What we learned in Week 7 of Oregon high school football

Here’s what stood out during Week 7 of games on the Oregon high school football schedule

Boise State commit Mana Tuioti has helped power Sheldon to a 7-0 start to the 2024 season. / Photo by Michele Bunch

The 2024 Oregon high school football season continued last week with Week 7 games around the state. Here's what stood out during the seventh full weekend of action. 

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Sheldon being defensive in making its way back to top of SCFC standings

Sprague kicked off the season with eight consecutive wins, and Grants Pass emerged from the ashes of a 2-7 season to sit 5-2 through Week 7.

What team is there at the top of the South Central Football Conference standings alongside the Olympians? Ol’ reliable itself — Sheldon, which hasn’t missed a beat in the transition from Josh Line to Tyler Martell as head coach.

The Irish improved to 7-0 with a 45-10 victory over South Medford on Friday, boasting Class 6A’s top scoring defense, allowing just eight points per game.

Leading the way is recent Boise State commit Mana Tuioti, the younger brother of former 6A defensive player of the year and current University of Oregon defensive lineman Teitum Tuioti. 

Mana had 15 tackles (10 solo), a sack and an interception from his linebacker spot against the Panthers, adding to his team-high 58 tackles — a total that would be higher if not for the fact that South Medford was the first opponent against which he and the No. 1 defense played a full four quarters.

“If you could clone a player, you would want 50 Mana Tuiotis,” Martell said. “Mana has been the same guy before and after his BSU commitment. He has a good time playing football, loves being around his teammates, and works harder than anybody in practice.”

Tuioti has eight tackles for loss — behind only senior defensive lineman Luke Saraceno’s 11½, including a team-high six sacks, and Brody Thomas’ 9½ (four sacks). 

Tuioti also leads the team in rushing with 465 yards and 13 touchdowns on 55 carries. The attention he draws from opposing defenses has helped first-year starting quarterback Kelsen Sperry settle into his role.

Martell said Sperry had his best performance of the season against South Medford — 12 of 15 for 162 yards and three touchdowns to boost his season totals to 917 yards on 65-of-93 passing, with 14 touchdowns and one interception.

“Kelsen has improved every game this season,” Martell said. “He was poised (against South Medford), had great pocket presence and got the ball where it needed to go.”

Combine all that with a special teams unit that has blocked two punts (and hurried several more), returned two punts for touchdowns and two kickoffs for scores, and features University of Oregon-bound kicker Rocco Graziano (45 for 45 on PATs and 5 for 5 on field goals), and it’s easy to understand why most of their games have been over by halftime.

The experience of finally playing a full 48 minutes will come in handy as the Irish finish the regular season with their home finale this week against Grants Pass, followed by a Week 9 showdown at Sprague that likely will decide the SCFC title.

The Irish had their streak of league titles snapped at four last year when West Salem beat them in Week 9 to end their league win streak at 26 games. They avenged that defeat in Week 3 this season, but sitting at No. 9 in the OSAA rankings, Sheldon likely needs to win out to secure a top-eight spot and a first-round home game in the new 12-team state championship bracket. 

But Martell isn’t worrying about those things — yet.

“Our attention each day is on the Irish getting better,” he said. “It is nice that our season is closing out with three tough opponents, but the way we practice, it doesn’t matter who we play. We have the mentality that this is about us and not about who our opponent is.”

Glencoe finding success in drop to 5A behind Heninger, dominant O-line

Glencoe junior running back Daniel Heninger didn’t play football before entering high school and before this season had limited reps as a third-stringer behind Colby Stampflee and Trevor O’Leary, getting just 10 carries as a sophomore.

But the 5-foot-7, 155-pounder has enjoyed a breakthrough season. He rushed for 128 yards and a touchdown Friday in a 43-7 win at Aloha that improved the Crimson Tide to 5-0 in Northwest Oregon Conference play and 5-2 overall, giving Heninger 1,240 yards and 13 touchdowns this year.

“We were pretty confident that Daniel would be able to have a season like the one he has been able to have,” coach Ian Reynoso said. “His vision, acceleration and intellectual approach to running the ball definitely separates him from the rest of the pack. After really only doing it for two years, I am really excited to see him keep building on these skills.”

Reynoso added that Heninger has become more patient following and trusting his blocks from an offensive line that might be among the best the former University of Oregon lineman has had in his 15 years at Glencoe (the past seven as head coach).

And if he has any sway with his fellow Northwest Oregon Conference coaches at season’s end, it won’t be Heninger who garners the most votes for offensive player of the year, but 6-foot-4, 265-pound senior tackle Brody Sahlfeld, whom Reynoso calls “the best offensive lineman in the state.”

With Sahlfeld anchoring one side of the line and tight ends Camden Roofener and Zev Reynolds bookending a dominant front line, the Crimson Tide have rolled through conference play, including road wins at La Salle Prep and Forest Grove — two teams that were expected to challenge for the title.

The Crimson Tide’s drop to 5A this year is the latest attempt to stabilize a program that has struggled the past decade. Back-to-back winless seasons in 2014-15 led them to play an independent schedule for two years, and after resuming a regular league schedule, they have finished .500 twice but have not posted a winning record.

“We knew coming into the season we would have some potential to be successful, but potential is rarely met without buy-in,” Reynoso said. “It is nice to be coaching ‘pure high school football’ against groups that at least appear to be in the same situation we are.”

Reynoso has discussed how three NWOC teams — Aloha, Glencoe, Forest Grove — are 6A schools playing down, while another (Centennial) recently dropped from 6A to 5A.

“We aren’t chasing the ‘transfer portal’ culture and trying to build a power team, but rather continuing to invest in our community and the kids that have been committed to us since they were little,” he added. “I feel that this ‘traditional’ approach to high school football is still alive in the 5A level.”

Glencoe head coach Ian Reynoso has the Crimson Tide off to a 5-0 start in Northwest Oregon Conference play. / Photo by Dan Brood

Of course, if the Crimson Tide continue their successful run, they might not remain in 5A for long. If they earn their first playoff win since 2013 and finish with a .670 winning percentage or better, OSAA rules mandate their return to 6A. 

“I feel we will have a new sense of confidence if we go back up,” Reynoso said. “But it doesn’t change our demographics and where I feel we should be.”

Glencoe plays Centennial this week before heading to Hood River Valley in Week 9 for a game that likely will decide the NWOC title, which would be the program’s first league championship since 2007 — when, as Reynoso pointed out, the Crimson Tide also were a 5A program.

“Winning a conference championship is another rung on the ladder of goals we talk about throughout the season,” he said. “But like rungs of a ladder, the ones at the top are not attainable if you don’t take care of the ones on the way there. 

“Our team has done a very good job preparing for each week and playing each week as if it were for a conference championship. We haven’t had a lot of those games in the past, so we need to rep that mentality as often as we can.”

Transfer QB’s smooth transition has West Albany in position for MWC title tilt

Any worries about how West Albany would replace all-state quarterback Lukas Hews dissipated over the summer with Kaden Martirano’s arrival.

Martirano received 6A all-state honorable mention for West Salem as a junior before transferring 30 miles down I-5 to join the Bulldogs.

West Albany coach Brian Mehl said “there wasn’t much adjustment to make when he arrived. It was more about teaching the playbook more than anything else in order for him to gain confidence in our offensive system. His skill speaks for itself.”

After going 2-2 with a challenging nonleague schedule, the Bulldogs improved to 3-0 in Mid-Willamette Conference play with a 48-18 victory over Lebanon that sets up a de facto conference title game this week at home against Dallas.

Martirano showed his mastery of the Bulldogs offense in Friday’s win, going 20 of 29 for 374 yards and four touchdowns with one interception. He ran for 21 yards and a touchdown on six carries.

Martirano has thrown for 1,750 yards and 16 touchdowns with six interceptions and scored 10 rushing touchdowns.

The Bulldogs led just 21-18 at halftime — and very well could have trailed if not for an illegal block penalty negating a Lebanon touchdown on an interception return.

“We were in that halftime position because of our mistakes,” Mehl said. “We gave up an explosive kickoff return, defensive penalties and three turnovers. We needed to maintain poise and composure and execute better in the second half.”

Kaden Martirano has accounted for 26 touchdowns in his first season with West Albany. / Photo by Dan Brood

Martirano connected with Washington State commit Austin Simmons three times for touchdowns in the second half, giving the senior receiver eight touchdowns this season.

That connection will be tested against the Dragons and their 5A-leading scoring defense (7.9 points per game). Dallas’ offense has been sneaky effective, putting up 98 points the past two weeks.

“They’re a very good football team that has met every test in their season,” Mehl said. “Their version of the wing-T presents some challenges to prepare for. They fly around and make plays on defense. We will focus on us and the things that we can control to play a good game this Friday.”

La Grande rebounds from 2-7 season to have shot at Greater Oregon League crown

Dalton Sheets finally achieved his dream of becoming a head coach last year when he took over for Rich McIlmoil at La Grande.

But that first season turned out to be a nightmare. The previous year, the Tigers went 9-3 and reached the 4A semifinals, but they graduated 20 seniors from that group, and the players who took their places didn’t have much varsity experience.

Then, the injury bug bit the program hard, and as Sheets noted, “for a good chunk of the season, we had seven sophomores starting on either side of the ball.”

The result was a 2-7 record that marked the Tigers’ fewest wins since 2013.

And after they started this season 1-2 with back-to-back losses to Vale and Tillamook, Sheets acknowledged “there was some natural doubt. Losing to a tough Vale team and then losing a game that we knew we could have played much better in was difficult.”

The Tigers had a week off after their long trip to the coast, coming at the right time for the team to regroup. 

“We challenged ourselves to all get better and grind,” Sheets said. “That is where a core of the success has come from since then — hard work.”

Hard work and the emergence of three juniors — running backs Sovann Chab and Landon Hood and quarterback Mathias Fields — have helped the Tigers win four in a row, including a 27-14 nonleague victory against Burns last week, entering a showdown with undefeated Crook County that will decide the Greater Oregon League title.

“We are still young, but we’re gaining experience,” Sheets said.

The Tigers average almost seven yards per carry, with Chab rushing for a team-high 654 yards and three touchdowns. Hood has been effective in the running and passing games, scoring a team-high five rushing touchdowns and leading the team with 10 catches for 282 yards and three scores.

Fields returned from missing the team’s Week 4 win against Nyssa and has been efficient in the past three games in limited attempts — 11 of 16 for 238 yards and three touchdowns. He scored touchdowns against Ontario and Burns.

The defense also reflects a team approach, with eight players making between 13 and 24 tackles, led by junior defensive back Weston Harris’ 24 to go with four forced fumbles and two interceptions.

Senior defensive end Kenai Huff has been a terror in opposing backfields with 13½ tackles for loss and 8½ sacks, and junior Bekham Hibbert has nine tackles for loss, five sacks and two forced fumbles.

That defense will face a stiff test this week against the Cowboys, whose 33 points per game rank second behind Cascade, the only other undefeated 4A team.

“They have some stud players that will be a challenge to slow down,” Sheets said. “We will have to play our best ball and eliminate turnovers to compete in this one. We look forward to the challenge and hope to have a great week of work.”

North Valley ready to challenge 2-time defending state champion Cascade Christian in Far West

In the 11 seasons Neil DeForrest has coached at North Valley, his teams have played in one game with a conference championship on the line.

That changes Friday when the Knights play host to Cascade Christian, with both teams 3-0 in Far West League play. North Valley finds itself in position for its first league title since 2012 after a 52-7 Homecoming win over Lakeview — its fifth consecutive victory since suffering its only loss, 14-7 to Siuslaw in Week 2 in a game DeForrest called “our sloppiest game of the year.” 

“When you lose a game like that in the last minute, you look back at the lost opportunities,” DeForrest said, referring to five turnovers and 13 penalties. “But what we learned is that we can play with good teams. We walked away knowing we could have a pretty good group. And as Siuslaw keeps winning (the Vikings are 6-0), our confidence has grown.” 

The Knights also got a boost from the return of senior Shelby Boughner, who missed the first three games because of eligibility issues. DeForrest praised how the transfer from California who joined the program last year “busted it to get back on the field,” and after a week playing just defense to reacclimate, he has been “a nice boost” to the wing-T attack.

He took over at fullback, where he might be smaller than the typical lead back, “but he’s really physical and looks like a powerlifter,” DeForrest said. In three games, Boughner has rushed for 279 yards and three touchdowns, complementing the team’s leading rushers, senior John Erkenoff (788 yards, 13 touchdowns) and junior Hayden Taylor (559 yards, four touchdowns).

Erkenoff missed most of his junior season after suffering an injury in the opener against Cascade Christian, returning in time to help the Knights notch their first playoff win since 2008. Taylor hasn’t left the lineup since the opening game of his freshman season, when injuries felled the Knights’ top three running backs and Taylor scored the winning touchdown.

Boughner also has settled in as one of the outside linebackers with junior Tanner Core flanking four-year starter Ryan Gaskin at middle linebacker in the Knights’ 3-3 stack defense.

DeForrest can mix and match his defenders, but Gaskin — a 6-2, 205-pounder who was a first-team all-Far West selection last year — is the one constant. 

“He’s done this for a long time and allows us to do a lot of different things on defense,” DeForrest said.

Boughner’s return also allowed DeForrest to move Malachi Loe from outside linebacker to defensive end, “and he’s been so disruptive week to week,” DeForrest said of the 6-2, 205-pound junior. “He’s very strong and explosive and made a huge difference defensively.”

The result is a defense that ranks No. 3 in 3A in points allowed (8.6 per game) and has “carried us through certain stretches this year,” DeForrest said. “We’ve battled ourselves too much offensively with turnovers and penalties at the worst times.”

He knows they’ll need to win that battle with themselves this week against the Challengers, who started the season 1-3 but are the two-time defending state champions and have won 22 consecutive league games.

The teams have been in the same league for only two years since North Valley dropped from 4A, but they’re familiar foes from summer 7-on-7 league and other Southern Oregon events.

“We know this game is not going to be too big for Cascade Christian,” DeForrest said. “And I fully expect our kids to be nervous to start. But they’re pretty confident right now. They’ve risen to every challenge we’ve put to them, and they’re anxious to prove they belong here.”

Father-son duo has Crosspoint Christian battling in 1A eight-man ranks

Jim Johnston’s journey to becoming head coach at Crosspoint Christian and having the Warriors on the verge of their first league title is both long and short.

Long in that this is the fourth time Johnston has coached at an eight-man program in Klamath Falls, and short in that Johnston helped start the program four years ago when Hosanna Christian and the Triad School merged.

The journey started in 2007 when Johnson started the program at Triad, where his daughters, Kendyl and MaKayla, attended elementary school. He led it for four seasons and two 1A semifinal appearances before taking some time off from coaching to focus on his business and family after going through a difficult divorce.

In 2013, Johnston planned to take the job at Mazama, “but I knew something would have to give,” he explained, so he changed his mind. After his daughters decided they wanted to go to private school for high school, they enrolled at Hosanna Christian, and Johnston joined them as the Lions coach, going 52-18 in seven seasons and reaching the 2017 state final.

When Hosanna Christian and Triad merged after the 2019-20 school year, Johnston stayed to coach for two seasons, but the success they had individually didn’t carry through the consolidation, with the Warriors going 3-10 before Johnston stepped down.

“We had some kids move to Idaho, and we lost some others to Mazama and Henley,” Johnston said. “When they became really kids, the kids weren’t flocking to Crosspoint. And with COVID, we had some pretty lean years with 15-16 kids, and during that gap, we didn’t have strong middle school programs.”

In the spring of 2023, his son, Trey, then a promising eighth-grade receiver in the Mazama pipeline, came to Johnston saying he wanted to return to Crosspoint Christian. But in November 2022, Johnston’s brother, Keith, who had been side-by-side with him as defensive coordinator, passed away. 

He felt torn. He prayed about the situation and considered “how well they had treated me. I knew they were struggling, so I thought, ‘Let’s do this.’”

The Warriors reached the playoffs for the first time last year, losing in the first round to St. Paul. This season, following a similar pattern to Johnston’s first three coaching stints, they’ve broken through in Year 2. They’re 7-0 after a 52-20 win over Glendale, setting up a league title showdown this week against fellow unbeaten North Douglas.

“Last year, I was in more of a head coach/consultant situation, where I didn’t want to ruffle feathers while I got to know the school again and see where we needed to improve,” said Johnston, who has a 96-43 career mark. “This year, we’re a really young  team, but it’s a great group of kids who’ve bought into everything we wanted them to do to build a great program.”

It starts with quarterback Kody Sparks, one of two seniors on the roster and “the best quarterback I’ve coached in my 17 years,” Johnston said. Sparks has thrown for 1,034 yards and 19 touchdowns against one interception, with Trey Johnston (now a sophomore) his leading target with 26 catches for 742 yards and 15 touchdowns.

The Warriors feature a two-headed backfield in junior Chris Kelly (541 yards, six touchdowns) and sophomore Junior Gonzalez (592 yards, seven touchdowns), and Kelly (51 tackles, 12½ tackles for loss, four sacks) and Gonzalez (49 tackles, 5½ for loss) are their leading tacklers.

Sparks (19 tackles, four interceptions) and Johnston (13 tackles, three interceptions) lead the secondary.

“We run the ball really well with Junior and Kayson, and Kody and Trey have a special connection,” Jim Johnston said. “But overall, if you look at our wins, they have a whole team effort. They get it done together.”

The Warriors’ challenge this week is for everyone to work together to stop North Douglas junior Hunter Vaughn, who recently became the school’s career rushing leader. Vaughn is averaging 27 yards per carry and has 39 total touchdowns. 

“He is a load, a special player,” Johnston said. “You don’t stop a kid like that. He’s going to get loose, but what we’ve seen is that other teams allow him to get emotionally involved in a game. They punt to him, kick to him. So, we’ve got to eliminate all the extra things he does to create this excitement. And we need to be great on offense so they don’t have the ball.”

This and that …

• Sherwood senior Wilson Medina had one of the most efficient rushing nights of the season, gaining 234 yards and scoring four touchdowns on six carries in the Bowmen’s 62-34 victory over McMinnville. Sherwood rushed for 451 yards, amassed 602 total yards and remained unbeaten in Pacific Conference play.
• Baker already was dealing with the loss of starting quarterback Jake McClaughry to a broken wrist, and the Bulldogs are now without standout junior Rasean Jones, one of the state’s top receivers, who suffered a separated shoulder in the second half of their Week 6 loss to La Grande. Jones, who had 15 touchdowns (11 receiving, three kickoff returns and a punt return), should be back in time for basketball, in which he was a starter for last season’s 4A state champions.
• Scappoose beat Tillamook for the first time since Scappoose returned to the Cowapa League three years ago, defeating the Cheesemakers 46-27 behind another big game from senior quarterback Max Nowlin (20 of 31, 302 yards, three touchdowns, three interceptions). Elijah Greenan-Biggs ran for two touchdowns, and Brayden Miller had a 71-yard interception return for a score. “Tillamook has been a tough place to play in recent years, so it is always good to come in here and get a win,” Scappoose coach Joe Nowlin said.
• Two years ago, St. Mary’s (Medford) qualified for the 3A state playoffs, but the Crusaders recently announced they are forfeiting their final three games this season because of low numbers. They started the season with 26 players, but injuries reduced the roster to 17 before their scheduled Week 7 rivalry game with Cascade Christian. It’s the third time in the past two decades the school cut short a season, and Jaime Young — who serves as football coach and athletic director — told the Rogue Valley Times that while he hopes “this is a three-game hiatus,” the school is meeting with players and assessing the middle school program to determine “what is in the best interest of player safety and the program.”

• Darian Schultz reached 30 passing touchdowns for the season for Eddyville Charter, throwing for 195 yards and five scores in a 53-0 win over Siletz Valley that lifted the Eagles to 7-0 for the first time since 1996. The 1A six-man program went 8-2 last year and earned its first playoff win since 1995.

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