The LO football team holds its own early before the No. 2 Irish pull away.
The Lake Oswego football team saw its 2022 season come to an end on Friday, Nov. 11.
But while the Lakers lamented their 42-7 loss to Sheldon in the quarterfinals of the Class 6A state playoffs at Sheldon High School, they also recognized how much they’d accomplished during the fall season.
How about this? The youthful Lakers stitched together a 7-4 overall record. They beat Tualatin — the fourth-ranked Timberwolves were a state finalist in ’21 and a state semifinalist this year — on the field and tied them in the league standings. They knocked off previously unbeaten Tigard and Tualatin in consecutive weeks, won a berth in the upper playoff bracket, earned the seventh seed to the playoffs and advanced to the quarterfinals.
“They were just a great group of kids (and) there was great leadership,” said Lake Oswego coach Steve Coury. “They spent the time to get everything out of … the senior group that we have.”
With the loss, the Lakers saw their one-game winning streak snapped and ended their season with an overall record of 7-4 after tying for second place in the TRL. Second-ranked Sheldon, meanwhile, won for the 11th straight time and remains the state’s only unbeaten Class 6A team at 11-0 after winning the Southwest Conference. Next up, the Irish face No. 3 Tualatin (9-2 overall) at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, at McNary High School.
While the Lakers’ defense held its own early — they limited Sheldon to a single first-quarter score (a three-yard run by senior quarterback Brock Thomas) — and got an interception to trail just 7-0 after one period.
Then, after Sheldon got the ball back with an interception of its own, Thomas threw long to senior wide receiver Isaac Peters to Lake Oswego’s 25-yard line, and one minute into the second quarter, Thomas scored again from three yards to make it 14-0.
After another Sheldon interception, Thomas hit senior running back Grafton Robinson for a 40-yard score that boosted the Irish lead to 21-0.
LO sophomore quarterback Liam Davis got knocked out of the game in the second quarter, and after the two teams traded turnovers, Lake Oswego junior Max Brauner threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Owen West that, along with Mark Mankin’s extra point kick, cut LO’s deficit to 21-7.
“We had some chances to keep the game in check,” Coury said. “We got down inside the inside the 20 two times in the first half and we came away with nothing, which hurt, (but) I was really proud of the way we played.”
But that was the end of the offensive highlights for the Lakers. Sheldon kept LO off the scoreboard throughout the second half, added two Thomas TD runs, another from Robinson and an interception return for a TD by senior Teitum Tuioti for the final 42-7 score.
“They’re really good,” Coury said of Sheldon. “Our quarterback got hurt in the first quarter and Max Brauner came in and took the rest of the game. But we had turnovers, we threw a couple of picks and you can’t do that against good teams. It’s enough of the struggle, so we kind of dug some holes for ourselves, but they’re just a really a good football team.”
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