Washington football powers Graham-Kapowsin and Lake Stevens to meet in the state playoffs — again
The Graham-Kapowsin and Lake Stevens high school football programs are set to meet in the Class 4A state playoffs this weekend.
Again.
Saturday night in Seattle, the No. 1 Eagles (13-0) and No. 2 Vikings (12-1) will take the field in this season’s 4A state championship game, in what will be the sixth meeting between the two powerhouse programs in the past eight state brackets.
4A SPSL champion Graham-Kapowsin is the only remaining undefeated 4A program in the state in 2023, while 4A Wesco champion Lake Stevens does not have an in-state loss this season, and is the defending 4A state champion.
Both teams feature high-scoring offenses, and have several players returning that have played in earlier editions of what has become a postseason rivalry in recent seasons.
“It does have that feel,” longtime Lake Stevens coach Tom Tri said this week. “Just because they know us and we know them.”
“Typically we meet each other pretty late in the year,” said second-year Graham-Kapowsin coach Jeff Logan, who was also previously a longtime assistant for the Eagles. “There’s usually a lot on the line. There’s a lot of emotions.”
This will be the seventh time overall the two programs have played each other in their histories.
The first, when Logan was a player for the Eagles and Tri was coaching at Lake Stevens, was back in 2006. In the first postseason game in Graham-Kapowsin’s history — the school opened in 2005 — Lake Stevens topped the Eagles, 24-21, in the district round.
Five 4A state playoffs meetings — in the 2015 quarterfinals, 2017 first round, 2018 quarterfinals, 2021 title game and 2022 semifinals — have followed.
“They’re obviously a really good team, and we’re trying to be the same way, and so it is somewhat inevitable that we’re going to cross paths,” Tri said.
“It’s a privilege to be able to play them as frequently as we do, because that means both of us are doing something right,” Logan said.
Kickoff for this season’s meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, in what sets up to be another thrilling entry in the series.
But, before that, here’s a look back at the first five meetings between Graham-Kapowsin and Lake Stevens in the state playoffs, which date back to 2015.
The Vikings currently lead the state series, 3-2.
2015 STATE QUARTERFINALS
Lake Stevens 49, Graham-Kapowsin 14
It was a sunny November afternoon when five-star quarterback Jacob Eason and Lake Stevens made a visit to Art Crate Field in Spanaway — and left with a convincing 49-14 win over Graham-Kapowsin in the first ever state meeting between the two programs.
Both teams entered that quarterfinals matchup undefeated, but it was the Vikings that advanced on to the semifinals.
Eason — who was later named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year, and went on to play at Georgia, later Washington, and was eventually selected in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL Draft — was 16-of-26 passing for 252 yards and four touchdowns in the contest.
“Some of those plays he made were incredible,” former Eagles coach Eric Kurle told The News Tribune that day. “He was like an NFL, athletic quarterback buying time and making throws. And he can make all of the throws.”
Riley Krenz had six catches for 112 yards and two touchdowns, while Brandon Otis and Ian Schneider also hauled in scoring catches from Eason in a game the Vikings eventually ran away with. Andrew Grimes added 21 carries for 290 yards and three scores on the ground.
“They ran it really well,” Logan said. “They were big and physical.”
And so Lake Stevens took the first lead in the state series.
“We upset them at their place,” Tri said. “I felt like we had a good team that year, and I felt good going into that game just based on our matchups.
“It was the beginning of that rivalry for sure.”
The loss ended the Eagles’ season at 11-1. Lake Stevens’ season ended at 12-1 the following week, with a 37-34 loss to Skyline in the semifinals.
2017 STATE FIRST ROUND
Graham-Kapowsin 38, Lake Stevens 31
Two seasons later, Graham-Kapowsin evened the state series at a game apiece — this time upending the Vikings by a touchdown in their home stadium.
The Eagles led, 21-10, at the break following a 93-yard scoring run from Micah Smith in the second quarter, and pushed the lead to as many as three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
“We were able to really control the ball on offense,” Logan said.
Lake Stevens quarterback Tre’ Long — filling in for regular starter Conor Bardue, who was injured two games earlier — threw for 449 yards in the game, and tossed a pair of touchdowns to Anthony Hutchinson in the final quarter to cut the lead to seven, but Graham-Kapowsin’s defense held on the Vikings’ final drive to close out the win.
“We put 30 points up on them, but they were very talented,” Tri said. “ … They were the same old G-K — physical, aggressive, really balanced, could run the ball, could throw the ball all over the field, had athletic receivers.”
Graham-Kapowsin quarterback Dylan Morris — who also started the first meeting against Lake Stevens as a freshman in 2015 — was 10-of-12 for 182 yards and two touchdowns in the win.
“It was back-and-forth, back-and-forth,” Logan said. “Dylan had made a couple more plays than they did, and we got out of there in 2017 with a victory.”
Smith added 207 rushing yards and two touchdowns for the Eagles, while Viliami Hansen had a rushing and receiving touchdown and Tre Mason III added a receiving score.
The loss was one of the few for Lake Stevens at home in recent years — the Vikings have lost only twice on their home field since, to Mount Si in the 2019 state quarterfinals, and to Oregon 6A power West Linn earlier this season in a nonleague contest.
Lake Stevens finished the season at 9-2, while Graham-Kapowsin ended the year at 10-2 following a 49-17 loss to Woodinville in the quarterfinals the following week.
2018 STATE QUARTERFINALS
Lake Stevens 45, Graham-Kapowsin 28
The Vikings took the series lead back the next year, when the two met again in Lake Stevens, this time in the quarterfinals.
Graham-Kapowsin led early on the first of two rushing touchdowns from Shabro Johnson, but Lake Stevens eventually took a 10-7 lead into the halftime break, and pushed the lead to as many as 25 points in the final quarter on the last of Dallas Landeros’ three second-half scoring runs.
“I thought that year we were just a little bit more physical, and we just decided at halftime that we were going to use our run game and wear them out and try to attack them in that way, and I think it worked out pretty well for us,” Tri said.
Landeros piled up 248 yards and the three rushing touchdowns on 33 carries in the win. Long was 10-of-14 for 242 yards and three touchdowns for the Vikings, while Ian Hanson had 162 receiving yards and two touchdown catches, and Kasen Kinchen the 54-yard scoring catch in the third that put Lake Stevens up two possessions for good.
“Again, one of those games that just kind of goes back and forth,” Logan said. “It seems like the team that can get up two scores first tends to end up hanging on, because we’ve both been so good offensively over the past 15-18 years now.”
Morris, a four-star passer who is now in his fifth season at UW, finished his final high school game 13-of-29 passing for 201 yards and a touchdown.
He also passed Eason on the state’s all-time passing yards list in his final game, finishing his career with 9,815, which placed him seventh in history at the time.
Graham-Kapowsin ended the season at 10-2, while Lake Stevens eventually advanced to the 4A state championship game two weeks later, ending the season at 13-1 following a 52-20 loss to Union.
2021 STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
Graham-Kapowsin 44, Lake Stevens 7
The first time these two programs played for a state championship, it was the Eagles who ran away with a win, closing out a dominant title run with a 44-7 victory on a rainy night at Mount Tahoma Stadium in Tacoma.
Graham-Kapowsin ran for 506 yards and six touchdowns on 60 rushing attempts in the decisive victory, led by two touchdowns each from quarterback Joshua Wood and running backs Zackary Lee and Michael Toa.
“We knew that running the football was going to be what we had to do really well, and ended up setting the state rushing record for a single game in the state title game,” Logan said.
The title win was the first in program history for Graham-Kapowsin, which went on to complete a perfect 15-0 season with a thrilling, 40-36, win over nationally-ranked Georgia 7A champion Collins Hill in the GEICO State Champions Bowl Series in Las Vegas later that December.
“They were the most talented team in the state that year,” Tri said. “I think they proved that when they won the GEICO Bowl (game).”
Wood was later named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year, and is now in his second season at Fresno State.
Graham-Kapowsin also sent several more seniors to Division I programs from that championship-winning team, including offensive lineman Vega Ioane (Penn State), tight end Andrew Savaiinaea (Florida), wide receiver Julian Mason (Idaho State) and linemen Curtis and Hunter Hill (Idaho State).
Lake Stevens ended the season at 10-1, and set to return several playmakers the following fall.
2022 STATE SEMIFINALS
Lake Stevens 42, Graham-Kapowsin 28
The Vikings surely remembered the 2021 championship game when Graham-Kapowsin visited Lake Stevens in the semifinals last fall.
“It was on our mind all week,” Tri said. “We had two goals in mind — one, you get a little redemption from the previous year, and two, get back to a state championship.
“Our kids were highly motivated last year in that semifinal game, for sure. All week of practice they were amped up.”
The game was close at the break, with the Eagles carrying an 18-14 lead into halftime, but Vikings running back Jayden Limar rushed for three third-quarter touchdowns, and added a 22-yard scoring pass to Isaac Redford in the fourth to lift Lake Stevens to an eventual 14-point victory.
“We played really well last year,” Tri said. “Jayden Limar carried us.”
Limar, who went on to win the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year award and is now at Oregon, rushed for 145 yards and five touchdowns on 21 carries in the victory, and added the one scoring pass.
“You can see why Jayden won Gatorade state player of the year,” Logan said. “He was incredible for them. And then obviously he played another really good game the following week in the state title game.”
Lake Stevens went on to complete a 12-2 season the following weekend with the program’s first 4A state title, winning a close 24-22 contest over Kennedy Catholic at Mount Tahoma Stadium in Tacoma.
