Orange Crush: Lakes football storms into first state quarterfinal since 2016
Dave Miller wasn’t expecting a show until the spirals screamed past him.
When he supervised a routine outdoor lunch period in 2023 near Lakes High School’s auxiliary turf, the longtime head football coach wasn’t searching for the future. Sometimes, the future finds you.
From the unassuming depths of a casual pickup football game, a freshman emerged. It was Lee Snyder, launching several 60-yard spirals with ease — in street clothes.
Miller wondered: “Who’s that dude?”
So he asked.
“Hey, I’m Coach Miller. What’s your name?”
“I’m Lee Snyder,” the freshman replied.
“You look like you’re a good athlete. You ever play football?”
“No.”
“You want to play for Lakes?”
“Yeah!”
Miller deemed it the moment “a star was born.” Snyder tried out for the football team later that fall at quarterback, naturally. Before long, he was playing varsity defensive back in the Lancers secondary, appearing in one game as a sophomore and serving as Lakes’ backup quarterback as a junior, too.
Imagine Miller promising Snyder on that Spring 2023 afternoon that he would save Lakes’ season two years later? That he would send the Lancers to the state quarterfinals with a single tackle?
“I’m just grateful,” Snyder told The News Tribune after he did just that, standing with a smile at Wednesday’s practice inside Harry E. Lang Stadium.
Last Friday, No. 5 Lakes outlasted No. 12 Liberty of Renton, 35-34, in a state-tournament thriller — and Snyder was the hero. When the Patriots scored a last-second touchdown that brought their deficit to one, they doubled down and attempted a two-point conversion for the win.
They had gashed Lakes with a jet sweep-styled run play all night, sending their running back in motion before an outside run turned upfield around the left tackle. And Snyder, a hybrid “SAM” linebacker in defensive coordinator Caleb Kellcy’s 4-2-5 scheme, plugged that gap. He recognized another pre-snap motion and knew to attack. There wasn’t time to wait.
Lakewood’s new hero delivered the hit of a lifetime, driving Liberty’s last chance into the turf. The Lancers sideline (and the crowded bleachers behind it) erupted in unison as linebacker Ta’u Mareko shouted from the top of the pile: “Yes, Lee!” Miller’s heart raced well into the night, as did Snyder’s.
“At that point, it’s just whoever wants it,” Snyder said. “I trust my team. My coaches put me back out there and trusted me. I’m just grateful I made the play.
“I was grateful just to see my brothers happy. Seeing Ta’u... He didn’t get to play last year, so seeing him happy. We’re going to the Elite Eight, which we haven’t done in a while.”
Snyder’s season-saving tackle powered the back-to-back 3A PSL Nisqually-champion Lancers (10-1) into Friday night’s 3A state quarterfinals at No. 4 Bellevue, where Lakes is featured in the ‘Elite Eight’ for the first time since 2016.
You can imagine the raucous locker room after Snyder’s heroics. Then, a team dinner. Nights out are a regularity for this group, more common now than in any of Mareko’s four years at Lakes.
“I hang out with the DBs, I hang out with everybody,” Mareko said at Wednesday’s practice. “After the games, we just go eat. We sleep over on the weekends at each other’s houses. Everyone’s tight. Everyone likes each other. Everyone trusts each other.
“You get mad at each other, but it’s not to the point where you don’t like the guy. It’s all uplifting.”
The coaching staff is similar, many of them former Lakes players. Assistant coach Michael Westbrook Sr.’s game-winning touchdown catch in the 1997 state championship secured the school’s first-ever title. Hector Jasso III, a 2018 grad, played for Central Washington University before joining Miller’s staff, among others.
That may be the best compliment of all for Miller, who took over the Lancers program 26 years ago — that players graduate to the next level and want nothing more than to come back. There’s a reason the ‘Orange Crush’ moniker has lived on for decades.
“I’m just happy for the coaches, happy for us,” Mareko said. “We still want more. The job ain’t finished.”
FRESHMAN QB LEFONO STILL ASCENDING
The physical talent is obvious, but Jadis Lefono’s field vision at 14 years old puts him ahead of any freshman Miller’s program has ever produced.
He stands at 6-foot-1, 190 pounds and oozes arm talent. There’s plenty of promise with his legs, too, a dual-threat in the making. It’s perhaps the most-intriguing aspect of the Lakes signal-caller — that he’s yet to reach his ceiling. Lefono won’t be a senior until the 2028 season.
“A lot of times, you won’t see freshmen in a state playoff come out and say, ‘Coach, I think we can run this, I think we can run that,’” Miller said Wednesday. “There were probably five or six times during the game where he suggested stuff and it was spot on. His ability to see things, his ability to process, it’s not too big for him.
“He’s an unselfish guy. He’s never worried about stats or his individual stuff. He just wants to help the team win. He’s earned the respect of everybody because of the great human being that he is. I think he’s the total package. … He doesn’t lack anything.”
Miller, also the offensive coordinator, didn’t use Lefono much in the run game throughout the regular season. Why? They didn’t have to. They wanted to keep him fresh and healthy, above all else.
That changes when the state tournament rolls around, when Miller lets his playmakers make plays. Lefono broke free for a 72-yard touchdown run in Friday night’s win over Liberty, a mad dash to paydirt without a real challenge from the Patriots secondary.
“The D-End on my side that I was reading kept crashing and crashing,” Lefono said. “Once he (ran) that play again, I just pulled it. I was reading my blockers, so I ran outside and there was nobody there but green grass.
“It was a great feeling. I knew I was going to go all the way on that one.”
In his four short months playing high school football, Lefono has learned to take what defenses give him. He isn’t looking for the game-breaking, 72-yard touchdowns every play because he knows the opportunities will open up for him — not the other way around.
Lefono has completed 65 percent of his passes (101-of-156) for 1,589 yards and 16 touchdowns, adding eight scores on the ground. He’s built strong rapports with receivers Ean Owens and Tristan Baker, a senior Idaho commit. Even Snyder is a beneficiary of the 14-year-old’s promise, a two-way WR/DB with 18 catches for 284 yards and a touchdown this fall.
“He’s amazing,” Snyder said of Lefono. “He’s stepped up, for real. … I help him out during school if I see him.
“I know he’s going to go really far. I’m honored to catch passes from him.”
Miller called the stable of running backs behind Lefono a “three-headed monster.” Lead back Toetu Moliga averages nearly nine yards per carry (797 YDS, 6 TD) with a combination of power and speed. Freshman bruiser Romiece Taviuni (5.4 YPC, 2 TD) is the up-and-coming power back, and Korben Reed is the “lightning guy” capable of turning a crease into a house call with a team-leading 12 rushing touchdowns in 2025.
Mareko stars on defense after missing his entire 2024 season to injury. Miller expects a busy Friday night for his linebacker, the anchor over the middle that “makes things happen” opposite Bellevue’s run-heavy Wing-T scheme.
“I’m not going to say it was prison, but to me, it felt like it,” Mareko said of his lost junior year. “It sucks watching other people be able to be physical, be able to play football.”
Moliga and senior defensive end Tupu Saleaumua (injuries) both missed last weekend’s state win over Liberty but are “going to try to go” in Bellevue on Friday night, per Miller. Senior defensive back An’treas Thomas (ribs) is questionable.
A win over the 2023-champion Wolverines would send the Lancers to their first state semifinal since 2015.
“The history our senior class has made and all of these boys out here… (We) have dawgs,” Snyder said. “We have freshmen starting, sophomores, juniors, seniors. I’m just grateful to be one of them.”
