Auburn Mountainview rallies to topple Lakes | SPSL football

As Auburn Mountainview’s Gresch Jensen guided the Lions into the red zone, he remembered the feeling of disappointment.

Three years ago, Jensen faced a similar scenario as quarterback of Auburn Mountainview’s C team, only to see the Lions turn the ball over on downs against Lakes at Harry Lang Stadium.

On Friday night, a hobbled Jensen directed a different, satisfying ending by finding senior wide receiver Vaughn Daggs on fourth-and-goal for the game-winning, 5-yard touchdown with 53 seconds remaining.

“It was a good, little revenge coming back (my) senior year and getting it,” Jensen said, following the No. 9 Lions’ dramatic 46-42 over the sixth-ranked Lancers in a South Puget Sound League 3A showdown at Lakewood.

On the game-winning drive, Auburn Mountainview’s coaching staff eschewed a short field goal and kept the offense on the field to punch it in. The Lions missed an extra point earlier in the game.

“We were talking about it,” said Lions coach Jared Gervais. “A couple of guys wanted to do it; a couple of guys didn’t want to do it. We decided to go for it. The offense is playing pretty good, so we figured we would take a chance.”

It was a scenario that might not have come to fruition without Jensen, a senior leader and University of Montana commit who completed 24 of 44 passes for 379 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions.

Jensen had replaced injured free safety Gavin Robertson during the third quarter. But Jensen was sprawled out on the field with a right ankle injury after the Lions’ game-saving stop on fourth-and-3 at Auburn Mountainview’s 42-yard line. On that play, junior running back Yisrael Stephens was halted for a 2-yard gain.

“It was sore,” Jensen said of his ankle. “The trainers wanted me to tape my ankle and I said, ‘No, I’ve got to get back in there. The game’s on the line.’ I do it for my teammates, and that’s all it was.”

Junior defensive back Melvin Miller intercepted Jensen on the Lions’ previous drive, and Lakes appeared content to run out the clock with a 42-40 lead. The Lancers ran the ball on 13 of 14 plays during a 7-minute, 2-second drive.

But Auburn Mountainview (5-1 overall, 3-1 league) regained possession with just 2:59 remaining at its own 40.

It was just another challenge for the Lions, who never led during the first 47 minutes. On three separate occasions during the first half, Lakes (5-1, 3-1) led by three touchdowns.

It looked like it might be a repeat of Auburn Mountainview’s 31-12 loss Sept. 25 at Sumner. But Gervais said he never lost confidence in his team.

“We just kept battling,” he said. “It was awesome to see them fight the whole game like that.”

The Lions accomplished that through 26 unanswered points. Robertson had a school-record 92-yard touchdown reception when he weaved past defenders with 29 seconds remaining in the first half to reduce Auburn Mountainview’s deficit to 42-28 at the intermission.

Jensen then finished a seven-play drive to open the second half with an 8-yard touchdown scramble. The Lions missed the extra point but cut Lakes’ lead to 42-34.

Auburn Mountainview’s defense, which surrendered 344 yards of total offense during the first half, needed just three plays to get the Lancers off the field on the next possession when linebacker Jackson Sele intercepted Jaiave Magalei at Lakes’ 45. Sele was not even listed in the game program.

“His brother played for us last year,” Gervais said. “He was living in Hawaii and his family just moved up here a few weeks ago. He just finally got eligible to play this week.”

That enabled the Lions to build an 11-play drive that culminated with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Jensen to 6-foot-4 senior receiver Ryan Lacey on third-and-goal. That moved Auburn Mountainview to within 42-40 with 5:05 left in the third quarter.

That sequence helped set up an improbable Lions comeback and put them in position to strengthen their playoff position with three weeks remaining in the regular season. Auburn Mountainview, which now owns a tiebreaker against Lakes, is in second place in SPSL 3A behind Sumner (6-0, 4-0). The teams with the top four records in the league advance to the district playoffs, which begin the first week of November.