LAKE OSWEGO – For the second week in a row, Lakeridge's young football team faced a gut check in the fourth quarter. And just like last week, the Pacers responded in a big way.
After No. 8 Mountainside rallied from a 13-point deficit to take a one-point lead early in the fourth quarter, host Lakeridge countered with two touchdowns to win the 6A nonleague game 34-22.
“We're learning how to win down the stretch in big games,” said junior quarterback Carson Pickens, who completed 9 of 13 passes for 284 yards and three touchdowns. “We know what to do when we're down.”
The win comes one week after the Pacers (3-1) scored a touchdown and two-point conversion with 21 seconds left to beat Lincoln 43-42. Heading into Three Rivers League play, they have won three in a row since a 22-14 loss at North Medford in which they committed seven turnovers.
“The improvements we've made from Week 0 all the way to now have been tremendous,” Lakeridge coach Spencer Phillips said of his team, which starts non-seniors at 16 of 22 positions. “We started 17 new faces, so we have all the bumps in the road that you would expect from a young group.”
Mountainside came back behind senior Toren Drucker, who scored on runs of 72 and 9 yards, the latter putting the Mavericks (2-2) ahead 22-21 with 9:59 left.
The Pacers needed only one minute to go back ahead 28-22. Pickens lofted a 71-yard touchdown pass to sophomore speedster Jagger Salazar, who got behind the Mountainside secondary. It was the third touchdown catch in two games for Salazar, the grandson of track legend Alberto Salazar.
Lakeridge's defense forced a three-and-out. The Pacers got the ball back at their 10-yard line with seven minutes left and marched 90 yards for the clinching score, a 23-yard run by senior Colby Owen that made it 34-22 with 2:48 to go.
“I'm just so proud of how we always compete,” Owen said. “It's never, 'I'm too tired to do this,' it's never a play off. We always just want to be the hardest team there, the one that goes the longest.”
The Pacers finished with 450 total yards, bolstered by several big plays. Their first three touchdowns came on a 88-yard pass from Pickens to sophomore Mason Girt, a 78-yard pass from Pickens to junior Hudson Armerding and a 61-yard run by Girt.
Owen, who scored the winning two-point conversion against Lincoln, marveled at the team's young talent.
“Look at Girt. Absolutely exceptional running back,” Owen said. “The way he sees holes, the way he can cut off the linemen, it's insane. And Jagger, fastest guy on the field. You can just bomb it down and he knows how to get it. Hudson Armerding, maybe the best hands in the TRL.”
Pickens has passed for 1,144 yards and nine touchdowns this season. He has a vast arsenal of receiving weapons.
“It's so easy, all you've got to do is put it in their arms,” Pickens said. “On film this week, all we saw was man, and we were going to give the ball to our best players. That's what we did, and that's how we won the game.”
Owen praised the growth of Pickens.
“I couldn't be more proud of him,” Owen said. “He has the best mindset when it comes to the next play. He's not just a great quarterback, he's a leader for this team.”
Girt rushed for 89 yards and one touchdown on nine carries and had three catches for 98 yards and one score. Armerding had two catches for 86 yards and one touchdown.
Mountainside rushed for 253 of its 324 total yards. Lakeridge held Mavericks senior Reece Ballew – who entered the game with a 6A-leading 463 rushing yards – to 48 yards on 18 carries.
But the hard-running Drucker (nine carries, 129 yards, two touchdowns) and junior Kade Laraway (13 carries, 68 yards, one touchdown) picked up the slack. Drucker's 72-yard touchdown up the right sideline came on a 4th-and-2 with the Mavericks trailing 21-8, changing the complexion of the game.
“The expectation for Toren is when we need him to do something, he gets the job done,” Mountainside coach Keanon Lowe said. “He's just a tough kid. He's a Division I football player, and he's continuing to show that.”
Both of Mountainside's losses have come against Three Rivers teams, the other a 52-13 season-opening defeat at No. 3 Tualatin. It marked the third consecutive season that the Mavericks have lost to Lakeridge in a nonleague game.
“When you play a team from a really good league like this, there's got to be a point where you get over the hump,” Lowe said. “This year, and last year, and maybe even the year before, it wasn't necessarily a physical hump we're trying to get over. … It feels like it's more of a mental thing.”
jerryu@osaa.org
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