High school football roundup: Life Christian escapes with win over Annie Wright
Results, recaps and more from Week 5 high school football contests around the South Sound will be posted on this page on Thursday night. Looking for more scores? Find them on our statewide scoreboard here.
LIFE CHRISTIAN 22, ANNIE WRIGHT 15
With under seven minutes to play in a tie game at Stadium Bowl on Thursday night, Life Christian got back to basics on offense.
The Eagles ran the football. Quarterback Jabez Boyd found tight end Justin Durham multiple times on short interior routes. It was a simple, winning formula and led to a game-winning drive, capped off by a 9-yard touchdown run by Kyien Hamilton Evans on a reverse pitch.
“I feel like we had to just go back to the basics and do what we normally do and execute the little things,” Boyd said. “In the first half, we weren’t executing the little things. We were trying to do too much, not doing our assignments and it didn’t help us at all. So we had to go back to the basics.”
Annie Wright marched down the field after the touchdown but turned the ball over on fourth down near the red zone as Life Christian hung on for the 22-15 win in the Class 1A Nisqually contest.
“We just had to go back to what we had been doing to get to this point,” Life Christian coach Hershel Dennis said.
It wasn’t pretty, by any means. At half, Annie Wright led 13-8, a lead that grew by two more points after a forced safety early in the third quarter. But Life Christian kept plugging away, tying the game with a Boyd touchdown pass to Hamilton Evans in the third quarter before the eventual game-winning score.
Turnovers and injuries to a couple of starting linemen hurt Annie Wright, which is in only its second year as a football program and already looks significantly improved. Annie Wright lost last year’s game to Life Christian, 65-0.
“We have football players,” said Annie Wright coach Mike Finch, who is also the school’s athletic director. “We went to football camp, we actually did spring ball this year, had a true summer program. I think that showed tonight. … Our physicality showed. We’re a physical football team.”
Annie Wright opened the game’s scoring with a touchdown pass from quarterback Eli Weir to receiver Charlie Finch on fourth down. Life Christian answered with a Deon Paine 6-yard run. Annie Wright scored again on a 25-yard Weir pass to Joaquin Wiley to take the lead into halftime.
Life Christian, which played in the 1A state tournament last year, found a way to win but will need to clean things up to make another postseason run this fall.
“It’s trying to help these young men understand that if you’re inconsistent during the week, it’s going to reflect on game night,” Dennis said. “I think that’s exactly what happened. I’ve just gotta remind them, it doesn’t matter what a team looked like last year, doesn’t matter what we did last week. Every game is gonna be a challenging game and if we don’t approach it like that, we’ll catch ourselves in these kinds of dogfights.”
Boyd, who also plays cornerback on defense and delivered a highlight-reel hit on Annie Wright quarterback Eli Weir on the Gators’ final drive, said there’s work to be done on both sides of the ball, if Life Christian wants to make another playoff run.
“We need to be operating on another level offensively and defensively,” he said. “Defense wins championships and we’re nothing without our defense.”
KENNEDY CATHOLIC 47, AUBURN 22
For one drive, it looked like the Lancers might have their hands full with the host Trojans in 4A North Puget Sound League Play on Thursday.
Behind backup quarterback Isaiah Avelar, Auburn marched down the field and scored on its opening possession for a 6-0 lead.
It was all Kennedy all the time after that, however.
The Lancers scored the next 47 points, including 41 in the first half to blow open the game and remain undefeated in league play.
“It was a nice, long, sustained drive; the kids start believing for a minute and then you give up a score and the momentum shifted and the Kennedy stuff creeps in,” Auburn coach Aaron Chantler said. “We couldn’t ask for a better start, just wish we could have found a way to sustain it a little longer.”
Running back Nikko Lecksiwilai scored three times on the ground for the Lancers (3-2, 3-0), while quarterback Dante Saladino threw for two touchdowns and rushed for two more.
Monty Conlan scored in the fourth quarter for Auburn (2-3, 1-2), while Lucas Whitehall-Gilkes caught a touchdown pass from Avelar to cap the scoring. Auburn starting quarterback Baylen Erdmann did not play, but is expected back soon per Chantler.
GRAHAM-KAPOWSIN 39, YELM 0
The Eagles defense flexed its muscles Thursday night, pitching their third shutout of the season – this time against the visiting Tornados in 4A SPSL South action.
A week after allowing 34 points in a win, Graham-Kapowsin coach Jeff Logan and his defensive staff went to work to clean some things up and it paid off Thursday.
“The defense played really well. We tackled well, we controlled the line of scrimmage and I was proud of how the kids responded,” Graham-Kapowsin coach Jeff Logan said. “A point of emphasis this week was cleaning up our coverage rules and not making mental mistakes. The kids played really well on defense and a lot of that goes to the gameplan from the defensive coordinator and his staff.”
AJ Tuivaiave was 21-of-27 for 280 yards and two touchdowns under center for the Eagles (5-0, 2-0), while Kase Betz had five receptions for 94 yards, Keh’ano Corpuz had seven catches for 89 yards and two touchdowns and running back Blake Pearson had 97 yards from scrimmage.
“A lot of credit goes to our defensive line,” Logan said of Thursday’s win. “We did a better job of containing the quarterback and not letting him scramble. Offensively, I think we missed a couple of things in protection. We got guys open and had 425 yards of offense, but struggled a little up front.”
LAKES 48, RIVER RIDGE 0
The Lancers were firing on all cylinders Thursday in a 3A PSL Nisqually Division victory against the host Hawks.
From the start Lakes (5-0, 2-0) dominated, using a 15-play drive to open the game with a touchdown. A young River Ridge (1-4, 0-2) team had few answers from there.
“It was very clean, very sharp game,” Lakes coach Dave Miller said. “The execution was excellent. The offensive line did a great job and we dominated up front. I was real pleased with our execution and how we took care of business.”
Running back Toetu Moliga carried the ball 15 times for 124 and two touchdowns, while Tristan Baker had six receptions for 136 yards and two scores. He also returned a fumble for a touchdown. Freshman quarterback Jadis LeFono was 12-of-15 for 207 yards and two touchdowns.
“River Ridge did some good stuff and they competed hard,” Miller said. “We had a great week of practice. When you are playing teams you know you should beat it is tough, so we are just trying to keep improving. It was a good win.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2025 at 11:05 PM.
