Wilsonville players stage late comeback to deliver state title to beloved coach Adam Guenther

“Just to finally reward him, almost as a thank you for how much he’s pulling for us”

Once Wilsonville got out of its own way, there was no stopping the Wildcats in Friday night’s OSAA Class 5A state championship football game at Hillsboro Stadium. 

They overcame 16 penalties and two turnovers to rally from a nine-point deficit in the final 11 minutes to defeat Mountain View 29-23, bringing the blue trophy south on I-5 for the first time since 2004.

“It was really just one foot in front of the other, just staying persistent,” said junior Mark Wiepert, who made a game-high 17 tackles and caught a touchdown pass. “It’s really hard to keep things rolling when things like that happen, but that just speaks to the character and heart of this team.” 

Wilsonville (12-1) had come up short in the final three times since 2016, all under coach Adam Guenther — including last season against Summit.

So, when Connor Crum’s fourth-down pass fluttered harmlessly to the turf as three Wildcats pursued him with 20 seconds left, Wiepert teared up a bit.

“Just so emotionally satisfying,” he said. “There’s so much to think about — the process, the guys who came before us, and all the guys coming up.”

And, finally, for Coach Guenther.

“Just to finally reward him, almost as a thank you for how much he’s pulling for us,” Wiepert concluded.

“I’m just so proud of Coach Adam,” added senior quarterback Kallen Gutridge, who overcame two interceptions to finish 18 of 29 for 291 yards and four touchdowns, the last one a 30-yarder to Nick Crowley with 4:56 remaining to give the Wildcats the lead.

“He’s so deserving, you know? It’s just an awesome experience. He’s been here four or five times now, and I’m just so glad he’s finally walking away successful.”

As for the man himself, he deflected all the credit to his players.

“They don’t quit,” Guenther said. “Turnovers happen, bad things happen, and they just keep grinding. This is what a championship game is supposed to be like. I mean, down to the last second, so it was awesome. Absolutely awesome. My hands are still shaking. And I’m very humbled to be a small part of it.”

The mood was more somber at the other end of Hillsboro Stadium, where the Cougars (12-1) came to terms with having controlled the final for 43 minutes, only to have it slip out of their grasp.

“We came out with energy, just trusting in our guys,” said junior Jack Foley, who caught a second-quarter touchdown and had a third-quarter interception. “And in the fourth quarter, they came out with a little more energy, and we took our foot off the gas.”

Still, the Cougars led 23-14 after Connor Calvert’s third field goal of the game — a 36-yarder that made him the fourth kicker to make three in a state final — with 11:09 to play.

Wilsonville answered with a nine-play, 80-yard drive capped by a 6-yard pass from Gutridge to Crowley with 7:20 remaining.

Mountain View looked like it would go three-and-out on its next possession, but that’s when coach Brian Crum rolled the dice facing fourth-and-4 from his 39.

Crum looked at the clock with 5:06 left and determined, “Their offense is so explosive, and whether we gave them a 35-yard field or a 60-yard field, I wasn’t sure it was going to make much of a difference.

“It’s something that we kind of lived by all year. We did it in the first two rounds and made it.”

But at this critical point of the game, the decision backfired. Crum’s son, Connor, was sacked for a 9-yard loss by Will Ingle, and Gutridge immediately made the Cougars pay as Crowley got behind the cornerback and made a diving catch in the front-right corner of the end zone.

“We’d been getting 5-yard routes on that corner, but Crowley had a speed advantage, so we finally set it up to have a shot deep,” Gutridge said. “And we felt like first down, they won’t be expecting it as much. It was just awesome.”

That left Mountain View almost five minutes to rally for a winning score. The Cougars again faced fourth down deep in their territory to open their final possession but got bailed out by a downfield holding penalty, then went to work.

Connor Crum completed 6 of his next 7 passes, overcoming a sack with 1:05 left to convert on third down with a 21-yard pass to Kaden Alayan to give them first down at the Wilsonville 12.

“There’s so much emotion there, you just have to block it out and do your job,” Wiepert said. “But it’s really hard not to be looking at the scoreboard on both sides.”

On first down, it was Ingle again coming up with the big play, flying in untouched from the right side to bring down Crum for an 8-yard loss, forcing the Cougars to call their final timeout with 32 seconds left. 

“Coach (Ned) Walls just calling up that blitz, and, I mean, everyone on the team kind of knew we needed something to shift the momentum,” said Ingle, a junior who had a state championship game record-tying three sacks. “I got my look off that, and it got us going.” 

Lucas Larson knocked away a pass on second down, and Carter Christiansen got his hands on the third-down pass. Finally, with the game on the line, it was the trio of Mason Seal, Gavin Waddell and Lincoln Mason that chased Crum and harried him into a final incompletion.

“I was so happy, I just put my arms in the air,” Ingle said of watching the pass hit the turf. “I’m just hugging my teammates, and everyone almost rushed the field, even though it would have been a penalty.”

That would have been par for the course for the Wildcats, who were flagged 16 times for 161 yards — both the second-most in a state final — and gave up seven first downs by penalty.

“We had advantages all over the field, but it was just whether we could keep the game clean as far as penalties,” Gutridge said. “Those really hurt us in the first half. We only scored seven points in the first half, and that’s unlike us. It seemed like every first down was getting called back, and it was rough.”

Between the penalties and an interception by Brady Kennedy, the Cougars took advantage of Wilsonville’s miscues to build a 20-7 lead on Crum’s 14-yard jaunt on a quarterback draw with 8:42 left in the third quarter.

They could have put a stranglehold on the game after Foley intercepted Gutridge’s overthrown screen pass at midfield on Wilsonville’s ensuing drive, but back-to-back sacks by Waddell and Ingle led to a missed 50-yard field goal by Calvert, giving the Wildcats life.

They quickly capitalized, with Gutridge buying time on a fourth-down play before finding Wiepert wide open behind the defense for a 55-yard touchdown with 1:45 left in the third.

“Momentum is a crazy thing in high school sports, but especially football,” Coach Crum said. “We had a mistake or two on defense where we gave them some big plays, and they gained it back.”

When asked what he told his son as they walked from the trophy presentation to the throng of players and fans awaiting one final postgame huddle, Crum got emotional.

“Just how damn proud I am of him,” he said of Connor, a senior who finished 14 of 22 for 136 yards and a touchdown. “He proved that he’s one of the best football players in the state and a great leader, a guy who I’m going to put my trust in all the time. And I just told him I love him, and it’s been a hell of a ride. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Neither would a Wildcats team hungry to earn a title that eluded them in 2016, 2018 and again just one year ago, when they watched an early 13-0 lead evaporate and a late comeback fall short in a 35-28 defeat to Summit. 

“It means a lot, bringing this home,” Ingle said. “It definitely means something. In the locker room at halftime, Coach Guenther was just like, ‘Weather the storm. We’re playing our football. We’ve just got to dial it in.’ His coaching investments just helped us all. And I’m glad to win it for him.”

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Photos by Leon Neuschwander