Lake Oswego's LaMarcus Bell skips through the Tualatin defense for one of his four touchdowns Friday. (Photo by J.R. Olson)

TUALATIN – Unsatisfied with its performance on offense in its previous two games, No. 1 Lake Oswego took its bye week to tune up for the start of the Three Rivers League football schedule.

It paid off in the league opener Friday night at No. 4 Tualatin as the Lakers (5-0) were firing on all cylinders in a 49-24 victory. They needed only three plays to score touchdowns on each of their first two possessions to take control, then spent the rest of the game fending off the Timberwolves, finally putting them away by scoring the game's last 21 points.

Lake Oswego racked up 520 total yards, including 322 on the ground. The Lakers executed at a higher level than they did in beating Central Catholic 21-0 and Newberg 28-7 in their previous two games.

“The last couple games on offense were a little shaky,” senior quarterback Hudson Kurland said. “Two weeks ago against Newberg, that was the worst game we've played in a really long time. So we had to correct some things over the bye week, and we did that. We were tightening things up all off week, and it showed.”

Lake Oswego senior running back LaMarcus Bell led the way by rushing for 248 yards and four touchdowns on 17 carries. Kurland completed 8 of 12 passes for 198 yards and one touchdown with one interception. Senior tight end Sam Vyhlidal had five catches for 80 yards and one touchdown and scored on a one-yard run.

“The last couple games, we had a couple new guys come in, so we were just getting the team chemistry down,” Bell said. “But this game, it's league, we turned it on.

“We knew what we could do on offense. We knew we could dominate. We weren't showing that the last couple games, so we knew this game we had to show that. Put a statement on the state, let them know we're coming.”

Bell terrorized the Timberwolves (4-1) in much the same manner as last season, when he burned them for 247 yards and three scores in a 45-31 win at Lake Oswego.

“It's amazing to watch Bell on film, and then when you see him in person, you're like, 'Oh, OK,'” Tualatin coach Dom Ferraro said. “It kind of confirms everything you think. Hard to bring down, explosive. We were tackling high. You just can't tackle a guy like that high.”

Bell ran for 34 yards on the game's first play, helping set up a 25-yard touchdown pass from Kurland to Vyhlidal. On Lake Oswego's next series, senior Jalen Bauman caught a pass in the flat and ran 53 yards to the Tualatin 1-yard line, setting up a one-yard scoring run by Bell as the lead grew to 14-3.

Tualatin drew within one score twice in the second quarter as junior Carter Powers threw two touchdown passes, 29 yards to senior Reece Underwood and 52 yards on a screen to sophomore Iden Rule. But Bell answered with touchdown runs of 50 and 6 yards as the Lakers took a 28-17 lead into halftime.

Rule ran for a 32-yard score to make it 28-24 in the third quarter. Lake Oswego scored the last three touchdowns, though, on runs of 12 yards by Bell, 1 yard by Vyhlidal and 31 yards by senior Justin Craigwell.

Despite its struggles on defense, Tualatin was able to move the ball against a Lake Oswego defense that had allowed only 17 points through four games. The Timberwolves amassed 428 total yards.

“They just capitalized on our mistakes,” Lake Oswego junior linebacker Cash Wilks said. “We let up contain. There were a couple plays where we just missed our guy. All respect to them finding our mistakes.

“When we get into the teams like West Linn, Lakeridge, other teams in the TRL, we can learn from those mistakes and make sure it doesn't happen. I'm glad we got it out early in league because late in the season it can kill you.”

Tualatin once again split time at quarterback with senior Owen Hagerman (7 for 13, 61 yards) and Powers (8 of 17, 147 yards, one touchdown, one interception).

Rule, who has played a big role for Tualatin with junior running back Cole Hachmeister (hip flexor) out of the lineup since the opener, had a big game. He rushed for 96 yards and one touchdown on 23 carries and had two catches for 84 yards and one score.

The Timberwolves were hopeful to get Hachmeister back for Friday's game, but he couldn't go.

“It'll be nice to get Cole back and have two or three really good running backs,” Ferraro said.

Ferraro said he told his players that he “loved their heart and tenacity.”

“We knew we were up against it,” he said. “That's a really good football team. I'm proud of the way we fought. We went into halftime feeling pretty good.”