MAPLE VALLEY — Kyle Laukula knew he let his Tahoma teammates down. Twice.

So, he made sure he provided the big lift the Bears needed — twice — to beat rival Kentwood for the first time, 13-11, in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Maxwell Stadium.

It was Kentwood's first loss in the South Puget Sound League North Division and dropped them into a three-way tie for first with Tahoma and Auburn, all 5-1. The Conquerors (5-2 overall) could have clinched a playoff berth with a victory. But if all three teams win their final two games, Kentwood will advance to the playoffs as the No. 1 seed, with Tahoma No. 2 and Auburn No. 3, based on point differentials (Kentwood beat Auburn by seven and lost to Tahoma by two, while Tahoma lost to Auburn by three and beat Kentwood by two).

The normally sure-handed Laukula muffed two punts in the game, which featured 11 turnovers, a blocked punt and two safeties. One of those muffs led to Kentwood's lone touchdown in the second quarter.

Looking for a little redemption, he caught a 38-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Johnson to put the Bears ahead 13-9 with 5:47 left in the game. Then, after Tahoma's sixth fumble set Kentwood up at the Bears' 13 with 2:37 on the clock, Laukula came up with the game-saving play. On first-and-goal from the 1, Laukula stripped the ball from Ben Mayfeld and teammate Kevin Kooyman recovered in the end zone for a touchback with 1:18 to go.

"I felt like I had to pay the team back because I let them down," Laukula said.

The Bears, who were 0-8 against Kentwood on the field coming into the game (they won by forfeit in 2000), took a safety with 6.4 seconds to go. The Conquerors got one more chance with less than a second on the clock, but Chris Powers sacked quarterback Andrew Stephenson to end the game.

Tahoma had six fumbles, and Kentwood coughed it up four times and threw an interception.

"There were two great defenses out there knocking the crap out of each other," Kentwood coach Rex Norris said.

There were six fumbles in the first seven minutes of the game — three by each team — and that was before it started to rain. But it was just 2-0 Kentwood as Derek Spence blocked a Chase Sanderson punt out of the end zone.

In the second quarter, Laukula's muffed punt led to a 38-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Stephenson to Chris Talic for a 9-0 Kentwood lead. But David Bentrott responded with a 92-yard kickoff return for Tahoma to cut the deficit to 9-7 at the half.

Kentwood finished with just 105 yards of total offense.