Oregon Prep Football’s Second Season Begins Friday
Sheldon, South Salem and three other SD1 teams in championship bracket
The regular season games are done. Now things get real serious in Oregon high school football with the start of post-season contests. This year includes a significant change. 32 teams still qualify for the extra games at the 6A level—but only the top 16 play for the state title. The other, lower ranked teams will compete for the newly created Columbia Cup—essentially a consolation trophy.
Special District One qualified a total of five teams for the championship bracket: Sheldon, South Salem, North Medford, South Medford, and Grants Pass.
Championship Bracket
Barlow (5-4) at Sheldon (9-0): Sheldon—ranked second in the OSAA power ratings—but listed as number one in the coaches’ poll—will host Barlow of Gresham, the #15 team in the bracket.
Sheldon only had one tight game—a 36-31 victory over #1 power ranked West Linn in week two. In all the other games, the Irish defense gave up no more than one touchdown to the opposition. Irish quarterback Brock Thomas finished the regular season at West Salem by throwing for 392 yards and five TDs, while rushing for another 64 yards. Thomas finished the regular year with 2300 yards passing with 35 TDs through the air—plus another 10 touchdowns rushing.
Barlow won their last two games in regular season play, including a 14-3 win over Sandy in the final contest. Hunter MacDonald and Jett Fay are the anchors for the Bruins’ run-heavy offense, with more than a thousand yards combined during the regular season.
The winner of this game faces the winner between #10 North Medford, and #7 Lake Oswego.
South Salem (8-1) at Sherwood (7-2): South Salem—which finished #8 in the power rankings—sadly lost their chance for a first-round home game. The Saxons were usurped by Sherwood, which had been rated eleventh, because the Bowman won the Pacific Conference crown and were given the last home contest. South was moved to the ninth seed—and to add insult to injury—was paired with Sherwood, at Sherwood.
The Saxons—who never faced Sheldon in special district one play—had just one stumble in the regular season. South fell at home to South Medford, 48-35. Sherwood held off Liberty 20-19 in their season finale’ to clinch the Pacific Conference title.
Sherwood—which beat SD1 team West Salem (1-8), 31-14 in the season opener, suffered losses to Clackamas (34-25) and Jesuit (42-0). The Bowmen run a wing-T offense, similar—but not identical to—the offense operated by North Salem.
“The core concepts (of the North and Sherwood wing-T) are the same,” said South Coach Scott Dufault.
“That will put us ahead of the curve.”
Top Sherwood offensive weapons include quarterback Kasen Covert and running backs Elijah Douglass and Nick Gribble—the son of Bowmen head coach Mark Gribble. Gribble has nine rushing touchdowns on the season.
South Salem counters with quarterback Daschel Smith—who threw for nearly 2800 yards and 33 touchdowns in the regular season, with just eight interceptions. Receivers Tini Tinitali, Esteban Mendez, and Zach Wustigg were the Saxon’s top receivers, combining for better than 2000 yards in nine games. South comes into the post season as the fourth-highest scoring 6A football squad in Oregon—at 41.6 points per game.
Coach Dufault expressed confidence in his team’s ability to be successful in the state championship bracket.
“We think we’ve got a pretty good team and we’ll see how we match up,” said the coach.
“We are healthy, our defense is good against the run, and we have explosive players.”
South’s top defensive performers on the season have been linebackers Braedy Vogt, Tristan Geer, and Nate Scharer, and defensive lineman Hatimu Letisi—all of whom averaged 4 ½ tackles a game or better.
The winner of this game plays the winner of #16 Grant and #1 West Linn next week.
North Medford (6-3) at Lake Oswego (6-3): North Medford won 6 of 7 SD1 games, only losing (like everyone else) to second-ranked Sheldon. The #9 Black Tornado, who had their ranking adjusted to tenth as part of bracket changes, face a Lake Oswego squad that won a tight 14-0 win over West Salem (1-8) in week two and finished their season with an unexpected loss to crosstown rival Lakeridge 14-9.
Lake-O only averaged 19 points a game during the regular season, but also yielded just 17 points a game, including a 49-0 loss to #1 West Linn. The Lakers played a “by committee” offense all season long, led by sophomore quarterback Liam Davis and senior running back Calvin Macy. Defensive back Jack Knapp is the leading tackler for the Lakers, averaging six take downs per game.
North Medford propelled itself into the post season with a resounding 35-0 victory over rival South Medford in week nine. QB Kaiden Lacey—back on the field after being carried off on a stretcher two weeks before—threw for just over 200 yards in beating South Medford, while Tornado running back Ty Pugliano ran for 150 yards on 18 carries in the victory. NM receiver Connor Cesaro caught eight passes in the win for 133 yards, including back-to-back scores over a period of 60 seconds. Oregon-bound tight end AJ Pugliano was hurt in the Black and Blue Bowl, and is reportedly listed as out this week.
The winner of the LO-North Medford game will advance to play the winner of Sheldon and Barlow.
South Medford (6-3) at Central Catholic (8-1): After being trounced by crosstown rival North Medford last week, the Panthers get the honor of traveling to face two-time state champion Central Catholic. The Rams only loss on the year came on a trip to Southern California, where they lost to St. John-Bosco 49-0.
Central Catholic QB Cru Newman, just a junior, directed his team’s offense all season long—rushing for 8 touchdowns and 550 yards, while throwing for 1800 yards and 21 TDs. His favorite target was Zhaiel Smith—who caught 9 TD passes for over 500 yards. Against teams in Oregon, the Rams averaged just a shade under 50 points a game. They scored 79 in the last game, a shutout win at David Douglas.
The banged-up Panthers are directed by quarterback Deacon Edgar, who threw for 1500 yards, with a completion rate of just under 70 percent. He recorded 15 touchdowns, while being picked up 9 times. Edgar also had eight TDs on the ground for 244 yards on 58 carries. The receiving corps has been hurt on and off all season. Andrew Walker (623 yards, 9 TDs) and Ty Henry (352 yards, 4 TDs) were reliable when healthy. Henry was lost for the season after breaking his collar bone prior to the North Medford game.
The winner of this game will take on the Jesuit (#4) vs. Tigard (#13) contest.
Grants Pass (6-3) at Tualatin (7-2): The Cavemen started SD1 play at South Salem with a hard-to-swallow 48-7 road loss to South Salem. But GP proceeded to win four of their next games, including a hard fought 18-14 victory at North Salem. Now they have a difficult road game against a veteran Tualatin squad.
Senior quarterback Jace Blanchard has directed the balanced Caveman attack, throwing for over 1600 yards and 16 TDs during the regular season. Receiver Jackson Tunick had over 800 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns in nine games.
The Tualatin offense has been on a tear all season long, with hopes of returning to the 6A championship game, where they lost last year to Central Catholic. Timberwolves signal-caller Jack Wagner has thrown for over 2000 yards with 21 TDs on the season. Transfer running back Luke Ash has rushed for over 800 yards.
The winner will take on the winner of the Mountainside (#6) vs. Nelson (#11) game next week.
Columbia Cup Bracket
The bracket featuring teams #17 to #32 also starts action on Friday. Special District one participants are Sprague (#23) and North Salem (#28).
Sunset (4-5) at Sprague (5-4): Sunset and Sprague have a common opponent from the regular season—the South Salem Saxons. The outcome for both teams was nothing to write home about. Sunset fell to the Saxons 42-7 in week two, while the Olympians were also pounded by South 42-12 on October 21st.
Sunset’s offense is directed by strong-armed Drew Nees, who has tallied over 1600 passing yards and 13 touchdowns against 8 interceptions. His favorite targets are Cole Massar (over 500 yards) and Blake Hurley (nearly 400 yards). Nees is also his team’s top rusher at over 300 yards.
Sprague has relied on the developing arm of junior quarterback Athan Palmateer, who has thrown for nearly 1100 yards with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Palmateer has also averaged better than four yards a carry when he takes off running.
Barick Hill is the top performer in the Sprague rushing attack, with 502 yards and five TDs. Kenya Johnson has developed late in the season, and is averaging nearly 7 ½ yards a carry and 356 total yards. Fullback Caden Collins has been quite productive when he gets the ball, averaging over 8 yards a carry—and 3 touchdowns on just 19 carries.
All-everything wide receiver Drew Rodriguez—headed to Colorado State next fall as a linebacker—tops the Oly receiving corps with 747 yards and 11 touchdowns. Possession receiver Tyler Bucheit, and backs Johnson and Carson are also go-to targets for Palmateer.
Controlling the football will be a key in this game, and Sprague Coach Jay Minyard says his team is looking real good at present.
“We are as healthy as we’ve ever been… sprains, nicks and the like are healed-up,” says Minyard.
“Everybody seems enthusiastic.”
The victor of this game will square off against the winner of Century (#31) and Westview (#18).
North Salem (5-4) at Newberg (5-4): These two teams are coming off of opposite outcomes in preparing for the first round of the Columbia Cup bracket. Newberg (#21) is savoring the end of their regular season after trouncing Glencoe 48-13. North Salem (#28) is healthy, but still licking its wounds have a late surge gave South Salem a 33-14 victory at North High last Friday.
North Salem coach Jeff Flood says Newberg—the defending 6A wrestling champion—has a line-up filled with wrestling types.
“They have lots of guys who are very physical,” admits Flood, who has seen Newberg several times in the past several years.
“They are big up front—and have a reliable quarterback.”
That quarterback—Cole Thomas—has thrown for over 800 yards this season.
The Tiger player that Flood has the most concerns about is fullback and linebacker Hudson Davis—who lived for many years in Salem before moving to Newberg prior to his high school playing days. He has rushed for nearly 800 yards and 10 touchdowns in regular season play.
“He (Davis) is very physical, and their main guy in the Newberg run game,” says Flood.
Flood says his team should matchup effectively with the Tigers.
“We have a slight advantage with some speed. Being balanced (on offense for North) is the key.”
Josiah Davis is the man who is the anchor for the Viking run game. He has rushed for over 800 yards and nine touchdowns in a season where he has been hindered by injury—including a nagging case of turf toe. Jo-Jo, as his team calls him, rushed for 75 yards on 15 carries in last week’s loss to South Salem. Speedster DeMari Thompson—last year’s 5A sprint champion—adds even more speed in the backfield. He had a 33-yard TD scamper against South, and is averaging over 10 yards a carry. Jerrick Wangler rounds out the ground game with hard-nose rushes up the middle. The fullback has five touchdowns on the season—most coming from a short, goal line play.
In the passing game, junior quarterback TC Malumaleuna continues to get better each week, although interceptions can still be an issue. Against South Salem, he completed 17 of 29 passes for 155 yards, and one TD of 18 yards to Erick Gonzalez. He also threw 3 interceptions in the game. Gonzalez is TC’s top target on the season, with 500 yards in receptions and total eight touchdowns.
The winner of North Salem-Newberg will play next week against the winner of McMinnville (#29) and Jefferson of Portland (#20).
Enjoy the first round everyone.
Mark, great article and well written. Thanks for writing on HS sports, these kids deserve the attention and publicity. I was hoping you would have something about Central or even Dallas making the playoffs, they both had extraordinary seasons, but unfortunately they don’t get much publicity as there are just outside of Salem, and writers forget about them. Keep up the good work!