What we learned in Week 1 of Oregon high school football

Here's what stood out during the opening weekend of action

The Oregon high school football season kicked off last week. Here's what stood out during the opening weekend of action. 

Photo by Ken Waz 

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A Hardy running game balances West Linn’s offense

West Linn broke in plenty of fresh faces at the skill positions in Thursday’s 37-0 victory over Nelson to open defense of its Class 6A state championship. 

One who might have surprised onlookers was junior Hudson Hardy, who stepped in the backfield to replace departed all-state running back Koffi Kouame. 

Hardy carried the ball just 11 times last season. The 6-foot-3, 225-pounder had 12 carries Thursday for 80 yards and a touchdown, providing balance to the Lions’ attack.

“Hudson is a smart runner who understands our scheme and what we’re trying to do,” Lions coach Jon Eagle said. “At 225 pounds, he cuts very well, has good vision and presents a different problem for the defense, whereas Koffi was a slasher with super quick feet.

“But I would not be surprised to see Hudson break a 50-yarder. Don’t want to pigeonhole him.”

Hudson Hardy (West Linn) photo by Dan Brood 

As if the Lions needed any more offensive weapons, junior Danny Wideman showed he’ll be more than a return specialist this season. The all-Three Rivers League kick returner had one catch last year; he had two Thursday, including a slant route on which he exploded through the secondary for a 39-yard touchdown.

“We knew last year that Danny was a very talented athlete. He just played behind (Mark) Hamper,” Eagle said. “One thing we do early in the season is poll our coaches to see if we agree on how many touches our players should get — it’s a great exercise to hear each coach’s view. And his name comes up a lot.”

Lake Oswego refreshes backfield with two-headed attack

Four years ago, when Lake Oswego last reached the 6A championship game, the team relied on the legs of two-time 6A offensive player of the year Casey Filkins to get to Hillsboro Stadium.

If the Lakers’ 40-22 victory Friday night at Barlow is any indication, they’ll once again rely on their ground game in their quest to return to the final — only this time, it’s a two-headed monster for opponents to figure out.

Sophomore LaMarcus Bell announced himself with a spectacular performance, rushing for 206 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries. Senior Zavier Russell took over in the second half, scoring two of his three touchdowns in the final 15 minutes and finishing with 87 yards on 16 carries.

“LaMarcus and Zavier both have great vision as running backs,” Lakers coach Steve Coury said. “They are explosive in the hole. Zavier is more of a power back at the point of contact, and LaMarcus is more of a slasher, although he runs with a physical presence, too.”

Coury cautioned that the Lakers won’t necessarily be a grind-it-out team every week.

“The game on Friday just evolved into a running game for us, but we will see what the season holds,” he said. “We are still developing what we will be, but these two guys will be a part of the plan.” 

Defense leads Feist-y Tigard to help Three Rivers open 6-0

The Three Rivers League went 6-0 to open the season, with one of the most impressive victories coming at Tigard, where the Tigers dominated North Medford 27-7 on Thursday.

Senior Jake Feist, the son of interim coach Ken Feist, returned to quarterback this season — he played behind center through youth ball but played receiver most of last season, except for one game at Oregon City. 

Like that Week 6 game against the Pioneers, he showed little rust in his return, although his numbers were dampened by the steady rain that fell Thursday.

“Jake managed the game well and made some big plays when we needed them,” Coach Feist said. “He showed good leadership out there and didn’t panic or make a poor decision when our offense wasn’t moving the ball against a very good defensive front.”

Instead, the Tigers leaned on their defense to down the Black Tornado. Their defense outscored North Medford 14-7, with Colt Ness returning an interception 23 yards for one touchdown and Owen Wright scoring on a 52-yard interception return. 

“Obviously a great defensive effort,” said Feist, whose team held North Medford to 205 yards of total offense. “They played fast and with a lot of energy. They held a very good team with a very talented offensive line to just seven points.”

Pacific Conference heavyweights hold serve with road wins

Sherwood and Liberty have been the big dogs in the Pacific Conference for the past few years. 

Now, they’re hoping to take the next step and become 6A state championship contenders, and with big road wins to open the season, each made its case to enter that conversation.

For the Bowmen, it was a 34-21 victory at West Salem, which returned promising junior quarterback Kaden Martirano from an injury that sidelined him after Week 4 last season. They kept Martirano in check while surviving three turnovers, building a 19-0 lead by early in the second quarter. 

“The turnovers we had were all just mental mistakes,” Sherwood coach Mark Gribble said. “But I was pleased with the grit and determination our boys showed overcoming our own adversity.” 

Across the capital city, Liberty took on a Sprague team in transition under first-year coach AJ Robinson. The Olympians retook the lead at 30-26 early in the fourth quarter, but the Falcons responded with back-to-back touchdowns before surviving Dukatti Witherspoon’s third touchdown pass to pull out a 40-36 victory.

“Despite turning the ball over five times and being down 23-12 at half, our guys showed they can fight through adversity with a lot of heart,” Liberty coach Eric Mahlum said. “We have a number of returning players who understand the game is never over until the final whistle. But obviously, the No. 1 thing we will work on is ball security heading into Week 2.” 

‘Last year is over’ – David Douglas puts winless 2022 in rearview mirror

A couple of 2021 playoff teams that went winless last season bounced back to win their season openers Friday night.

While Roseburg romped in its 50-12 home victory over Beaverton, David Douglas went on the road and gutted out a 12-7 win against Aloha.

The Scots would have been excused if they thought, “Here we go again,” when they fumbled the ball away on their first play from scrimmage at their 11-yard line, which the Warriors cashed in for a 7-0 lead.

But sophomore Jayden Jordan returned the ensuing kickoff to the Aloha 4, and the Scots scored shortly after. After taking the lead on the opening drive of the second half, they made a goal-line stand midway through the fourth quarter, holding Aloha out twice inside the 1.

The Scots were one of the youngest teams in 6A last season, but this year, they have 16 seniors and 21 juniors on the roster, with only six sophomores rounding out the varsity. One of those seniors is Rashan Crosdale, who ran 12 times for 105 yards to account for the bulk of their offense.

“We stressed to the kids to win two of three parts of the game,” said David Douglas coach Cal Szeuber, whose team won despite completing zero passes. “We also stressed that last year is over, and each game, we will take one play at a time.” 

Six teams that went winless a year ago put a 1 in the left-hand column in their opener. Besides the Scots, Blanchet Catholic (48-6 over Oakridge) and Corbett (30-0 over Sheridan) won matchups between winless 2022 teams. Reedsport (34-0 over Riverside/Ione) and Pilot Rock (46-14 over Mohawk) also came out victorious. 

Dynamic duo helps McKay get past transfer of top running back

After Mid-Willamette rushing champion Jamahl Wilson transferred from McKay to North Salem just before the start of camp, the Royal Scots could have buckled.

Losing a running back who gained 1,464 yards and scored 18 touchdowns a year ago (and 180 yards and three touchdowns for the Vikings in a Week 1 win over Roosevelt) is not easy under the best of circumstances. Losing him with only a couple of weeks to regroup makes it an even bigger challenge. 

“Losing someone of Jamahl’s caliber is always a difficult blow,” McKay coach Brandis Piper said. “But I’m proud of our players for rallying together and leaning into one another as a group to raise expectations of what we needed to be successful.”

What that meant was leaning even more on their dynamic duo of quarterback Kyrin Fuimaono and receiver Justice Anthony, who came up big in McKay’s 31-28 come-from-behind victory Friday night. 

Kyrin Fuimaono (McKay) photo by Leon Neuschwander 

Fuimaono was 25 of 38 for 289 yards and three touchdowns, with 10 of those completions going to Anthony for 138 yards and two scores.

None was more important than a 44-yard connection on third down as the Scots marched downfield trailing 28-24 with less than six minutes left. Several plays later, Fuimaono hit Dallas Newton on a 7-yard touchdown pass for the go-ahead score. 

“Kyrin and Justice have the best chemistry of a receiver-quarterback duo that I’ve coached,” Piper said. “They both have high football IQs and understand leverage in coverage. In addition, because they’ve played so many snaps together and been such close friends for so long, they make adjustments on the fly and communicate extremely well on the field.”

Newcomers help Tillamook pull away for big Week 1 home win

Two leading 4A title contenders showed the value of having a returning senior quarterback in pulling out big home wins to open their seasons.

In Klamath Falls, Mazama’s Tyson Van Gastel led the Vikings to a 20-14 win over defending champion Estacada, scoring on a 3-yard run with 48 seconds left to defeat the Rangers for the second consecutive season. 

Along the north Oregon coast, Tillamook — which lost 32-8 to Estacada in last year’s final — scored 21 unanswered points after Marshfield pulled within 24-20 early in the third quarter to earn a signature Week 1 win.

“We moved into some different fronts after their opening touchdown drive in the second half,” Cheesemakers coach Kye Johnson said. “We had to start getting subs into the game. We had a lot of new varsity faces getting full series of action.”

One of those defensive newcomers was senior Antonio Ferreira, who had two second-half interceptions in his first meaningful varsity action, and senior Ken Lopez — an all-state offensive lineman a year ago — “did a great job inside for us,” Johnson said.

“I told our positional coaches there wasn’t a choice — we had to get subs in early and often, even at the expense of growing pains,” Johnson said. “We have to develop depth.”

On the other side, Tillamook surrounded all-state quarterback Tanner Hoskins (9 of 19, 198 yards) with an entirely new set of skill position players, several of whom came up big Friday. Sophomore Griffyn Boomer had seven catches for 170 yards and two touchdowns, and junior Ryan Wilks caught his first career touchdown pass.

Then there was senior Seth Wehinger, who nearly matched his 2022 production in one game, rushing for 91 yards and three touchdowns. 

“He was a Swiss Army knife for us last year but got the bulk of the reps at H-back this week,” Johnson said of Wehinger, who had 202 rushing yards last season. “We’ll be by-committee in the backfield, but he was a really consistent downhill guy for us.”

Young game-changers help Cascade get win in Hedrick’s debut

Of the 23 coaches at the 6A, 5A and 4A levels who debuted with their schools last weekend, none posted as significant of a victory as Cascade’s Shane Hedrick, who took his team 360 miles east to Baker City and knocked off the Bulldogs 42-21. 

With school not in session until Wednesday, Hedrick could leave for Baker City on Thursday, stopping en route in Pendleton for a walk-through. After a good night’s sleep at the hotel in Baker City, the team had another walk-through Friday morning to get in the right mindset.

Most important, Hedrick said, was the support system that joined the Cougars on their trip. He called the parents who provided meals at rest stops en route and helped in other small ways “a game-changer. They were our MVP.” 

On the field, the game-changers were a couple of newcomers in sophomore tailback Bryce Kuenzi and freshman cornerback Josiah Hawkins.

Kuenzi rushed for 224 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries, complementing a solid game from senior quarterback Nolan Abrams (8 for 17, 93 yards, two touchdowns; 57 rushing yards, one touchdown) and receiver Karsten Sande (82 yards of total offense, two touchdowns, interception on defense).

“He’s special. He’s the real deal,” Hedrick said of Kuenzi. “He really adds an element to the offense we didn’t know we’d have.”

Hawkins drew primary responsibility on Rasean Jones, Baker’s sophomore sensation, keeping him relatively in check. Jones caught a touchdown pass but did little else.

“That was one of those fun battles to watch,” Hedrick said. “Josiah brings a lot to the table. As the game warmed up, he became more physical. He’s going to be a kid to keep an eye on.” 

No Moody blues for Challengers – senior QB leads Week 1 win

Defending 3A champion Cascade Christian also was breaking in plenty of fresh faces in its season opener Thursday against North Valley.

But the Challengers had an ace up their sleeve — senior quarterback Ashton Moody wasn’t taking over cold for graduated all-state selection Keith Reed. He’d gotten a taste of the starting job last year while Reed recovered from a preseason elbow injury, eventually taking over in Week 6 and leading Cascade Christian to the title.

Moody picked right up where he left off, completing 16 of 22 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns and running for 107 yards and two scores in a 29-6 victory.

“Having Ashton getting experience last year definitely gave us confidence in the quarterback position going into the season,” Challengers coach Jon Gettman said. “But it also helped Ashton understand the areas in which he needed to grow. I thought he did well just taking what the defense gave him in the first game.”

On the other side, an overhauled defense shut down North Valley after giving up an early score. Senior defensive end Jack Knips made three tackles for loss, and senior Peyton Maurer — an all-state receiver a year ago — stepped in at safety and had a team-high eight tackles and a pass breakup. 

“His communication in the secondary has really benefitted the whole team,” Gettman said.

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Earlier:

Instant analysis: 10 things to know from Week 1 of Oregon high school football

Our Week 1 predictions: How did we do?