TIGARD, Ore.—  It was a rollercoaster of a game between Tigard and West Linn that ended with a running back finishing off the job.

It wasn’t no last second touchdown over the pile, but Elijah Molden would score the last four scores for the Lions as they went on a 27-7 second half tear in the final 15 minutes of the game to sail to a 48-28 victory over the Tigers.

“My coach said that my team needed me,” said an electric Molden.  “I just love my team.  So I did everything capable.  I play for them.”

West Linn Head Coach Chris Miller said that he challenged the team and is pleased with how they responded after their game against Sherwood last Friday night.

“I was proud with how we responded after our game against Sherwood,” he said. “ I challenged them this week to be tough and finish, and we kinda did that on both sides of the ball.”

“The (offensive) line stepped up, the defensive line stepped up and we had a great return on special teams that kind of set up a nice last touchdown for us so that was good.”

The first half of the showdown was between the arm of one Tim Tawa of the Lions, Stanford commit for baseball and the duel-back system of Peyton Olson and Jash Allen for Tigard.

Tawa sturcked first with a 50-yard bomb to Connor Berggren two minutes in the game.

Olson and Allen then responded, setting up a Chase Crawford to Tight End Gavin Kim passing scored that tied it up on the next possession.

West Linn took advantage of the weaknesses in the pass defense of the Tigers that resulted in two more Tawa Touchdowns and they found themselves up 21-7 with time still left in the first half.

Following a defensive stop by West Linn the Lions looked to add to their lead.  But the Tiger pass defense woke up as they forced a four-and-out and stopped a tough the passing game of West Linn.

Tigard turned that turnover on downs into points with the recipe from their opening drive.

Running with Olson and Allen that resulted in a passing touchdown.  This time, Crawford connected to Brendan Lenzy from three yards out as the half ended with the Lions up 21-14.

On their opening drive of the second half on defense, Tigard’s defensive lineman Connor Crist intercepted the ball off of Tawa.  Quaterback pressure led to the interception.

“We talked about if the quarterback runs away from you, stay right back and see what happens and that’s what I did,” said Crist on the interception.

“I was pretty excited after that.  I put my team in the best position and we capitalized.”

Capitalized they did as Crist’s interception led to a Allen three-yard score to tie the game up at 21.

“It was something,” said Olson on the rally. “The run blocking was perfect.  The interception Connor had really sparked us.”

The Lions Elijah Molden sparked off however following the score, as he scored all four West Linn scores in the second half.

The Lion defense smothered the Tiger offense and kept them to one score during Molden’s run.

“I think it’s good that we have a balance,” said Tawa.  “It’s always good to have a balance as a team.  Elijah’s running well and that’s a hard time to stop us.  We did a really good job tonight, mixing it up.

“He played really well, my receivers did a great job, I did a great job.  Great team work for us.”

The Lions (6-1, 4-1 Three Rivers League) are on to play Tualatin at home.  As for Tigard (3-4, 3-2 TFL), it’s off to pay Lakeridge at home.

SCORE        1        2       3       4     –   t

LIONS         14      7       7       20   –   48   

TIGERS       7       7       7        7     –    28

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81!