Oregon Class 6A football Game of the Week: Lake Oswego Lakers vs. West Linn Lions

The No. 3 West Linn Lions take on the Lake Oswego Lakers on Friday at West Linn.

The Lake Oswego Lakers of 2022 do not look like the Lakers of 2021.

The Lakers of 2021 were an offensive scoring machine, averaging nearly 41 points a game. The Lakers of 2022 have leaned more on their defense. Lake Oswego (3-1) has allowed just 44 points, they have held opponents to 14 or less points in their three wins and are allowing 11 points a game.

“I think we’re very athletic,” Lakers coach Steve Coury said. “We’ve got a lot of kids on that side of the ball that can run. The team speed on defense is good.”

Coury said the defense will have to carry the squad until he can unlock the offense as the Lakers prepare to face West Linn (3-1) in the Three Rivers League opener for both teams Friday night. The coach said seniors such as linebacker Calvin Macy, defensive backs Henry Smith, Stevie Mooney and Jack Knapp, along with junior linebacker Tobia Tagliabue must continue to step up.

The offense is averaging 20.7 points a game.

“We haven’t converted when we’re inside the 20. We’ve hurt ourselves with penalties. We’ve self-destructed,” Coury said. “We’ve been our own worst enemy.”

The inconsistency on offense has led to Coury saying he plans to start sophomore Liam Davis instead of junior Max Brauner at quarterback against the Lions. Coury liked Davis’ performance during the Lakers’ 42-12 win over McMinnville in Week 4.

The Lions, No. 3 in The Oregonian/OregonLive’s power rankings, have had no such issues with their offense.

The Lions are averaging nearly 40 points a game and have scored at least 30 points in each of their four games. They scored 42 points in the first half during their 45-6 win over Lake Stevens (Wash.) in Week 4.

“We scored 42 points in a half. I think everybody would say that’s where you want to be, but we still see things that we can improve on,” West Linn coach Jon Eagle said. “But I like where we are.”

Eagle said a key to the Lions’ success occurred after they suffered a 35-31 loss to the Sheldon Irish in Week 2. The Lions learned lessons from the loss and then went on to defeat the Jesuit Crusaders 31-20 in Week 3.

“Every coach will tell you that the best week of practice is the week after a loss,” Eagle said. “We say that winning masks problems and losing exposes problems. Sheldon did that for us.”

Eagle replaced Chris Miller, who stepped down to pursue other coaching opportunities at the professional level. Eagle coached at Portland State University last season. Prior to joining the Vikings, he was head football coach at Camas High School (Wash.) for 13 seasons,

Quarterback Sam Leavitt is leading the Lions’ offense. The senior, who transferred from Westview and is a Washington State commit, has completed 60 of 84 passes for 1,021 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions.

“He has become more decisive and more comfortable in our system,” Eagle said. “He is a dual threat. He can work his game from the pocket if he needs to or he can sprint and run.”

While Eagle and the Lions are rolling, the Lakers and Coury are still finding their way on offense. Coury said the experimenting needs to end now that league competition begins Friday.

“Every week, it’s a little bit more work on trying to piece it together,” Coury said. “Hopefully, it’s coming together soon, because we don’t have time to be experimenting much more.”

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