It has been 11 seasons since Medical Lake defeated Lakeside.
It was Sept. 28, 2012 to be exact, by a 20-7 count and took place in Suncrest under head coach Wes Hobbs. Micah Tappero led the way scoring two touchdowns.
Since then, in 11 games the Eagles have outscored the Cardinals 534 to 146, an average of 49-13, including last week's 50-2 win at Medical Lake's Homecoming celebration.
And early-on it was very evident the streak with Lakeside — and the Cardinals overall winless streak that stretches back to September 2021 – would not end on Friday-the-13th.
The state's No. 3-ranked 1A team, Lakeside, sought to head home with its record perfect at 6-0. The Eagles got off to a fast start scoring four first quarter touchdowns starting with 6 minutes, 10 seconds to play.
All routine for a powerhouse team that earlier in the season raced past 2A East Valley of the Greater Spokane League.
What stood out, however, was the Eagles starting off in a kick formation for the point-after then suddenly shifting into a running formation and they quickly led 8-0.
Hmmm, perhaps, Lakeside, a noted soccer power, did not have placekicker? But on the ensuing kickoff the ball sailed high and long into and out of the Holliday Field end zone.
Lakeside upped its lead with a touchdown 2 minutes, 12 seconds later, but once again ran for the conversion and a 16-0 lead against an opponent that was 0-6. Seemed like rubbing dirt in the already wounded Cardinals?
The Eagles did that successfully five times and by the time the clock read 11:05 seconds remaining in the second quarter Lakeside had a 40-0 lead.
For a football fan of decades — and now a journalist — who cannot count the number of games he's witnessed on or off the clock, this was a first. Never had I seen what appeared to be textbook "piling on" in high school football!
Like me, others shook their heads and rolled their eyes. Requests for thoughts spoke volumes with "no comment."
But rather than presume what I was seeing was reality, this begged for an explanation and Lakeside head coach Devin Bauer obliged.
"Our decision to go for two after our first five touchdowns was in an attempt to get to 40 points (running clock in high school) and get our starters out of the game," Bauer wrote in an email.
This was not an attempt to run up the score, Bauer continued. "It was simply a strategy to get our starters out so that some of the athletes that usually don't get to play as much have an opportunity to compete," he added.
And sure enough, once at 40 points, in came backup quarterback Cy Reeves. It did not take but a play or two for Reeves to find Clayton Pavlin in stride for an 80-yard touchdown with 25 seconds to play in the first half.
A point-after kick followed for a 47-0 lead.
"You could see the majority of our starters exit the game at the beginning of the second quarter once we had a 40-point lead," Bauer said.
The Eagles let off on the gas after that outscoring the Cardinals 3-2 in the second half.
That pretty much satisfies me. How about you?
Paul Delaney is a (semi)retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at [email protected].
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