One of top players in the Three Rivers Conference has started out the season with a bang. Blake Dutton (6-2 190 WR/FS Sr.) of Lakeridge has made his opponents look silly over the first couple weeks of the year. He has amassed over 500 all purpose yards and 8 Touchdowns in just over 3 quarters of play to start the season.
The Pacers have outscored their opponents 110-20 ( N.Medford 64-14, Hillsboro 46-6) over the first two games making people stop and take notice. The competition has been weak, but the way they have disposed of the competition has been eye opening. Tom Smythe, one of the greatest coaches in high school football history has two third year starters that will be his leaders. Both Dutton and Quarterback Tommy Knecht (6-5 195 QB Sr.) have been all league kids for the last two seasons and come in listed as two of the highest ranked athletes in the state for their positions.
Dutton is considered “electric” in every sense of the word. He has already returned 4 kick offs and punts for touchdowns early in the season, one of which was called back. His stat line has been off the charts catching 5 touchdown passes from best friend and teammate Knecht.
This past summer at the highly publicized Barton Premier Marketing event at the University of Washington Dutton made a name for himself covering the Pacific Northwest. Respected coach, and former D1 receiver Jaleel Kindell says “Dutton was one of the most impressive kids out of the 400 in attendance”.
Blake projects as a D1AA kid that could move up or down. His father Dan Dutton was an Oregon Duck so D1 genes exist in the family. He is the kind of kid that you want to root for that can break a game open at any time. In last season’s season opener Dutton front flipped his way into the end zone earning himself a suspension to start the year. This season he continues his electric play and will only being doing flips on the practice field.
The Pacers will most likely crush North Salem this week, but the Three Rivers Conference will provide some healthy competition for this revived Lakeridge program. The Pacers look to be in the mix for a league title as the always tough West Linn Lions and Lake Oswego Lakers stand in the way. We will continue to keep tabs on Blake as he is considered one of the state’s top players and threat to score any time he touches the ball.
