‘The TRL is no joke.’ No. 6 Tigard gets tested by Oregon City in league opener, but Tigers make enough plays to move to 5-0
By René Ferrán | Photo by Dan Brood
Oregon City did something Thursday night that none of Tigard’s previous opponents had this season.
The Pioneers put the No. 6 Tigers to the test in the fourth quarter of both teams’ Three Rivers League opener at Pioneer Memorial Stadium.
The Tigers passed their first test with flying colors, however, overcoming the host’s second-half surge to pull out a 36-23 victory.
“The TRL is no joke,” said senior two-way lineman Reese Hare. “It’s nice because we’re facing adversity, and it’s testing how we’ll respond.
“Every TRL team is good this year. This is how every game is going to be. It’s going to be a battle no matter who we play.”
Hare not only was part of a defense that held TRL rushing leader Marcus Jordan to 58 yards on 19 carries, but he also played left tackle on an offensive line that allowed senior Konnor Grant to run for a career-high 200 yards and two scores.
Grant’s second touchdown, a 14-yard run with Hare and left guard Boone Coffman leading the way, pushed the lead back to two scores after Oregon City (3-2) closed to within 26-23 with 9:37 to play on Ben Schneider’s 21-yard pass to Logan Fry on fourth down.
“This was a really fun night,” said Grant, who shrugged off reinjuring his right index finger to also catch a critical 51-yard screen pass that set up Nate Duenas’ clinching 32-yard field goal with 2:47 remaining.
“The offensive line did an outstanding job. I mean, they were opening up holes all night, and they made it easy to run. When you can run full speed after getting past that first five, it just makes it so much harder for the defense — that’s all up to the guys up front.”
The praise went both ways.
“I just love blocking for him,” Hare said. “He’s been my running back since I don’t even know how long, and I’ll block for him any day, any month, any year. I don’t care if I’m 90 years old — I’ll block for him.”
The Tigers (5-0) have defeated Oregon City in all five meetings since the Pioneers joined the TRL in 2018 and have won 11 in a row in the series.
Grant set the tone on the opening play, busting loose for 47 yards to set up junior quarterback Jake Feist’s 3-yard touchdown run.
“We’ve had OC’s number over the last few years, and we knew they’d be hungry coming in,” Grant said. “We knew league starts today and that the page now turns from the nonleague games. So, we knew that we had to come out here and really make a mark on that first drive.”
The Pioneers have lost 17 consecutive TRL games, but after starting the season 3-1, the time for moral victories has passed.
“We did a lot of good things,” said senior Jake Lopez, who caught a game-high seven passes for 60 yards and a touchdown and made 14 tackles at safety. “But we definitely have a lot to improve on. We’re going to play against some good teams, and we’ve got to learn how to do that, especially up front.”
Second-year coach Shane Hedrick also pointed to four pre-snap penalties along the line.
“We learned tonight that we’ve got to clean some things up, especially when you play a top-caliber team like Tigard,” he said. “We’ll have to learn from that and move on.”
The Tigers started Feist at quarterback after senior Brady Jordan suffered a shoulder injury in their Week 4 victory against Liberty.
Jordan’s status is day-to-day, but the Tigers shouldn’t be overly concerned should they have to turn to Feist again. He finished 7 of 9 for 157 yards and a touchdown, with all seven passes for first downs.
His only blemish came when Ryder Swanson popped the ball free on a second-quarter sack, with Ethan Hopwood snatching the loose ball and romping 41 yards for the Pioneers’ first touchdown.
“Jake came in and had to manage the game tonight,” Tigers coach John Kemper said. “He did some good things with his legs, and he hadn’t had as many reps as we should have had for him leading into the game under center. So, we were rushing it a little this week, and we’ll continue to evolve his package and get him ready to go.”
The Tigers built leads of 16-0 and 23-6 in the first half before the Pioneers found their footing late in the second quarter.
Lopez closed a drive he started with a 45-yard kickoff return by hauling in a 3-yard touchdown pass from Schneider with 35 seconds before halftime.
The Pioneers opened the second half with a 13-play drive, capping it with Jordan’s 24-yard field goal to close the gap to 23-16.
Duenas nailed a 42-yard field goal on Tigard’s ensuing drive. After an exchange of punts, Lopez’s 16-yard return gave the Pioneers another short field that they cashed in when Schneider rolled left and found Fry getting behind the secondary in the back-left corner of the end zone.
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Tigard 36, Oregon City 23
Tigard – 14 – 9 – 3 – 10 — 36
Oregon City – 0 – 13 – 3 – 7 — 23
First quarter
T — Jake Feist 3 run (Nate Duenas kick), 9:10
T — Konnor Grant 8 run (Duenas kick), 6:13
Second quarter
T — Safety, ball snapped out of end zone, 11:59
OC — Ethan Hopwood 41 fumble return (run failed), 11:03
T — Austin Goetz 13 pass from Feist (Duenas kick), 2:47
OC — Jake Lopez 3 pass from Ben Schneider (Marcus Jordan kick), 0:35
Third quarter
OC — FG Jordan 24, 7:43
T — FG Duenas 42, 2:20
Fourth quarter
OC — Logan Fry 21 pass from Schneider (Jordan kick), 9:37
T — Grant 14 run (Duenas kick), 7:29
T — FG Duenas 32, 2:47
STATISTICS
RUSHING—Tigard: Grant 25-200, Feist 16-30, Luke Davis 11-44. Total 56-278. Oregon City: Jordan 19-58. Total 23-29.
PASSING—Tigard: Feist 7-9-0-157. Oregon City: Schneider 21-34-1-202.
RECEIVING—Tigard: Goetz 2-45, Duenas 2-22, Grant 2-88. Oregon City: Lopez 7-60, Fry 5-87, Clay Martineau 6-38.
DEFENSE—Tigard: Ethan Cate 9 tackles, 2 pass breakups; Goetz 4 tackles, 2 for loss; Theo Jones 6 tackles, 2 for loss, sack; Vaughn Croxton 5 tackles; Roman Martin 2 tackles, interception, pass breakup. Oregon City: Lopez 14 tackles; Ben Rose 8 tackles; Ryder Swanson 6 tackles, 3 sacks, forced fumble; Hopwood 8 tackles, 2 for loss, fumble recovery; Blake Lucas 6 tackles.
FIRST DOWNS—Tigard 21, Oregon City 12. FUMBLES-LOST—Tigard 1-1, Oregon City 1-0. PENALTIES-YARDS—Tigard 10-89, Oregon City 6-45.
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