, the postgame mood was a bit different.

“It’s 365 days coming,” Tri said. “We came here last year and didn’t put a very good game on against Graham-Kapowsin. We talked about it every day at practice, our ultimate goal is to go down back to Mount Tahoma and go win a state championship. That was our No. 1 goal all year long. Here we are, we found a way to do it.”

The Vikings finished with 343 yards of total offense, led by Limar, who had 185 rushing yards and the one touchdown on 33 carries. Matson finished 14-of-25 passing for 182 yards and the two touchdowns to Redford and Becker, while Redford (six catches, 79 yards) and Cassidy Bolong-Banks (three catches, 58 yards) led Lake Stevens in receiving.

Limar suffered an ankle sprain in the team’s semifinal win over Graham-Kapowsin a week earlier, but nothing was going to keep him out of Saturday’s championship game.

“I had a pretty bad high ankle sprain,” he said. “I wasn’t able to walk for two, three days, but I was able to fight through that and come out here and play, and play decent. So I’m really glad for that.”

Kennedy Catholic finished with 234 yards of total offense. Alexander led the Lancers in rushing with 14 carries for 45 yards, added three catches for 45 yards and finished with 213 all-purpose yards. Faker paced Kennedy Catholic through the air, completing 7-of-20 passes for 155 yards and the one touchdown. Hayes (five catches, 66 yards), Syph (three catches, 51 yards), Alexander and Watkins (two catches, 40 yards) led the Lancers in receiving.

Lake Stevens has now reached the championship game in three of the past four 4A brackets, but until Saturday night, was still searching for its first title.

The Vikings finished runner-up an undefeated Union team in the Tacoma Dome back in 2018, then to undefeated Graham-Kapowsin last fall.

This was the second trip to a state championship game in Kennedy Catholic’s history — and first in 4A — but the Lancers have yet to win their first title. Kennedy Catholic reached the 3A final in 2006, but lost to Bellevue.