In the space of 24 hours three of the four South Puget Sound League 4A North football teams in the playoffs were knocked out in the district round: Kentwood, Tahoma and Kentlake.

Kentwood was stunned at French Field Nov. 3 by Arlington, which took home the 21-14 victory, containing the Conquerors high-octane offense to their fewest points of the season.In the first drive, Kentwood marched down the field after a kickoff return by Brandon Sytsma which set the Conks up at their own 45, but settled for a 21-yard field goal by Mitchell Cox.

At first, the Conks defense contained the Eagles, but then quarterback Skylor Elgarico started to run the ball which set up a 20-yard touchdown pass to Connor Bovard with 3:38 left in the first quarter to put Arlington up 7-3.Jackson Huerta stopped the next Arlington drive — which began after the Eagles recovered a Conks fumble — when he picked off Elgarico in the end zone.

With nearly six minutes off the clock in the second quarter, Kentwood cut the lead to 7-6 with another field goal by Cox.Elgarico and the Eagles answered. After the Conks were penalized for encroachment, the Eagles took the next snap at the Conqueror 21 yard line.

Under pressure, Elgarico was forced out of the pocket, rolled to his left and threw a 21-yard pass for the touchdown to Austin Wells to make it 14-6 with 2:21 left in the first half.And while Arlington contained the running game, it couldn’t contain Huerta, at least not in the first half. Huerta, a senior wide out, took the ball 38 yards for the score then scored the two point conversion on a pitch from Dane Manio-Hernandez to tie the game up with seconds left in the first half.

After that, though, Kentwood couldn’t get into a groove offensively while Arlington got just one more score, which ended up being all the Eagles would need against the Conks.Wells caught another 21-yard touchdown pass from Elgarico to cap a 74 yard drive that took more than three and a half minutes off the clock at the start of the third quarter. It put Arlington up 21-14 and from there penalties, turnovers and miscues were Kentwood’s undoing.

Kentwood finished the season 9-1 overall.The next night, Tahoma traveled to Everett Memorial Stadium to take on Jackson while Kentlake traveled south to Lake Stevens.Neither the Bears or the Falcons fared well on the road.Tahoma lost to Jackson 56-34. It was a close game in the first half as Jackson led by a touchdown going into the locker room.

By the end of the third quarter, though, Jackson had held Tahoma to one touchdown while extending its lead to 49-28.Shane Nelson threw for 446 yards and three touchdowns in the loss for Tahoma.

DeShon Williams caught 17 passes for 256 yards while Joey Lutton had 10 receptions for 103 yards. Damon Funk rushed for 126 yards and Elijah Suka led the Bears defense with 13 tackles, according to information posted by Coach Tony Davis on the Tahoma football website, tahomafootball.com.”One of the most difficult parts of coaching is the locker room after the last game,” Davis wrote. “I am very proud of the team and this group of seniors who played their last game for Tahoma High School last night. They’ve had a great run and demonstrated a high level of commitment to their teammates.”Kentlake, meanwhile, lost 67-33 at Lake Stevens.

The game did not start well for Kentlake when Lake Stevens blocked a punt then recovered it for the safety and followed that up with a touchdown on a bubble screen to go up 9-0 less than six minutes into the game.Lake Stevens stretched its lead nine seconds into the second quarter with a 36-yard field goal to make it 12-0.

The Falcons fought back in the first half. After a pass interference call which put Kentlake on its own 42, Steffin Church threw a 58-yard bomb to one of his favorite targets, Marshall Jones, to cut it to 12-7 with 10:24 on the clock in the second quarter.Seconds later Lake Stevens fumbled the kickoff return. Kentlake recovered and Church thew another strike to Jones to make it a 14-12 lead for the Falcons.Lake Stevens answered with a 70 yard touchdown to make it 18-14.

Church threw another touchdown pass, this one to Jordan Laurencio with 7:17 on the clock in the first half, to make it a 20-18 Kentlake lead.

That was the last time the Falcons would have the lead in the game.A 56-yard touchdown run by Lake Stevens made it 26-20 with 4:26 left in the first half then the defense held Kentlake which led to another touchdown with less than a minute left in the second quarter to make it 36-20 Lake Stevens.It just got uglier from there for Kentlake as an interception led to another Lake Stevens score before halftime to make is 39-20.

In the second half, Lake Stevens scored four more touchdowns while Kentlake couldn’t find an answer to get back into the game.

Kentlake finished the season 5-3 in conference and were 6-4 overall.