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QuickTake:
The defending state champion Lakers looked the part in dismantling the Wolverines in the season opener for both squads.
Aside from a one-minute spell at the end of the first half which resulted in its only score, Willamette never found its rhythm Friday in a curtain-raising battle between two of 6A’s best recent programs.
Reigning 6A state champion Lake Oswego thrashed the Wolverines at home in a dominant 34-7 win. Willamette quarterback Zeke Thomas (106 passing yards, touchdown, two interceptions) and safety Amir Harris provided brief escapes from the Lakers’ easy scoring drives with a touchdown drive and an interception, respectively, but the Wolverines are now 0-1, and decisively so.
“The bottom line is right now they’re just a better program — a better team,” Willamette head coach Josh Line said. “I’m not sitting here now wishing we hadn’t played, but we had some positive things tonight. We had some great performances by individual players that I’m really excited about. But that doesn’t matter if we don’t put something together as a team.”
Lake Oswego scored three times in its first four drives to build a dominant 21-0 lead by the midpoint of the second quarter. Twice, the Lakers put haymakers back-to-back to decimate the Wolverine defense and leave them chasing.
The Lakers opened the scoring when quarterback Ryder Lemm (285 passing yards, four touchdowns) recovered from a sack to convert on fourth-and-goal from the 22-yard line.
Lemm put together back-to-back 35- and 33-yard completions — the first a catch-and-run before Presley DeLance rose to snag a well-thrown post route — to double the Lake Oswego lead.
“He’s legit,” Line said of DeLance. “He’s the real deal.”
Willamette promptly went three-and-out and handed the ball back to Lemm, who took possession with glee. This time, it was a 25-yard rushing burst which teed up a shot to Jasiah Agnimel. The wideout ripped the go ball from the air and stomped his feet by the pylon to extend the Lakers’ lead to 21 points.
After a goal-line interception by Harris kept the Lakers at bay and Willamette stalled again, the Wolverines got the ball back with one minute left in the half. Thomas drove his squad down the field and jump-started the offense with a 18-yard screen completion to Zuzi Alwineyan (56 rushing yards, 13 receiving) and the first of two defensive pass interference penalties of the series.
The second came with five seconds remaining and the Wolverines 15 yards from the end zone. The teams traded timeouts before Thomas chose a decisive in-breaking route over the middle and hit Knox Smith in the hands for Willamette’s first score of the night.
“[Thomas] got his butt kicked all night, and never took it — I could barely get him out of the game,” Line said. “He wouldn’t come out. The kid’s a leader, a tough competitor. If I was somebody watching him tonight, I would be more impressed with his handling of the adversity more than anything else.”
That scoring drive was the last time Thomas felt rhythm.
Both sides were beleaguered by presnap penalties and poor snaps, but Thomas was hit over and over again as he rolled from the pocket to seek completions to no avail. Lake Oswego extended its advantage with a second Lemm touchdown pass to Elijah and a 62-yard Elijah pick-six which saw him celebrate his way into the end zone.
“I think it was hard to get into that rhythm because they’re just really well coached and they had a good scheme against us,” Thomas said. “There were some moments where we got that groove and just kind of lost it. I think, moving forward in this season, something that we could work on is once we get in a groove, we’ve just got to capitalize and continue on.”
Willamette heads to Silverton Sept. 4.
Other scores
Friday, Aug. 28
- Thurston 20, Sheldon 17
- Lake Oswego 34, Willamette 7
- Canby 49, Churchill 22
- Siuslaw-Mapleton 44, Coquille 0
- North Eugene at South Albany, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 29
- Ione-Arlington at McKenzie, 1 p.m.
