‘Film the scoreboard!’ Lakeridge puts Oregon’s Spygate controversy to bed, earns emotional win over Tigard

LAKE OSWEGO, OREGON — While the story on the field saw No. 7 Lakeridge physically take control and manhandle Tigard in a 30-9 Three Rivers League victory, the underlying subplot entering Thursday’s game was from a confrontation earlier in the week. 

During Tuesday’s football practice, multiple players and coaches in the Lakeridge program believed Cori Feist, wife of Tigard interim head coach Ken Feist and mother of starting quarterback Jake Feist, was possibly recording their practice, according to SBLive’s Andrew Nemec.

Feist reportedly denied filming practice and said she was there for her daughter’s event.

According to The Oregonian/OregonLive, Tigard High School conducted an internal investigation and found no penalty was needed.

Lakeridge coach Spencer Phillips described the incident as “unfortunate,” but said after the game that it’s “under the bridge” now. While Phillips maintains he “knows what (he) saw,” he gained perspective of what matters in life after finding out by phone that one of his former players, Barrett Bevacqua, died in a plane crash that same day.

“Life comes at you fast and it puts life in perspective,” Phillips said. “It is what it is. Whatever, (the filming incident) is kind of funny now. I have no disrespect or hard feelings towards anyone, and I’m really just trying to focus on being able to mourn the loss of one of my favorite people and players. … The (incident) is really silly, and I hope we can just let it go.”

Throughout the game, Lakeridge’s student section routinely made references to the practice film story with chants of, “You can’t film us,” “Film the scoreboard” and “’You should film this.”

Lakeridge senior wide receiver Joey Olsen called the whole thing a “funny joke” looking back.

“I ain’t going to say if she did or didn’t do it, but we came out here and eliminated distractions and we balled,” Olsen said. “You can’t really focus on all that. You’ve just got to go out there and play football.”

He did just that. The 6-foot-5, 240-pound USC commit redeemed himself after a one-catch performance in last week’s loss to Tualatin and blazed through Tigard’s defense en route to 11 catches for 151 yards and three touchdowns.

“Just wanted the ball, man,” Olsen said. “I just want to play some football. Week to week, I don’t really care as long as we win, and it just so happened that I got the ball tonight a lot and we won.

“I think just the way they played defense, they left a lot of open shots and we capitalized on a lot of them.”

Olsen showcased his speed, athleticism and talent, outmaneuvering his defenders to catch touchdown passes of 19, 43 and 8 yards from senior quarterback Gabe Motschenbacher.

Phillips said of last week’s loss that Tualatin’s game plan was to double-team and drape Olsen with defenders to help prevent him from making an impact. Olsen had a touchdown grab called back because of a penalty and was overthrown a couple of times.

“It is nice because ever since he was a freshman, he gets double- and triple-teamed,” Phillips said. “He’s always pressed, he’s always in cloud coverage. He always gets a team’s best defender, so much of our game plan is knowing that Joey’s here and we’re here. It was great for us to finally get an opportunity against a team who plays him in a different type of coverage.”

Olsen said despite last week’s defeat, there were good lessons to learn after the team squandered a 17-0 halftime lead.

“Just with a game like that, it gives us confidence that we can play,” Olsen said. “We can hang with the best. It didn’t go our way last week, but we came back better this week.”

Junior receiver Zyon Floyd connected on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Motschenbacher with 28 seconds to go in the second quarter Thursday, helping give Lakeridge a 20-7 lead.

Senior kicker Keaton Emmett added a 22-yard chip-shot field goal in the third quarter. Motschenbacher was efficient, completing 15 of 18 attempts for 232 yards and four touchdowns.

Tigard (4-2 overall, 0-2 Three Rivers), coming off a dejecting 28-24 loss to Oregon City at home, took an early lead when junior Cody Mclay recovered a Lakeridge fumble and rumbled 80 yards for a touchdown to give the Tigers a 7-6 advantage with 5 minutes to go in the first half.

Tigard’s defense recorded a safety in the fourth quarter after the Pacers misjudged a snap that sailed into the end zone. Senior quarterback Jake Feist completed 8 of 12 attempts for 45 yards with two interceptions, and he added 10 carries for 91 yards.

Lakeridge (5-1, 1-1) will continue its gauntlet through the TRL and play host to Oregon City next Friday. The upstart Pioneers (5-1, 1-1) are coming off a nail-biting 20-12 loss to Lake Oswego.

“When I watch their team on tape, they’re so well-coached,” Phillips said of Oregon City. “They’ve got a great coach (first-year coach Aaron Skinner). You can’t ask for anything better. They’ve got great players across the board. They gave Tigard a hell of a game, so it’s going to be another good battle.”

Remembering Barrett

Lakeridge High School held a moment of silence before the game in honor of former Pacers standout Barrett Bevacqua, who died in a plane crash Tuesday night. He was 20.

Phillips recalled Bevacqua being a “wonderful human being.”

“First time I ever met him, he gave me a big hug,” Phillips said. “That’s Barrett. He was an amazing cook. He used to cook for our team before the games. He was a big part of the COVID year, so we spent a lot of time together and we bonded a lot with that senior class that year.

“It’s unfortunate because we’ve had five deaths in three years (at Lakeridge), and it’s really, to excuse my language, really (expletive) hard — like, really hard. Being able to honor him at the game, as well as the team playing well, that’s really all I care about.”

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Lakeridge 30, Tigard 9

Tigard - 0 - 7 - 0 - 2 — 9 

Lakeridge - 6 - 14 - 3 - 7 — 30 

First quarter 

5:30 L - Joey Olsen 19 pass from Gabe Motschenbacher (2-pt failed)

Second quarter 

5:00 T - Cody Mclay 80 fumble recovery return (Sam Graf PAT)

4:00 L - Olsen 43 pass from Motschenbacher (Keaton Emmett PAT)

:28 L - Zyon Floyd 15 pass from Motschenbacher (Emmett PAT)

Third quarter

9:43 L - Keaton Emmett 22 field goal

Fourth quarter

10:58 L - Olsen 8 pass from Motschenbacher (Emmett PAT)

4:35 T - safety

STATISTICS

Passing: Tigard - Jake Feist 8-12, 45, 2 INTs; Lakeridge - Gabe Motschenbacher 15-18, 232, 4 TDs

Rushing: Tigard - Feist 10-91, Christian Warner 16-49, Anthony Faler 1-11, Trevin Laird 1-8; Lakeridge - Ansu Sanoe 18-43, Motscchenbacher 2-11

Receiving: Tigard - Laird 3-31, Brian Smith 4-9, Nicco Simonetti 1-5; Lakeridge - Joey Olsen 11-151, 3 TDs, Zyon Floyd 1-15, Luke Womack 1-12, Tashi Crofut 1-11, Sanoe 1-3

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STATEWIDE SCOREBOARD

Week 6 predictions: How did we do?

State leaders: Class 6A | Class 5A | Class 4A

Media polls: Class 6A | Class 5A | Class 4A

Photos by Dan Brood