Vikings Mash Monroe 63-14; Homecoming this Friday

onroe 63-14 last Friday night to stay tied with Kamiak atop the Wesco 4A standings (both teams are 4-0 in league, 5-1 overall).

    Sometimes stats do tell the story.  In this one, Monroe opened and closed the game with touchdown passes of 31 and 75 yards.  Those two plays accounted for 106 of Monroe’s total of 111 net yards (passing and rushing).

   In the intervening 36 minutes and 19 seconds of playing time between those two touchdowns Lake outscored the Bearcats by 63-0, outgained them by 556 yards to one yard, and notched 25 first downs to Monroe’s two.

   Lake outscored Monroe by 42-0 in the second quarter.

   Overall, Lake netted 246 rushing yards and three touchdowns to MINUS 10 yards rushing for Monroe.  Andrew Grimes accounted for 130 of Lake’s rushing yards in 15 carries, one of those for a touchdown.  Three quarterback sacks were shared by six different Viking players:  Michael Nelson,  Lars Eklund, John McCollum, Kolby Jones, Sam Burke, and Riley Krenz.

    Directing the Viking offensive stampede was quarterback Jacob Eason, commanding the field with 18 completions in 30 passes (no interceptions — Eason has not been intercepted in his last 184 passes dating to the season opener against Meadowdale on a tipped ball) and six touchdowns.  All of that in the first half which ended 56-7.

    Monroe was hampered by loss of its starting quarterback Andrew Zimmerman, injured in the previous game.  His replacement, sophomore Zach Zimmerman, his brother, finished the game with seven completions in 26 attempts (with two interceptions, both by Jones).  His receivers dropped at least half a dozen of his passes as Lake’s physicality seemed to intimidate the Bearcats who soon realized that they were way out of their depth.

    Zimmerman gave his team an initial glimmer of hope (though it soon turned out to be fool’s gold) when he hit Jacob Jerome with a 31-yard scoring pass after Lake fumbled away a punt return the first time the Vikings touched the ball.   Lake’s response?  Fifty-six consecutive points before halftime as Lake outgained Monroe by 460 yards to 35 during the first two quarters.

   Lake’s first TD came via Tevin Gray’s 23-yard reverse.  Ignacio Ponce’s PAT tied it at 7-7 with 5:44 left in the quarter.

   Next came Grimes’ 49-yard TD pass from Eason at 2:12.

   Lake added six more TDs in the second quarter.

   (1)  Eason to Hunter Eckstrom for 44 yards.

   (2)  Eason to Krenz for 24 yards.

   (3)  Grimes’ 16-yard run.  This TD was set up by 25-yard rushes apiece by Grimes and by Eason.

   (4)  Eason to Eckstrom for 24 yards.

   (5)  Eason to Krenz for nine yards.

   (6)  Eason to Eckstrom for 21 yards (this came four seconds before halftime).

    The arbitrary “running clock” W.I.A.A rule (which only serves to limit valuable playing time for reserves) after halftime saw Roderick Jimenez score for Lake on a two-yard run in the fourth quarter (PAT supplied by Karsten Knutson) before Zimmerman exploited Lake’s makeshift secondary with a 75-yard bomb to Isiah Lewis to close out the scoring at 63-14 with 2:32 left.

    Leading the Viking receiver corps were Krenz with six catches for 116 yards and two TDs, Eckstrom with five catches for 113 yards and three TDs, and Grimes with three catches for 55 yards and one TD.

    Mariner, 3-1 in Wesco after a three -game winning streak, provides the opposition for Friday’s Homecoming game.