For Lake Oswego, it was ‘LO48’ to the very end — and Lakers vow to be back

Lake Oswego lost the state championship game to a dominant West Linn team, but Lakers still made their community proud

Although it ended with a loss in the final game, Lake Oswego's 2024 season will go down as nothing but an overwhelming success. / Photo by Alex Tam

HILLSBORO — When the Lake Oswego coaching staff prepared for Friday’s championship game, they knew what to expect.

There were no secrets what their bread and butter has been all season. They knew West Linn was planning for it.

And that was to stop Lake Oswego junior running back LaMarcus Bell from bulldozing, juking and leaving a trail of defenders in his wake.

Bell rushed for 197 yards in a Lakers victory the previous meeting in mid-October, and West Linn knew that couldn’t happen again.

“We were planning for them all week to stop LaMarcus,” Lake Oswego junior quarterback Hudson Kurland said. “That’s the guy they’ve got to stop. Our offensive coordinator saw and read what the defense was giving us and just planned accordingly. Whatever the defense was giving us, that’s how we were going to design our offense for this game.”

Unfortunately for the top-ranked Lakers, they found themselves in a 17-point hole in the first quarter before things got settled. They played uphill the rest of the way and couldn’t recover in a 44-30 defeat to West Linn in the Class 6A Open state championship game at Hillsboro Stadium.

Lake Oswego coach Steve Coury said he knew what to expect, but the early deficit was difficult to overcome against an elite team like West Linn.

“They had guys up in the box, they slanted, they moved guys and they did a bunch of stuff,” Coury said. “They were definitely into stopping the run. That was their game plan, and we knew that coming in. We couldn’t do anything about it.

“They’re good in the defensive backfield and we couldn’t get open enough. So, it isn’t surprising. When you’re playing us, you’re going to try to stop (Bell) and do what it takes. That’s what they did.”

At halftime, Bell had been limited to 41 yards on 11 carries. He finished with 124 total yards (87 rushing and 37 receiving), and despite being the focal point of the Lions’ defense, Bell still managed to score three touchdowns.

But the long game-breaking and momentum-changing runs were not there, as Bell’s longest run was 11 yards, which didn’t come until the second play of the fourth quarter.

When West Linn surged ahead 31-7 on Viggo Anderson’s 13-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter, things looked bleak for Lake Oswego.

But the previously undefeated Lakers were the top seed in the state for a reason. There was no give-up when many others would’ve folded. They had done it before in their previous meeting with West Linn, coming back from 10 points down in the fourth quarter to pull out the victory.

Lake Oswego’s resolve showed by cutting West Linn’s lead to 44-30 on Bell’s seven-yard touchdown catch from Kurland with 8:48 to go. The defense got a quick three-and-out, and the Lakers had the ball with 7:38 left and down just two scores.

“Coach always says ‘LO48’ — that means you play all 48 minutes,” said senior defensive lineman Lusiano Lopez, the TRL defensive player of the year. “We could be down 35-0 and damn sure, our team would keep fighting. It doesn’t matter the score. We’re all just going to keep coming at you and we won’t quit.”

Kurland said quitting is “not what we do.”

“We never give up,” Kurland said. “We were up and down the sidelines, hyping up the crowd, hyping our guys up that we were in this game until the final buzzer.”

Lake Oswego, however, could not muster that one big push to get closer. The Lakers reached midfield on their final drive, but three consecutive incompletions put a stop to their comeback attempt.

“We were down by a couple scores, so we were always chasing our tail,” Coury said. “We could never get a stop. Credit to them more than anything. We had chances on some plays, and they made the plays and we didn’t. They made plays when it was time to make plays. We just got beat by a good team.”

The Lakers finish the season 11-1 and reclaimed the TRL championship. It marked Lake Oswego’s seventh state-title game appearance under Coury since 2002, with triumphs in 2011 and 2018.

For the program, getting this far meant more than just another game and another chance at the blue OSAA trophy. It was about bringing together a community and continuing the tradition of one of the state’s most successful football programs over the years.

Their practices over Thanksgiving week featured several alumni coming back to speak to the team about what it meant to be a Laker.

“It was incredible,” Kurland said. “It’s an amazing feeling. It’s not just our team or our coaches that we’re playing for. We’re playing for a town; we’re playing for a city. We’re playing for generations of alumni, and that’s what makes this so special and why I want this game back so badly.”

Lopez said the camaraderie of the entire program is something he’ll miss.

“(I’ll miss) the culture we have,” Lopez said. “We had guys coming back from 1990, like old dudes coming in and talking to us. All of the alumni coming back was really surprising, and a lot of guys from even before coach Coury was coaching. I would say it’s a family, and this team has done a lot for me.”

While emotions ran high after the game, Coury said he wants his players to remember all the good times from a great year.

“I think these guys after a day, or even on the bus ride home, they’ll get over it,” he said. “They’ll look back and say it’s a great year, a great ride, and we never gave up. We kept it close and had we had one more stop, maybe we make it a little bit closer — but it’s not a shame getting beat by that team.”

For the Lakers’ returning core, they vow that this isn’t the end. Instead, it’s the beginning of getting back to this stage next fall and having a different outcome.

“In the back of my mind, I’m looking at the juniors and saying, ‘We’re going to be back here next year,’” Kurland said. “We’ve got to get back to work. It’s not over for us. I’m going to really miss our seniors, but it’s not done for us. We’ve got another year.

“We’re going to be back in this same stadium, this same day, and we’re going to win a state championship.”

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