The Lake Washington High football team entered the 2016 season with hopes making the postseason and finally picking up a win.

After a 21-7 conference loss to Interlake on Friday at Mac Field in Kirkland, those hopes are on life support.

Lake Washington (0-3 KingCo, 2-5) has lost four in a row, and would need a minor miracle in order to make the playoffs. The Kangs need to win at least one of the remaining games, with two losses for Mercer Island and Interlake.

Even then, it might be down to conference tiebreakers.

“We’re always fighting for postseason,” LW quarterback Adam Long said. “We’re always going into every game thinking, ‘1-0.’ Mercer Island is a good opponent; obviously Bellevue is a good opponent.”

The Kangs picked up a handful of huge defensive stops in the second half, once on a big hit by junior linebacker Connor Quigley to force a fumble near midfield. Lake Washington forced another fumble late in the fourth quarter, and completed a clutch second-half shutout.

Long found Domonic Roussell on a 20-yard pass play with 4:55 remaining in the game for the Kangs’ only score of the game.

Long completed 24 passes for 212 yards, but was picked off twice in the first half. Interlake failed to capitalize on either turnover, but Lake Washington’s offense was forced to punt the ball away and give up good field position on both of the ensuing drives.

“We just have to get better,” said third-year coach AJ Parnell. “It’s frustrating because it can be hard to put it together. We had a good week of practice, so why did we come out and spot them 21 in the first half? I don’t know. We did we struggle at moving the ball on offense? Again, I don’t know.”

The Kangs rushed for negative yardage in the first half, and — including the five times Long was sacked — finished with -22 rushing yards for the game. Junior running back Ryan Clifford finished with eight yards on 16 carries, and was held scoreless for the first time this season.

Long and Roussell connected 10 times for 119 yards, a season-high in both statistical categories for the junior receiver. Unlike earlier this season, many of the passes were short completions to the edge, something the Kangs have worked to integrate over the last six weeks.

The trouble was the amount of pressure the offensive line faced throughout the game, Long said, as Interlake continued to bring extra bodies to defend the run.

The senior was part of a group whose goal for the year was to “get better,” a team meeting Parnell bragged about before the season began.

“There’s no limit to what we can do, but at this point we’ve really just got to focus on getting better and for us seniors, having the best experience in the last three or four weeks — whatever we have left,” Long said.

“Parnell stresses being a good person and becoming a good husband, brother, father — whatever it is — down the line,” he said. “At this point, we’re just trying to live those ideas on the field and off.”

Parnell said the focus would be getting first downs and tackling — better football in general, but also mentioned the playoffs as a product of taking care of the small details on a day-to-day basis.

He also said he was happy the team has continued to buy in regardless of the record. The chances are slim, but not impossible.

“We’ve got to take it week by week,” senior lineman Sean Gordon said. “We’re fighters. As you saw, our defense is stone cold. We shut [Interlake] down in the second half. Turnovers, big hits — that’s the type of stuff you should expect.”

SUMMARY

at Mac Field, Kirkland

Interlake 21, Lake Washington 7

INT 6 15 0 0 — 21

LKW 0 0 0 7 — 7

SCORING

First quarter

I — Dylan Riel 10 pass from Duncan Varela (Run failed), 6:52

Second quarter

I — Varela 1 run (Max Collins kick), 9:11

I — Varela 44 run (Myles Chandler from Varela), :41

Third quarter

No score

Fourth quarter

LW — Domonic Roussell 20 pass from Adam Long (Lance D’Alessio kick), 4:55

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: I — Valera 23-118, Zenon Moses 13-61, Bryce Hardy 3-9; LW — Ryan Clifford 15-8, Adam Long 8-(minus 26).

PASSING: I — Valera 10-19-0-103; LW — Long 24-44-2-212.

RECEIVING: I — Austin Hourn 4-44, Moses 2-30, Riel 1-10, Elijah Barnes 2-9; LW — Roussell 10-116, Jensen Leewens 5-34, Alex Bartoletti 4-31, Colby Coco 4-28, Clifford 1-3.