Lakes can’t keep up with Brandon Wellington, Eastside Catholic in 49-21 state-semifinal loss

The Lakes High School football team didn’t walk off the Tacoma Dome turf looking like it was just happy to be there. Nor did it look like one that was no match for the defending state champions and top-ranked team in the state.

It looked like a team that believed it should have won.

“We planned on going further,” Lakes senior quarterback Jaiave Magalei said as he held back tears. “We should have bounced back and we didn’t.”

All the energy the Lancers entered with — in their eighth state semifinal appearance in school history and first since 2010 — was quickly deflated when Eastside Catholic’s Brandon Wellington returned the opening kick 84 yards for a touchdown.

Eastside Catholic added four more touchdowns (including another Wellington kick return) in the first quarter on its way to a 49-21 victory against Lakes on Friday as the top-ranked Crusaders advance to the state final for the fourth consecutive season.

“We just didn’t execute,” Lakes senior lineman Max Nauer said. “They are a really good team, but we made mistakes and we couldn’t come back from it. Congrats to them.”

Lakes finishes its season at 10-3 and reached the final four despite finishing as the No. 3 seed from the 3A SPSL.

That’s the same league that sent four teams — more than any other — to the state playoffs, only to have Eastside Catholic roll through three of them (Auburn Mountainview, then Bonney Lake and now Lakes). Sumner lost to Bishop Blanchet in the first round.

But there was a buzz around the Lakes program — that it could not only hang with Eastside Catholic, but maybe even hand the Crusaders their first in-state loss since losing to Bellevue in state title two years ago.

Then Wellington happened.

The UW commit busted through an arm tackle and ran away from everybody else on the opening kick for the touchdown.

Then Lakes punted and Eastside Catholic quarterback Harley Kirsch hit a wide-open Devon Arbis-Jackson down the sideline two plays later for an 81-yard touchdown.

Bad to worse: Lakes running back Andrew Bostic fumbled on the Lancers’ first play of its ensuing drive.

Worse to ugly: Kirsch hit Hunter Bryant two plays later for a five-yard TD pass, Eastside Catholic forced a punt and Kirsch then hit Bryant again for a 29-yard TD for a 28-0 lead.

Ugly to better: Lakes responded with an 11-play, 80-yard touchdown drive, capped by Magailei’s 21-yard touchdown pass to Chris Hunter.

Better to devastated: Wellington didn’t catch the ensuing kickoff, but got it on a lateral and ran it 82 yards to put Eastside Catholic ahead 34-7 with 23 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

“Believe it or not, we coached all week not to kick it to No. 7 — and we kick it to him anyway,” Lakes coach Dave Miller said. “That’s high school football.”

Wellington, a senior linebacker and running back who also had a touchdown catch, said his team stressed the quick start.

“We knew we had to pound on them early, and that’s what we did,” Wellington said.

“It’s not just by myself. It’s the whole special teams. Our coach preaches that special teams is the game changer, and that was the turning point in the game.”

Lakes’ Bostic gained 190 yards on 22 carries and Magalei completed 20 of 30 passes for 159 yards and three touchdowns, while running for another 75 yards.

Lakes’ 21 points was the most Eastside Catholic had allowed all season.

“We got away from what we had been doing and made too many mistakes to beat a really good team,” Miller told his team on the field afterward. “But we are a really good team, too. When we’re doing things right we are awful good. We showed that at times today.

“But when we get to this level, we can’t make the mistakes we made.”

He also thanked them for bringing Lakes football back.

“Nobody had really thought about us, but we know what we can do and who we are capable of competing against,” Magalei said. “That started ever since camp. Just that love for each other to just go out and play for each other. I will always love this team.”

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Lakes can’t keep up with Brandon Wellington, Eastside Catholic in 49-21 state-semifinal loss."