Two Special District One teams left in Prep Football post season
Semis next: Sheldon still in championship bracket, North Salem in Columbia Cup bracket
Oregon 6A Special District One still has teams alive in both the championship and Columbia Cup brackets. Sheldon moved on in the title side of things with a convincing win. The same goes for North Salem in the Columbia Cup competition; Sprague was ousted in the second round of the Cup contests. Here is a run-down:
Westview 41, Sprague 0: It was a clear, cold and windy night at Westview High School in Beaverton Friday, and the Sprague Olympian offense was as frigid as the weather.
The Olys let a pair of scoring opportunities slip through their gloved fingers early, and struggled the rest of the way to move the football. In the meantime, host Westview rode the strong, shifty legs of Jordan Fisher to a relatively easy 41-0 victory in round two of the Columbia Cup football bracket.
Westview received the opening kickoff, and wasted no time in giving the ball to the 5-8, 175-pound Fisher, who had over 2,000 rushing yards coming into the game. A good return gave the Wildcats prime field position at the Sprague 37-yard line—and the team went right to #34, who ran every play on the five-play drive, muscling into the end zone from eight yards out to make it 7-0 less than 3 ½ minutes into the ball game.
On their first possession, the Olympians had to punt after just three plays. A good roll on the punt put Westview on their own 20-yard line. It didn’t matter. After quarterback Nolan Keeney ran off right tackle for 20 yards, the ball was handed to Fisher. He did the rest.
Sixty yards later, Fisher was standing in the Sprague end zone. After a second successful extra point, the home team led it, 14-0 with 7:15 left in the first quarter.
Sprague got nothing going offensively for the remainder of the first; fortunately for them, the Wildcats also were stymied as the Olympians defense settled in and slowed down Fisher for a while.
But Sprague had two big scoring opportunities—one that began late in the first quarter, and the other, later in the second quarter that they failed to convert on. It put the momentum on the Westview’s sideline the rest of the half, if not the game.
The first Oly opportunity came in the red zone. Athan Palmateer, who was called on to throw much more than in the previous week’s rain-drenched playoff game—had Drew Rodriguez open down the middle and zipped a pass right to him.
Rodriguez watched almost helplessly as the ball slipped through his frozen hands and hit the turf. Incomplete.
Sprague came up short on a fourth down play, and turned the ball over to Westview on downs. The Wildcats could not convert on their ensuing possession, which moved to the other end of the field for the punt.
The snap back to punter Tailor Munson sailed over his head, and all he could do was pounce on the ball at his own four yard line. Sprague was in business deep in Wildcat territory.
A first run play by the Olys yielded two yards to make it second and goal. But the next play was a disaster.
Somewhere in the middle of the play, perhaps during the snap, the ball got away from Athan Palmateer as he went to hand the ball to tailback Barik Hill. The ball hit the turf, and when it was all over, Westview had the ball back at their own five-yard line.
Then it got worse.
Westview proceeded to run the ball down the turf, mostly using Fisher, but also mixing in runs by Keeney, who scampered for 28 yards on one play for a big first down. But Fisher got the lion’s share of the carries—the last one for five yards and a touchdown. The PAT was missed, but the Westview lead stood at 20-0 with 7 ½ minutes remaining until half time. And that was how the first half would end.
Sprague received the football to start the second half, taking possession at their own 20, staring into the stiff west wind. Three plays later, the Olympians were forced to punt.
It was not how they wanted to start the second half.
Although the Wildcats failed to score on their possession, they did eat up precious minutes of clock, and again, Sprague could not move the ball.
On the next possession, Westview changed things up and broke the game wide open. Keeney—who finished with 100 yards passing—went to the air. Athletic pass grabs by Kaden Hupkin, Xander Millard, and Jaydon McBreen—interspersed with Fisher runs—led to a successful drive that ended with McBreen’s 22 yard TD catch with 4:34 left in the third quarter. A two-point conversion made it 28-0 Wildcats.
The rest was mere window-dressing, even though more points were scored—by Fisher. Runs of 9 and 29 yards were converted into touchdowns for Fisher, who continued to gobble up the yards. When he scored his fifth touchdown of the game to make it 41-0 with 7:34 to go, Fisher had racked up an astonishing 337 yards on 34 carries to go with the five TDs.
The running clock was instituted—both teams brought in subs—and the game clock drained quickly.
Westview ended the game with 489 yards in total offense, anchored by Fisher’s rushing totals.
For Sprague, the numbers were much lower than their season averages. Palmateer was 6-12 passing for 63 yards. That included a handful of dropped passes. Rushing-wise, the Sprague offense only generated 38 yards against a decidedly bigger Wildcat defensive front.
Sprague ends the season with a 6-5 record.
Olympians Coach Jay Minyard says it is always tough to say good bye to the kids after such a tough defeat. But he was happy to share that there was much to like about the season.
“We had a winning season, we went 6-0 at home, and had two playoff games,” he pointed out.
“And there were all those life lessons along the way—discipline, teamwork, accountability, selflessness.”
“We had a great group of seniors and we will miss them.”
Westview (6-5) moves on to play Lakeridge (5-6). next Friday at Hillsboro Stadium in the Columbia Cup semi-finals. Lakeridge defeated Oregon City on Friday night, 35-14.
North Salem 42, Jefferson 8: It has been quite a while since the North Salem football team has been in a football semi-final game.
Granted, this is the newly minted Columbia Cup bracket—which is like a consolation trophy in basketball. But even at that, North Salem football’s last experience in that regard goes back nearly 60 years—to 1963, when the locally famous Gib Gilmore directed the Vikings to a state co-championship in a 7-7 tie game against Grant.
History lessons aside, North marched to the semi-finals with confidence and swagger, pounding host Jefferson of Portland 42-8 on Friday night.
Senior running back Josiah Davis rushed for 192 yards and a season-high four touchdowns on 22 carries to lead a decidedly team-offensive effort in the decisive victory.
The wing-T offense long employed by North Salem coach Jeff Flood created all sorts of confusion for the host Democrats.
Davis, fullback Jerrik Wangler and wingback DeMari Thompson accounted for all six touchdowns for the Vikings. Wangler had a two yard score, while accounting for 70 yards on nine carries. Thompson had an 8 yard TD, with 22 yards total on four carries in the game. Davis’s TD runs were 2, 7, 22, and 9 yards respectively.
TC Malumaleuna threw just two passes on the night, completing both for 60 yards, including a 41 yarder to Erick Gonzalez. North Salem Coach Jeff Flood says the team could have thrown more, but felt that would be playing into Jefferson’s defensive strength.
North led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, and 35-0 at halftime.
Jefferson scored their only TD of the game—with a two-point conversion—with 7:07 remaining in the third quarter. North tacked on their final points with nine minutes left in the game with a touchdown.
Coach Jeff Flood praised his players for a second straight team win—where everyone contributed.
“Jo Jo (Davis) played really well and ran the ball effectively,” says Flood. “It was a good balance between he and Jerrick—and they got to rest the last 1 ½ quarters.”
“The line has been very good the last two weeks, and has given us the advantage against the opposition.”
Those linemen—many of whom play both ways include center Christian Camacho, and interior linemen Ezeiki Sandoval, Erike Augilar and Imyas Augilar, and Bobby Garibay. Tight end Chris Harsen has also made some key blocks at tight end.
With the win, North Salem (7-4) will face Liberty of Hillsboro (7-4) at 7:00 pm Friday at Wilsonville High School. Liberty opened the season with a 21-19 home win over Sprague.
Jefferson ends their season with a record of 7-4.
Sheldon 42, Lake Oswego 7: On paper, this game appeared to be a mismatch. And once the two teams lined up to play, it became apparent it really was a mismatch.
Special District One champion Sheldon picked off five Lake Oswego passes, returning one for a touchdown, while Irish quarterback Brock Thomas showed why he was the offensive player of the year with another outstanding performance—as Sheldon thumped visiting Lake Oswego 42-7.
Thomas—who threw 33 touchdown passes during the regular season—had just one TD throw on the evening, a 40 yarder to running back Grafton Robinson. Thomas completed 9 of 14 passes for 182 yards and two interceptions.
Sheldon went primarily with the run to wear down the Lakers—and did so to the tune of 249 yards on 34 carries for the game. Thomas himself had 148 of those yards on just 16 carries, scoring four touchdowns in the process.
Sheldon led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter, and 21-7 at half; Lake Oswego scored their only points of the game in the final minute of the second quarter on 15-yard pass from junior quarterback Max Brauner to senior Owen West for a touchdown.
Sheldon’s Teitium Tuioti—the Special District Defensive Player of the Year—had the pick-six for the Irish with five minutes left in the third quarter—returning the errant Max Brauer pass 22-yards for six.
Sheldon (11-0) moves on to the semi-finals, and will face Tualatin (9-2) Friday at 7:00 pm at McNary High School in Keizer.
Lake Oswego finishes their season with a record of 7-4.
Just six more games left in the 6A football post season, folks. Enjoy them all.