Courtesy of LC Athletics
Lewis & Clark football entered the 2026 season with real expectations. Coming off a 6-4 campaign, the team’s best season since 2011, the River Otters were picked fourth out of eight teams in the Northwest Conference Preseason Coaches’ Poll (just three points behind third-place Pacific Lutheran). Two games into the season, the team sits at 1-1. This split has left the River Otters with a clearer picture of both their ceiling and the work still in front of them.
Quarterback Dashiell Weaver ’29 has another word for a team still trying to figure itself out: Unknown.
“It’s kind of tough to establish an identity for the team right now,” said Weaver. “If I had to label us, it would be unknown right now, which is exciting. I think once things really start clicking for us, we’ll be extremely disciplined and explosive when we need to be.”
Weaver pointed to the team’s youth as part of that uncertainty, noting the roster is still logging reps together and finding its rhythm. It’s a fair label for a group that returns most of its offensive core, including both Weaver and graduate student Sam Simril at quarterback, but replaced its top three running backs and gained a new special teams coordinator after Bruce Read’s retirement.
That uncertainty looked different in each of the River Otters’ first two games.
The River Otters looked every bit the “explosive” team Weaver described in their season-opening 42-21 win over Puget Sound. Gio Borea ’28, making his collegiate debut at running back, left the game with 26 possessions spanning 124 yards and two touchdowns. Weaver split snaps with Simril and finished 12-of-16 passing for 210 yards and a touchdown to go with two rushing scores of his own. Simril went 6-of-9 for 73 yards and directed the touchdown drives that opened and closed the game. Sytyn Lasconia ’29 turned in a career-high performance with 178 receiving yards on seven catches, connecting with Weaver on gains of 41 and 34 yards to help stake LC to a 21-0 halftime lead.
“It’s all credit to Sytyn because that kid makes my job so easy,” Weaver said. “He is not just physically talented, he is so smart mentally as well and knows the ins and outs of the game. It’s definitely something we’ve been actively working for.”
The following week provided a different test for the River Otters.
Lasconia’s 33-yard touchdown catch and a 30-yard Trevor Koo ’28 field goal gave LC a 10-0 lead in the Oregon Cup Championship at George Fox, but the Bruins responded with 21 unanswered points to seize control.
The turning point came on special terms: LC’s snap sailed over punter Damon Perez’s ’28 head on back-to-back possessions. Both times Perez was called for an illegal kicking penalty after kicking the loose ball out of the end zone. George Fox turned both opportunities into touchdowns, taking a 14-10 lead. The Bruins then added another touchdown on an 88-yard drive late in the second quarter to take a 21-10 lead into halftime.
George Fox stopped an LC drive at the 1-yard line as time expired in the first half, when Weaver was sacked for a 16-yard loss.
Weaver and the LC offense answered in the second half, cutting the deficit to 21-17 on an 11-play touchdown drive. George Fox pushed the lead back to 11 on another touchdown before Koo’s 22-yard field goal made it a one-score game. George Fox closed it out by converting two third downs on its final possession, for a 28-20 win. Weaver finished the game 14-of-18 for 253 yards and added 63 rushing yards, while Curtis Tucker ’29 led the defense with six tackles and nearly came up with a pick-six for the second straight week.
“Fourteen of those 21 unanswered points were unfortunately off some special teams errors,” Weaver said. “But offensively, we need to be converting better and playing complementary football with our defense, and we were not doing that. We cannot let one mistake snowball into multiple mistakes like we kind of let happen at George Fox.”
For a team Weaver describes as young, the two-game split is not a source of panic so much as a checkpoint.
“I think it is just the overall operation,” Weaver said. “As we keep getting more reps together, I think things will click for us. Where I feel most confident right now, it is got to be with the team.”
The coaching staff has made some adjustments since the George Fox loss, according to Weaver, though he described it more as a continuation of an existing philosophy than a major overhaul.
“The big thing is we are always changing and trying to stay ahead of the curve,” Weaver said. “Things will change around you, and it does not matter how good you were one week, because that chapter’s closed and the next one’s opening up. If you are not willing to change and adapt and stay ahead of the opponents, they will adapt for you and eventually beat you.”
Head Coach Brett Elliott, who became the first coach in program history to post a winning record in his first season, has the Otters positioned to keep building on that early momentum.
The River Otters’ next game is against Pomona-Pitzer at Griswold Stadium, with kickoff set for 1 p.m. LC beat the Sagehens 21-3 last season, though the two teams have split their last four meetings overall.
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