What we learned in Week 6 of Oregon high school football

Newberg overcomes difficult beginning to set up for Pacific crown

When Newberg began their season with four straight losses, coach Jeremy Johnson was not concerned at all. He was aware that his Tigers had very tough schedule ahead and that two of the teams that his team has to meet – Sprague and Lake Oswego were yet to be beaten while Nelson was 4-2.

Now the Tigers stand 3-4, replacing the nonconference schedule with a win over Sunset before coming out on top in their Pacific Conference games against Century and McMinnville— the last of which was a spine tingling 24-21 victory over a pedestrian County rival.

“In general, I think team and togetherness has always been good during the challenging matches,” Johnson added. This year we as a team were able to have our skills and personalities challenged each week in order to determine our identity. We have been able to get more yards on the ground in the next few weeks than we were able to accomplish in the earlier season.

One can be sure that our kids will only compete with the better programs in our state. You only get to meet certain adversities in order to find out who you are as a team.”

Who they are looks to be a balanced offense, three rushing with more than 300 yards and a junior dual threat quarterback in Parker Sellner who has grown notably in his second season as a starter for 1286 total yards, seven touchdowns through the air and five on the ground.

Johnson credited a team of assistant coaches (Caleb Burris, Dylan Stacy, Brian Martz and Josh Luciani) with challenging Sellner over the summer to put in extra reps in the weight room and on the practice field, and the results have shown this season. Johnson has dubbed him one of the strongest players in the program.

“Where Parker has had the most opportunity to cultivate it is in his dedication to lead and encourage those around him,” Johnson said. “He understands he still has potential to learn all here but he is transforming into a good leader by making his teammates understand that everyone should go and get the job done.”

Senior Cole Thomas has been a two way player for LB, catching 22 balls for 266 yards and three TDs while making 44 tackles on the field. Another Austin — the senior defensive lineman Austin Phillips — has seven tackles behind the line of scrimmage and three sacks among the 37 tackles.

The Tigers may be soaring at the moment, but if they are going to want something they have not accomplished in a single season since 1960 — that is to win an outright championship — then the Tigers must get past Liberty and Sherwood, the two teams that have ruled the Pacific Conference for sundry years.

They’ll get their shot at the Falcons this week in Hillsboro, with a week off the following week (they moved their Week 8 game with Sprague to Week 0) before closing with the Bowmen at home.

“Our schedule is a tough one, and we’re in the Pacific Conference and there are a number of good coaches and good teams that we compete against week in and week out,” Johnson added. 

Playing on the road is always challenging, and our children will come to practice each day this week to be our best against Liberty to beat a good, quick, strong team now that has scored a lot of goals on the scoreboard. We have our plate full at the moment and we are looking forward to the challenge.” 

Mountainside set for clash of the titans to determine the winner of the Metro championship against Jesuit
Keanon Lowe is not foreign to the mystique of Jesuit or the dominance that the Crusaders have had in the Metro League for the last twenty years.

The current coach at Mountainside played at Jesuit in the late 2000s, helping the team win the 6A defensive player of the year award as a cornerback in 2009, a season in which Jesuit state championship game before the team has won outright or shared 17 of the past 19 league titles, including nine in a row.

Therefore, as the Mavericks are to face the Crusaders this week at Cronin Field in match that will shape the future of league title race, Lowe knows that he had a battle on his hands.

“They have run the Metro League for decades and we have not beaten them for the first time in the history of the school,” Lowe said. “We know their players, we know what they will do on the defensive side and we know who they intend to pass the ball to on the attacking side.”

Mountainside started the season 1-2 but their losses were to 2 one loss teams , 24-21 to Silverton and 27-20 to Lakeridge where the Mavericks could have had the footballs at the end of the game.

Since then though they’ve won three straight including a 49-0 win against nearby rival Southridge and Lowe thinks close games like the ones they previously lost in helped set them up for the rest of their season.

‘I am proud of our effort week in and week out,’ he said. I mean it goes without saying that we are always discussing what constitutes a good team and I believe the best team is one that gets better each week. I believe that our players have learned that and each week, we have gained.”

Substitute junior of Ingalls, Cade Mitchell has stepped to start playing as quarterback and was involved in six touchdowns last week, three rushing and three passing. 

Some of Mitchell’s premier skill position talent includes senior wide receiver Kellen Hicks and junior running back Jordan Hicks that Lowe had this to say about the two: “They are both guys we will be watching on Saturdays in the near future. Those two are the epitome of what we need at Mountainside – players who are hard workers that don’t worry about the stats and are just great team players.

However, Lowe is fully aware that if the Mavericks are to hand the Crusaders a loss at Cronin Field — the latter is 66-3 at home against Metro teams in the last five years and 18 straight wins overall in league games — the Mavericks have to do it on terms where the Crusaders are comfortable: the trenches.

They reshaped their front during the off season, but the only returning all-league player is junior left tackle Aiden Jakubauskas. The rest of the linemen are senior right guard, Brayden Beasley; and Villastrigo, a seasonal sophomore, filling the place of second string sophomore Isaiah Ormand; junior right tackle, Reed Hicks, and center James Hartshorn.

“Soccer will always be won or lost in the midfield,” Lowe said. “I look forward to whether or not our guys will rise to the occasion.”

As Lebanon continues to challenge for the Mid-Willamette title the importance of physical play is emphasized.

Like Mountainside, Lebanon began its season at 1-2, a record that coach Troy Walker said stemmed from a lack of concentration.

That became club’s practice strategies, according to Walker who stated that “we have striven for the boys to target us. We dared the children make an effort to execute, exert effort and be physical. We feel if we can do that, then we will be able to stand a chance.”

The product has been a string of three victories on the field, including the 46-14 blitz of South Albany last week that along with a forfeit win over Caldera brings Lebanon’s overall record to 5-1 and 2-0 in the Mid-Willamette Conference going into Friday night’s game at West Albany, another MWC team with one loss.

Of all his teams, Walker was particularly able to see his lines increase their performance after they team’s loss to the Wolfpack when in Week 3. 

Asked what three words characterise his team he said: “We try to play physical football.” I never have to worry because when the big boys are together, we are a solid group. On the attack side, it’s basically saying sorry, we go as our O-line goes. We are not really big-we are physical and mobile and it begins with two seniors-Isaac Jordan and Bradley Beard.”

It has also become easier for junior quarterback Brison Edwards who had 216 total yards, three rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns in the South Albany game. 

He has passed for 63 of 117 (53.8%) for 861 yards and 10 touchdowns with five interceptions this season and has scored eight touchdowns rushing that ties with junior tailback Cade Weber who has rushed for 673 yards.

“This year has been a big year for Brison,” Walker said. “He has always been quite sporty, however this year he became a leader as well.”

Jordan, who made all-state as both a receiver and return man in his junior season, was also dominant in OU’s victory, totaling 11 tackles two tackles for loss, and one sack, along with LB Zach Halsey forcing two fumbles and a pick.

Weber has 50 tackles tops for the team while Halsey has 41 of them with four tackles for loss Reed, has 15 catches for 321 yards and has four touchdowns which are second to the 23 catches for 320 yards and the five touchdowns scored by Large junior of the team. Defensive lineman Ashton Dailey leads the team with six tackles for loss, including two sacks.

Lebanon now faces a West Albany team that also has turned the corner after splitting its four nonconference games, blasting Corvallis 36-6 last week.

Walker described the Bulldogs as a complete team — the team has tough, physical, athletic kids in all the positions. Mehl and his staff definitely know how to prepare their kids to go out on game day. However, if the three of us and all 11 kids are able to look after ourselves and can all do our part, we can turn it into a game.”

Center of the of Tillamook to discover its present day (and future) quarterback

Tillamook coach Kye Johnson knew it would be a problem this year to replace the signal caller he got the previous two seasons in two-year starting quarterback Tanner Hoskins who was a second team 4A all-state pick in his senior year.

By the Cheesemakers’ second game, Johnson got his signal-caller of the present in someone he might have looked at as his future prospect. 

Freshman Kevin Hurliman started their game against Marist Catholic at center and for the past four weeks has entrenched himself at the position. Last week he was 11/17 for 179 yards and two touchdowns, in Tillamook’s 40-6 smashing of Astoria that saw the team finish with an overall record of 3-3 and making Cowapa League Cheesemakers 2-0 before facing Scappoose in a league showdown. 

Johnson instructed Hurliman in class the second half of his initial year last spring and in an instant knew that colleague was a keeper.

“He has a memory and has the ability to learn,” Johnson said. Kevin showed a live arm and he was a very thinking type of person. I have been quite shocked by the attitude he has been coming with being a sophomore. He was barely in the varsity group through the fall camp, but then we had to shift him there after the opener, and he has been steadily rising.”

That’s not difficult these days for Hurliman who have a good experienced receiving corps to back him up. Junior Griffyn Boomer, who struggled behind center in the Week 0 against Estacada, moved back to the wing position and notched 20-420-5 on the season while senior Carsen Rieger has rushed for 11-182-3 from the opposite side.

The Cheesemakers have also increased the running game over the last two games with 494 yards and eight touchdowns in victories over St. Helens and Astoria after being shutdown by Cascade holding them to minus-11 yards in the third week of the competition.

Both Marist and Cascade taught us a lot of football in the last two games, Johnson said. When both of those teams are in the box they are not shy in the slightest to play pretty physical football. Sensing that is crucial to a fairly recently forming varsity team. The funniest part is that it is not fun to lose and a lot of good things came out of those trips.

Johnson also expects those lessons to come along with the confidence that he said the team earned the past couple of games to prepare to face Scappoose, which tied for the league title with Tillamook and Seaside last year.

Johnson is aware that he will have to come up with a way of containing the Scappoose passing arsenal spearheaded by Max Nowlin, a senior quarterback fully fit after being sidelined by an ankle injury in the third week. 

“Their quarterback is for real, they always seem to have talent, and if we don’t come to play this week we’ll get beat,” Johnson said.

Taft starting to recover the numbers it lost during the pandemic to begin the season 5-1

It has never been a walk in a park to build a program at Taft, a 3A school in Lincoln City, along the north-central Oregon coast. 

Tigers have never registered more than seven matches in a season since 1949 and the last leagues came in 2003. A slide to 3A for a year was given by a 7-30 record from 2017-21 that saw three forfeits in 2021; the team has performed well in the year it competed in 2A by amassing seven victories and a playoff spot.

Since ending last season at 4-5, the Tigers are 5-1 this year and with four of those games being shutouts and last week against Willamina the shutout of the Bulldogs occurred where in which they had minus-27 total yard and the Tigers set a new school record for shutouts in a season. 

“COVID had a huge impact on our program,” the ninth-year head coach Jake Tolan said. We really had a tough time trying to convince some of our older players to come out to play in the COVID season and the after that. In each of those two seasons, our participation numbers for total players were 16 and 24, respectively with no more than one senior on the roster. 

However, knowing that is was a tough decision at the time we decided to demote to 2A in an attempt to begin garnering some success on the field and have some momentum as a program while growing in numbers. I think now, in retrospect, it was the right decision and the starting point for what is being done today as a program. We have continued to expand and this year our program has more than 60 players and 16 are seniors.

Among those seniors is a quarterback Ezra James who, despite a few games, accumulated 1,492 yards and 20 touchdowns whereas the interception/ pass ratio is 1/132 using more than 77%, the ball was passed to four different players, headed by junior Kaily Tolan with 35 catches for 553 yards and six touchdowns.

But it is the defense that really surprised the Tigers this year it’s been great. Their average points conceded per game is 10.5 which places them sixth out of the 40 teams in 3A, and is already their best average for the season since 1992.

Tolan has saluted the defensive staff for preparing and executing a loose plan that incorporate the talents of the athletes while positioning them in the right areas to make positive plays. It would be helpful to have the boys we have; we have some really great athletes on the defensive side of the ball.”

The schedule establishes itself well for the Tigers to equal that 1949 team’s school-record of eight wins. They play Amity this week and it is quite similar to what Sisters, Blanchet Catholic and Dayton were implementing to their team.

Taft is back on its home turf to take on Santiam Christian for a game that very much could be for the PacWest Conference championship.

“We know playing Amity on their territory in possibly unfavourable weather conditions will present some complications,” Tolan said. ‘And the last home match against Santiam Christian will be very important. We anticipate being able to play in such a game where such strategic importance is attributed. Such games are what football is all about and why we get to play and coach football and give such much time to it.”

Nestucca aims to clinch its first outright league title since the 1967 season
Nestucca has come roaring back from an 0-2 start to win its first four games in 2A Northwest League play and the Bobcats are on the verge of doing something at the North Coast school that has not happened in some 44 years.

A triumph Friday against defending league champion Gaston would place the Bobcats in a position just one win away from the team’s first undisputed league title since alternating league championships in 1966, 1967. 

They have won that distinction multiple times including two years ago with Knappa, but it would certainly be a nice feat to win it outright.

Leading the way is an offense line that had its star player senior Jack Manning back after missing most of last season after suffering a torn ACL and the first 2 games after coming back due to a foot injury in the second week against Gervais and the first week against Salem Academy.

“The two boats are now getting up and, in essence, that has been the change,” said the coach, Jeff Schiewe. ‘Employers should be more efficient because They’re following their assignments better.’ Jack is playing really well.”

That has led play-action dominated offence where Hurlimann controls from the middle of the field with senior wingbacks Marsh, who is their leading scorer this season, and Chatelain. 

Last week in a 34-22 home win over Knappa, Nestucca triumphed in its second game against the Loggers in the past nine; Chatelain rushed for 122 tough yards and three touchdowns, Marsh gained 113 hard yards and also singled out two onside kicks plus an interception.

When asked if Marsh has been the driving force behind the team, Schiewe nodded. 

“Yes that is correct”,he responded. “We have several backs who split the yards, but Draven with his defense, his receiving, his ability to recover onside kicks – he has been a really good team captain.”

But Schiewe knows its Bobcats cannot underestimate the up coming game against Gaston. They lost to the Greyhounds, who took them only once this season and two years ago deprived Nestucca of the outright NWL title; Bobcats have not beaten Gaston since 2019.

“We’re very similar teams. Well that is why they like to run the football and play pressure defense,” added Schiewe. I thought they were excellent in terms of defense, and for that, we need to step up our defense game too. We just need to get more right than they get wrong.”