What we learned in Week 8 of Oregon high school football

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

René Ferrán | Oct 24, 2023

The Oregon high school football season continued last week with Week 8 action around the state. Here's what stood out during the eighth weekend of action.

—

Jesuit shows its ‘grit’ in rebounding from 0-4 start to Metro’s No. 1 seed

When Jesuit got off to its first 0-4 start since 1977, the players and coaches didn’t panic.

They knew they’d faced a nonleague gauntlet — Skyview of Vancouver (Wash.), Central Catholic, West Linn and Tualatin have a combined record of 30-2 — they believed would set them up for future success.

“As a team, we have grit,” junior quarterback Trey Cleeland said after the Crusaders wrapped up the Metro League’s No. 1 seed in the 6A state playoffs with a 31-14 victory at Mountainside on Thursday.

“We started off with this tough 0-4, but the grit we showed coming out of halftime, getting on the board, just shows the great determination by our team. I love it.”

Cleeland began the season behind senior Jacob Hutchinson on the depth chart, but he supplanted Hutchinson by Week 2, and he and the Crusaders endured some growing pains during their 0-4 start.

In Jesuit’s past five games, Cleeland has shown signs of progress. He has thrown for 607 yards and 10 touchdowns without an interception during that stretch, although his completion rate (33 of 72, 45.8%) shows he’s still learning on the job.

Meanwhile, senior Lonnie Burt is becoming the workhorse in the backfield that has been a staple in the Crusaders offense during Ken Potter’s 37 seasons at the Southwest Portland school.

He ran for 133 yards against the Mavericks, marking the third consecutive game he eclipsed the 100-yard mark, and he had four tackles at linebacker.

“On both sides of the ball, he’s a terror,” Potter said. “As you can see, he’s all over the field on defense, and on offense, he just runs really hard.”

The victory was Potter’s 349th of his career, leaving him three shy of Dewey Sullivan’s state-record 352 victories over 42 seasons at Dayton from 1965-2006.

Burt acknowledged the record weighed on the players’ minds a bit at the start of the season.

“We definitely want to get it for him, especially us seniors,” he said. “Whenever he retires, we want to know we got him that win record.”

To accomplish that, the Crusaders will need to win Friday’s regular-season finale against Beaverton, then reach the semifinals of the 6A playoffs — likely having to win on the road in the quarterfinals against a top-four seed to do so.

“We still have a long way to go,” Potter said. “We made a ton of mistakes today, but I just like their effort. We ran around on defense really well and pursued well, and I thought our offensive line just got better and better during the game and has been getting better each week.

“But that just comes with experience and playing together. So, I’m really pleased with the win, and hopefully we can build on it.”

Westview needs Week 9 win to secure shot at defending Columbia Cup

Defending Columbia Cup champion Westview underwent plenty of changes following its 51-22 victory over North Salem last November.

Star running back Jordan Fisher graduated (he is now starting at UC Davis) along with standout linemen Jackson and Campbell Sager. Quarterback Nolan Keeney transferred for his junior season to Tualatin, and coach Ryan Atkinson stepped down.

Jamal Jones took over from Atkinson after spending a year at Franklin, and while he knew there would be a transition period, he didn’t expect the Wildcats to start the season 0-6.

Back-to-back wins over Aloha and Beaverton have moved the Wildcats to No. 33 in the OSAA rankings entering their season-ending Sunset Highway rivalry game against Sunset, likely needing one more victory to earn a shot at defending their Cup title.

“I don’t know if we’ve ‘turned’ a corner,” Jones said. “We just stayed the course and continued to fight week in and week out. Our schedule tested us out the gate. It challenged us in a way that we needed.”

While no one player was going to replace Fisher’s 2,972 rushing yards (No. 4 in state history), senior Irason Kekaualua and sophomore Heath Thompson have carried the Wildcats offense.

In Friday’s 40-33 win at Beaverton, Kekaualua ran for a career-high 204 yards and three touchdowns, while Thompson added 154 yards and a touchdown to increase his team-leading total to 846 yards.

“Heath and Irason have been running the ball well all year long,” Jones said. “When you don’t get the job done at the end of four quarters, it’s not always highlighted. However, they have been grinding it out for us all year long as well as our offensive linemen.”

Friday’s rivalry game will decide the Metro’s final automatic berth in the 6A playoffs. The Apollos are No. 21 in the OSAA rankings, so a loss would likely not cost them a playoff spot.

Westview likely can’t afford a defeat, meaning its chances of making the postseason ride on pulling out a victory.

“We’ve preached to our kids about the importance of finishing,” Jones said. “We started out 0-6, and we can’t control what has already been done. However, we can control how we choose to finish.

“I know that we’re playing good football and winning games at a time when we need to do so. We understand this week is important if we want to continue playing football, and we’ll fight for our desired result.”

Hillsboro looking to make playoff runs ‘the standard’ with Week 9 win

A year ago, Hillsboro traveled to Canby as a heavy underdog and knocked off the Cougars to reach the 5A playoffs after going 1-9 in 2021.

This season, the shoe is on the other foot. This time, it’s the Spartans who will enter their NWOC play-in game as the heavy favorite, taking a 5-2 record and No. 7 OSAA ranking into Thursday’s game against Hood River Valley at Hare Field, seeking to make back-to-back playoff appearances for the first time since 2014-16.

“This team set its sights on returning to the playoffs at the end of last season,” coach Daniel Shuff said. “We knew we were returning a lot of guys that had the ability to get us back there, and they were extremely disappointed at the way we exited the playoffs last year (a 41-0 loss at Bend).”

Shuff added that making consecutive playoff trips would be a big step for a program that won a state title in 2009 and last won a playoff game in 2010.

“We’re trying to instill that making it to the playoffs is the standard for Spartan football every season,” he said.

Among the returning players were their two stalwarts in the backfield, seniors Preston Echeverria (478 yards, 10 touchdowns through Week 7) and Skylar Salzman (309 yards, three touchdowns).

Preston Echeverria (Hillsboro) photo by Leon Neuschwander

It’s the improved play of senior quarterback Calvin Perkins, however, that has the Spartans thinking they can make an extended playoff run.

Perkins shared the job with Ian Ingram last year, but through seven weeks this season, he was No. 2 in the NWOC in passing yards with 1,129 yards and 14 touchdowns with just five interceptions while completing more than 73% of his passes (99 of 135).

“He’s had the ability to do this for the past couple of years but put too much pressure on himself,” Shuff said. “He’s put in a lot of time and effort in the offseason to prepare for this season, and since the season has begun, he’s been totally locked in. Because of his approach to preparing each week with film study, game planning and coachability, it's like having a coach on the field for our offense.”

The NWOC changed its qualifying format this season, so the Spartans enter Thursday’s game a virtual lock for one of the conference’s four state playoff berths. But since their Week 6 loss to Wilsonville, they’ve approached every game as a must-win, so Thursday won’t feel any different.

“We’ve been stressing the importance of being focused throughout the week on the things we can control to put us in the best position to win,” Shuff said.

Crater recovers from 0-4 start to find itself on verge of 5A playoff berth

Jesuit isn’t the only team that started 0-4 but finds itself in position to make the state playoffs.

Crater also began the season 0-4 (combined record of its opponents: 27-5) and sat 1-5 following a loss to Eagle Point that had the Comets’ playoff hopes on life support.

After a 26-24 Homecoming win over Churchill, they are now one victory from making their return to the 5A postseason.

“Our 0-4 start was probably a combination of a lot of things,” said first-year Crater coach Seth Womack. “Our first four opponents were extremely tough, and combined with learning a new system and having only four position players who are seniors put us in a tough spot to start the season.”

The Comets built a 26-8 lead midway through the second quarter as Valentin Rodriguez ran for three first-quarter scores and Ben Higginson scored on a 35-yard run.

The Lancers clawed back to within 26-24 in the third quarter, and Crater had two drives stall in the red zone in the second half. A late fourth-down stop gave the Comets the ball back, and they were able to run out the clock.

“I’m not surprised that we have put some wins together these past few weeks,” Womack said. “We set a goal to get better every week and trust the process, and our kids have done an amazing job each week.”

A win this week against South Eugene will accomplish the team’s next goal — finishing better than last year, when the Comets went 3-6 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014.

“Our players are excited to prove that they are a good team regardless of their slow start,” Womack said. “As far as where we get placed in the bracket, we are gonna take it like any other opponent. I know the kids are excited to get another week to improve and play, so we’ll see what happens.”

Baker one win from going from 0-4 to Greater Oregon League champion

Baker coach Jason Ramos can relate to what Potter and Womack went through.

Ramos’ Bulldogs also started the season 0-4, and having clinched a playoff spot with their win last week against Crook County, they’ll now vie for the Greater Oregon League title Friday night at Round-Up Arena against Pendleton.

Baker’s start to the season followed a late-season swoon last fall that led to missing the playoffs for the first time since 2017. And like Jesuit and Crater, the Bulldogs also had a challenging nonleague slate, with their four losses to opponents with a combined record of 27-4.

“We had no margin for error early in the season,” Ramos said. “And frankly, we were making too many errors. That was just part of our process. It could have been discouraging, but instead, it kept us focused on becoming a better football team.”

The Bulldogs opened league play against archrival La Grande, and their 36-6 victory — their first win in the series outside of the pandemic season since 2013 — got them back on track.

Senior quarterback Paul Hobson threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns against the Tigers — his first of four consecutive games without an interception, during which he’s completed almost 78% of his passes (63 of 81) for 1,122 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Paul Hobson (Baker) photo by Leon Neuschwander

“I do believe that missing the playoffs last year was a major disappointment,” Ramos said. “This year’s seniors wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again this season, and it was one of several goals they set for themselves.”

Another was to win the program’s first GOL title since 2016. To do so, they’ll need to beat a Buckaroos team that had starting quarterback Jace Otteson and receiver Benito Jennings return from injury last week against La Grande. Both teams enter the game 4-0 in league play.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to play for a league title,” Ramos said. “It’s been a while, but we have been intentional about taking one game at a time, so we haven’t really talked much about it. They want it for themselves, regardless of past history.”

The Dalles ready for second chance to make postseason return

The Dalles coach Marc Schilling had a simple message after his team’s 38-0 loss to La Salle Prep in the de facto Tri-Valley Conference championship game.

While the defeat ended the Riverhawks’ chances to win the title, it didn’t end their playoff hopes. A win Friday against defending 4A state champion Estacada will put them in the postseason for the first time since 2019.

“It was really a wide-eyed moment in our program knowing we had a direct shot vs. La Salle for the league title,” Schilling said. “As a staff, we have been emphasizing the importance of learning and gaining experience each time we take the field.

“To help them flush this game, we are reminding them that this was their first game in a long time that meant something more than just a win on the schedule. As a program, this is our first four-win season in a handful of years, so we are walking on unfamiliar territory with this extremely young group. Learning how to prepare and deal with those pressures requires a level of experience and a different kind of confidence.”

Schilling is well aware that the Rangers have that experience. He served on Andy Mott’s staff at Estacada before taking the job at The Dalles last year, and during that time, Schilling has lived the old proverb about living in interesting times.

The program canceled a Week 4 game last year, then forfeited its final two games after injuries and academic ineligibility decimated its numbers.

While the Riverhawks have played all eight games on their schedule this year, the injury bug bit the program early in the season but has subsided heading to this week’s critical game.

“Crazy might be an understatement, but we are excited to be in the playoff conversation,” Schilling said. “I absolutely expected to be in this position, and this was our Year 2 goal.”

He’d calculated that to achieve that goal, The Dalles would need to be 4-4 entering the Estacada game, and that’s exactly where the Riverhawks are.

Schilling expects there to be “a little extra hype and buzz around the game. I know there is a little bit of extra attention on both sides given the time I spent on that staff. But as programs, we are pretty close. They loaned us equipment last year when our shoulder pads were stuck on a shipping container in the ocean.”

That won’t matter much when the lights come on Friday night at Buzz Randall Field. The Rangers also need a win to get back to the postseason, with the loser likely at the mercy of the league’s tiebreakers for the final playoff spot.

“We will need to execute our game plan and limit mistakes this week,” Schilling said. “Estacada can grind the clock and make things uncomfortable, so getting behind is not a formula for success. They are playing some really good football right now as their players are maturing and getting more comfortable.”

Coquille needs some luck to extend playoff streak to 13 seasons

One of the state’s longest active postseason streaks is in jeopardy of coming to an end this week.

Coquille, which won a 2A state title two years ago, hasn’t missed the playoffs since 2009 (not counting the COVID spring 2021 season).

But after back-to-back shutout losses to Lakeview and South Umpqua cost the Red Devils a shot at one of the Far West League’s automatic berths, they must win at St. Mary’s (Medford) this week and hope the victory moves them ahead of four teams currently above them in the OSAA rankings.

“We’ve prided ourselves on our playoff run,” said coach David Thomason, whose first season coincided with that last playoff-less campaign. “It’s going to feel very strange if we don’t make the playoffs, that’s for sure.”

Thomason knew this season would be challenging. The roster lists 12 seniors, but half are first- or second-year players.

So, while the Red Devils have been close in all but one of their defeats, “small mistakes and inconsistencies have been our biggest problems this season,” Thomason said. “We are learning from those mistakes, though. Hopefully, in the long run, those lessons will pay off.”

One of the youngsters Thomason hopes will benefit from those lessons is junior running back Cameron Houston, who leads the team with 873 yards and six touchdowns in the Red Devils’ wing-T offense.

“To be honest, I was not expecting Cameron to be our starter,” Thomason said. “But when given an opportunity, Cameron excelled, far exceeding my expectations. He has been impressing me since the season started, and he is still doing it today.”

Houston has teamed with senior Bo Messerle, a converted tight end who has run for 828 yards and a team-high 11 touchdowns at fullback, to give Coquille a solid 1-2 punch out of the backfield.

“Bo is our bruiser in the middle and a silent leader,” Thomason said. “I joked with his dad, who is one of our assistants, that Bo needs to start charging fares since he seems to take defenders for rides more often than not.”

Oakland finds itself following similar path to its 2022 state title run

Oakland coach Ben Lane and his staff recently discussed the déjà vu feeling they’d been experiencing.

Last year, the Oakers lost a close game to Weston-McEwen in Week 2, then ran the table en route to the program’s first 2A state championship since 2012.

This year, the Oakers again played Weston-McEwen in Week 2, and again, they lost a taut game, 7-6. And since then, they’ve rolled through their Valley Coast South Division slate, leading to a Week 9 game against Gold Beach that will decide the division title and guarantee the winner a first-round home game in the 2A playoffs.

“There is definitely a feeling at this point that we just did this before,” said Lane, who earned his 100th career victory last week with a 46-8 win over North Douglas/Yoncalla. “There is some luck and good fortune once you get to this point.”

While the Oakers have been stingier on defense through eight games this year — they’ve allowed 9.3 points per game vs. 12.5 a year ago — their offense has struggled at times.

Cade Olds, the 2A co-offensive player of the year last fall, and quarterback Cole Collins graduated. Then, Oakland lost running back Silas Arscott to injury at the preseason jamboree, and junior Gabe Williamson missed two games in the middle of league play.

Williamson still leads the team with 1,027 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns, and seniors Brayden Webb (671 yards, seven touchdowns) and Jake Chenoweth (569 yards, three touchdowns) have also chipped in.

Chenoweth leads the defense with 83 tackles (12½ for loss, nine sacks), and seniors James Baimbridge (76 tackles) and Webb (25 tackles, seven interceptions) and junior Coen Egner (40 tackles, 10 sacks) also have played key roles.

“The kids have really embraced the team-first mentality,” Lane said. “Cade was also a monster on the defensive side of the ball. The good news for us is that we returned those other top performers around him. They have replaced his production by committee.”

The Panthers come to Oakland looking to avenge a 50-8 loss last season in the programs’ first meeting since the 2017 playoffs. The Oakers will look to slow senior Jake Westerman, who has rushed for 1,089 yards and scored 25 touchdowns (23 rushing).

“I’m not sure you stop a player like Westerman,” Lane said. “We need to figure out how to mitigate the damage. We need to play within our scheme and fly to the ball. It will definitely be a team effort.”

—