Prep football round up: tough first week for Salem-Keizer
The six teams finish the weekend 2-4 with some difficult losses
Labor Day weekend marked the start of the 2022 Oregon prep football season—and for Salem-Keizer, the week one results were less than stellar. However, much of that can be attributed to a long list of young teams with limited experience.
Traditional powers West Salem and Sprague both went down to defeat Friday night.
West stayed with a veteran Sherwood team early, but ultimately fell on the road to the Bowmen, 31-14. Sherwood scored on their opening drive, but missed the extra point to lead it 6-0. West responded quickly. Titans sophomore QB Kaden Martirano—who threw for 243 yards on the night—hooked up with senior transfer wideout Braiden Copeland on a 68 yard TD pass to take a 7-6 lead.
But the Titans—who lost all eleven offensive starters from last year—eventually ran out of gas. They were in the game at 21-14 in the third quarter, but yielded the last 17 points of the game for the final margin of victory. After it was over, Martirano told Scorebook Live that he remains confident the young Titan squad will become a team to be reckoned with. West has a home contest next Friday versus powerful Lake Oswego.
Sprague also lost most of its offensive talent from last year, including much of the offensive line. And early on, it showed on the road versus Liberty of Hillsboro. The host Falcons ran through the green Olympian defense early, scoring on its first two possessions to take a 14-0 lead. A long kickoff return set up the first Falcon score, which took just four plays to cover 48 yards. The second touchdown came after an Olympian fumble at their own 21 yard line.
The Sprague offense managed just under 40 yards of total offense in the half, and completed zero passes, but the Olympians did get a score late in the first quarter. Liberty was driving deep into Sprague territory again, when they fumbled at the Olympian 21. Sprague’s do-everything athlete, Colorado State commit Drew Rodriguez, scooped up the football and rambled 79 yards for the touchdown—and with the extra point—the Olys were down just 14-7.
But the Falcons squeezed out one more score just before halftime. Twice on their last drive, they converted on fourth down—once with a fake punt, the other on a questionable pass interference call. Those big plays set up a 16 yard Falcons TD pass with 33 seconds left in the first half for a 21-7 advantage.
The momentum tables were turned on the field during the second half. The Olympian defense made adjustments at halftime, and shutout the Falcons for the last two quarters of the game, forcing two fumbles in the last 24 minutes.
The Olys also found some offensive rhythm. After rotating between senior Wil Hassoun and junior transfer Athan Palmateer at quarterback in the first half, Coach Jay Minyard early in the third decided to stick with Palmateer. The former South Salem backup finished the second half by completing four of nine passes with one interception, but he also had two touchdowns to Rodriguez, who accounted for all 62 receiving yards for Sprague, plus the TD catches of two and 18 yards. The passing helped to open up the running game, and the Olys’ Barik Hill rushed for 99 yards on 20 carries.
Sprague closed the scoring gap to 21-19 in the third quarter, and had two golden opportunities to take the lead. The first, with 5:48 left in the game, was on fourth down and two from the Liberty 8 yard line. Sprague went for it on fourth down, but Barik Hill’s run was two feet short.
Sprague held defensively, and got the ball back one last time near the Liberty 40 with just over two minutes left. Athan Palmateer rolled right, and threw a very low bullet pass—and it was miraculously intercepted by the Falcons, who then ran out the clock.
The Olys will be at home next Friday against Beaverton, and Coach Minyard has indicated he is making some adjustments.
A young and inexperienced McNary team had an extremely difficult 2022 debut—falling hard at Lakeridge by a count of 47-0.
The host Pacers’ quarterback—Ryan Oliver—threw for a career best 356 yards and five scores against the Celtic defense. McNary has the unenviable task of hosting defending state runner-up Tualatin next Saturday at 5:00 pm. First year McNary Coach Connor Astley, who had high praise for the effort put forth by many of his players, will retool and get ready for week two.
The craziest game of Friday night was at 5A McKay, where the Royal Scots and the Lebanon Warriors did battle in Mid-Willamette Conference action in a football version of a track meet. The two teams traded scores in the opening quarter, and were tied at 13 after the first. McKay took a 26-19 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
The Royal Scots took control in the third quarter, with touchdowns by Lukes Dominguez on the ground, and Anthony Justice through the air from Kyrin Fuimaono to run out to a 20 point lead, at 39-19 in the third quarter.
But the fourth quarter belonged to the visiting Warriors. After scoring a score in the third to cut the McKay advantage to 39-27, Lebanon scored the last 14 points of the game, the last one a 15 yard TD run by Hayden George with 4:22 left. The two-point conversion gave Lebanon a 41-39 lead, and McKay had no offensive answer to finish the contest.
“We definitely had some great moments,” Coach Brandis Piper told me afterwards. “We just didn’t close it out.”
The two 6A teams with the most returning experience posted the only Salem-Keizer wins of opening weekend: North Salem and South Salem.
North Salem actually started the weekend Thursday with their win—beating Roosevelt of Portland on the road, 35-3. The only points yielded by the Vikings came after North mishandled a punt and gave the Roughriders excellent field position. All they could muster was the field goal. Vikings running back Josiah Davis anchored the North offense with 200 yards rushing and three TDs. Junior Jerrik Wangler was the defensive anchor for the Viks, recording a fumble recovery, two sacks, and an interception.
North coach Jeff Flood was philosophical about the game and the win, saying that “Our mistakes didn’t cost us like it would against opponents down the road.”
“(We have) lots to build on, but lots to fix as well.”
The last game of the weekend—on Saturday afternoon—had South Salem up in the Seattle area, facing Liberty High School of Renton, coached by former Saxon player Steve Valach (class of 83).
The host Patriots faced a Saxon team that was short handed in the first quarter due to team disciplinary reasons. Liberty took advantage early—starting with an 81 yard kickoff return that started their offense at the Saxon nine yard line. Two plays later, they punched it into the end zone for the early 7-0 lead. A little later in the period, the Patriots completed a nine play, 64 yard drive with an 8 yard TD pass, and had a 14-0 lead.
South responded on their next possession. Senior quarterback Daschel Smith guided the Saxons on a ten play, 84 yard drive, culminated by Smith’s five yard TD scamper to make it 14-7.
After the two teams exchanged punts, Liberty made the first mistake of the game. A screen pass deep in the Pats own end was picked up by senior transfer Zach Wusstig and returned eleven yards for a Saxon touchdown and a 14-14 tie.
Both teams frequently went on fourth down against the other, only to be turned back. The biggest fourth down denial came by the South Salem defense late in the first half.
After a long, 62 yard pass got Liberty down to the Saxon 10 yard line, the Patriots’ three straight running plays left them with a fourth and goal from the one. Liberty went for it, and the run up the middle was stuffed. The Saxons took over, moving the ball safely away from the goal line before halftime arrived.
Entering the fourth quarter, with Liberty holding a 28-21 lead, South scratched and clawed for most of the period, but could not get into the end zone. That changed with four minutes left when the Saxons connected on a 54 TD pass to Zach Wusstig. The extra point tied it all up at 28.
In the extra frame, Liberty was forced to try a field goal, and missed. That left it to the Saxons to try and finish. And finish they did.
Smith hit senior wideout Tini Tinitali with a 24 yard pass to the one yard line, and Braedy Vogt ended it with a one yard touchdown run. The final: South Salem 34, Liberty 28. (See the Saxons celebration after the OT score here.)
Smith had a pair of touchdown passes and one interception to go with his 350 passing yards on 22 of 30 attempts He also had the previously mentioned TD run. Wusstig had both the interception for a touchdown and 54 yard touchdown pass catch for the Saxons. Esteban Mendez, who topped all South receivers with 136 yards, had an 84 yard TD catch.
South Salem will host Sunset next Friday night in game two of the 2020 season.