Civil War gets new venue

By Matthew Sherman

The Lake Oswego Review, Oct 8, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

JOHN LARIVIERE / PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP PHOTO

Lake Oswego’s Whit Bissett soars over the pile for a one-yard touchdown in the second half of last Friday’s 42-10 win over Lakeridge. The Lakers scored on their first six possessions of the game.

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Even though Lake Oswego walked away with an easy 42-10 victory last Friday Laker coach Steve Coury told a few of his fans after the game that he was “glad this one is over.”

Coury had the unenviable task of taking on his former high school coach Tom Smythe in front of a raucous crowd at Lakeridge. For the first time in school history, the Pacers were hosting the annual Civil War game.

And Lakeridge got its fans out in full force for the event.

“It’s a special place here. The community is awesome and we’re thankful for these fans,” Smythe said.

“It was a great atmosphere and it’s a great rivalry. This is where they should be playing and they did a nice job,” Coury added.

For the Pacers, taking their own field against Lake Oswego was a dream come true.

“There’s nothing like it. It was the best experience of my life,” said Pacer quarterback Ben Swinford.

But, on the field, it would be Lake Oswego’s night. The Lakers scored touchdowns on their first six possessions of the game and had more success in the passing game than they have all season long.

The Pacers made it obvious that their game plan was to defend against Lake Oswego’s vaunted running attack.

That opened things up for Lake Oswego quarterback Will Storey who completed eight of 10 passes and threw three touchdowns to go along with two rushing touchdowns.

“They had to make a decision to try and stop the run and that allowed us to air it out,” Coury said.

The Lakers knew that Lakeridge would be riding a pretty big emotional wave and that it would be important to get off to a quick start.

Lake Oswego did just that. Dylan Stowell ran the opening kick back to Lakeridge’s 25-yard line and it took just two plays from scrimmage for the Lakers to score.

Stowell ran for 13 yards after an offsides penalty and Storey then ran in from seven yards out to put the Lakers on the board 45 seconds into the game.

But, as the Pacers have done for much of the season, when they got the ball, they moved efficiently down the field.

The Dutton brothers, Blake and Drew, each caught first down passes and Swinford scrambled for another.

On fourth and 11 in Lake Oswego territory, the Pacers went for it and Swinford completed a 13-yard pass to Chase Wippert.

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