What we learned in Week 5 of Oregon high school football
By René Ferrán
Photos by Leon Neuschwander and Taylor Balkom
The Oregon high school football season continued last weekend with Week 5 action around the state.
Complete Week 5 recap
Here's what stood out during the fifth weekend of action.
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Sheldon fends off complacency as Irish prepare for showdown with fellow unbeaten South Medford
Three weeks ago, Sheldon won at West Linn 35-31 in one of the more thrilling games of the season’s first month.
Since then, the Irish have cruised through three Special District 1 matchups, forcing a running clock in the second half of victories against Sprague (41-0), McNary (62-6) and Roseburg (56-0).
Still, appearances can be deceiving. Irish coach Josh Line was not happy with his team’s performance against Sprague despite the lopsided score and challenged his players to pick up the effort.
“When we walked off the field, I’m sure people thought we kicked (butt), and if the score is all we cared about, yeah, we did great,” Line said. “But if we want to become the best team we can be, we didn’t do that in that game.”
He was pleased with how the team responded to the challenge and focused on executing every play. In doing so, they’re following the lead of senior defensive end Teitum Tuioti, whose monster second half helped the Irish defeat West Linn. The state’s No. 1 recruit and University of Oregon commit hasn’t let up, ranking among the state leaders with 18½ tackles for loss and eight sacks.
More important, Line said Tuioti’s effort has been contagious and has pushed his fellow linemates, Josh Merriman, Ryan Yakovich and Will Haverland, to produce at higher levels than last season.
“He has had a huge impact on the whole defense because of the way he approaches things,” Line said. “He has a ton of athleticism, but a lot of his success just comes from him playing hard. A lot of times, it’s about attitude and effort, and Teitum has that in spades. He makes unbelievable plays, but he’s also an unbelievable teammate. When you see him make a big play, there’s not nearly the reaction as when a teammate makes a big play.”
The Irish will need to make plenty of big plays this week when they play host to fellow unbeaten South Medford in a critical SD1 matchup. The Panthers hadn’t been 5-0 since 2011 and have lost the past three meetings between the teams, including a 54-37 defeat during their 2-8 campaign last fall.
With senior wide receiver Andrew Walker (28 catches for 505 yards and seven touchdowns) spearheading a dynamic offense, South Medford carries plenty of momentum to Friday’s showdown.
“Every game, they have two or three big plays for touchdowns,” Line said. “They’re a really well-coached team, and they know us well and we know them well. I know Bill (coach Bill Singler) will have them ready to go.”
For the defense: Grant starts 3-0 in PIL play entering face-off with Franklin
It should come as no surprise that the key to Grant’s success to kick off PIL play has been the defensive side of the ball.
After all, first-year coach Alex Melson’s calling card is defense. He was the PIL’s defensive player of the year for the Generals in 2007 and played four years at Western Oregon (42 career tackles and five pass breakups). The previous four seasons, he served as Grant’s defensive coordinator, so there was continuity with schemes when he took over for John Beck this year.
They’ve allowed fewer than 200 yards per game in starting 3-2, including just 63 yards per game through the air. They’ve forced six interceptions and recorded a safety.
Over the past two weeks, the Generals have picked up their game to another level. They shut out rival Jefferson 15-0 in Week 4 and followed with a 14-7 victory over Lincoln that improved them to 3-0 in league play entering this week’s showdown with unbeaten Franklin in Southeast Portland.
“If you were behind the scenes, you’d know that this is business as usual for our defensive unit,” Melson said. “Our level of play had somewhat been overshadowed by our struggles on offense and special teams, but we pride ourselves on being a multiple-front defense that has a lot of playmakers in different positions.”
What might be different this fall from seasons past is where those playmakers can be found. The Generals still have a standout linebacker in senior Jayden Moses (32 tackles) and a star in the secondary (senior cornerback Marshune Waters), but it’s the front line that Melson calls “a key driving force to our defensive success.”
The quartet features three juniors and a sophomore, anchored by junior defensive tackle Benson Deibele (28 tackles).
“This group continues to get better every game as our level of play continues to increase,” Melson said. “Our skill players are among the most versatile in the state, being effective against pass and run schemes. But our defensive success has been a complete group effort that we will continue to build on.”
That success will be put to the test Friday against the Lightning, who rank third in 6A in points per game (41.8). Melson knows they’ll push the tempo on offense, while their defense (8.3 points per game) will challenge a Grant offense that is averaging 15.2 points per game.
“This will be a premier matchup and battle this year in the PIL,” Melson said. “They have a lot of talent that they will try to use to put stress on our defense to make good decisions. We will prepare some different looks, but we are going to continue to play Grant football and do what we do best — which is make plays and fight for stops.”
Improved defense has McMinnville with winning record heading to final month of season
Since Newberg rejoined the Pacific Conference in 2018, the Tigers had Yamhill County rival McMinnville’s number, winning all four matchups.
The Grizzlies turned the tide Friday in a big way, rolling to a 49-21 victory to open conference play and improve to 3-2. The defense spearheaded the victory, with McMinnville holding the Tigers to 185 yards of total offense, continuing an effort that kicked off in the final three weeks of last season.
“We started last year playing a 40 front, but the last three games, we went with a 30 front,” explained coach Ty Tomlin. “We felt comfortable with it and stuck with it because it allows us to use our athleticism a little more and causes some chaos for offenses.”
With an offseason to tinker with the scheme, defensive coordinator Mike Connor and his staff have fine-tuned the system, and through five games, the Grizzlies have allowed a conference-low 18.2 points per game.
“It was an emphasis for us from last year,” Tomlin said. “We didn’t feel like we were keeping our offense in games. Now, the kids have really bought into the scheme and trust it.”
Meanwhile, sophomore quarterback Kane Sullivan had what Tomlin called his best game of the season in his fifth career start, throwing for 139 yards and three touchdowns to complement another solid game from senior running back Austin Rapp (230 yards, four touchdowns).
Sullivan flashed potential as a freshman, but an injury sidelined him after four games. He won a three-way battle for the job this year and has slowly gained his footing as he’s adjusted to the speed of the varsity game.
“He’s been making pretty good decisions, so we’re happy with where he’s at right now,” Tomlin said.
He and the Grizzlies won’t have time to rest on proverbial laurels — not with a matchup against preseason conference favorite Sherwood this week. The Bowmen bounced back from a Week 4 loss to Jesuit by defeating Century 35-7 in their conference opener, and they are 4-0 against McMinnville since joining the Pacific in 2018.
“They’ve earned the right to be the top dog,” Tomlin said. “We want to be that team, but for us to be there, we have to knock them off their perch.
“We had a great win last week, but we need to prove it again. Hopefully, that win carries over this week, and we’ll see if we can give them a game.”
Central finally comes up with signature performance to defeat Mid-Willamette power
Central had come close to a signature Mid-Willamette Conference victory twice during the first month of the season.
In Week 1, the Panthers dropped a 17-7 decision at South Albany. Two weeks later, they pushed defending 5A state champion Silverton to the wire, driving to the Foxes 8-yard line on their final possession before faltering in a 40-35 defeat.
Finally, Friday night against West Albany, the Panthers notched that season-defining victory. They knocked off the Bulldogs 35-28 for their first win over a team with a winning record since Week 4 of the 2018 season.
Quarterback Chase W Nelson’s 75-yard run with eight minutes left broke a 28-28 tie, and after the Panthers defense held, Nelson led a clinching drive that bled the final seven minutes off the clock.
“This team believes we are capable of winning any game we play in,” coach Joel Everett said. “As we got the ball back in the fourth quarter, we knew what needed to be done. The offense challenged each other in the huddle to do their job, and the rest will take care of itself.”
Nelson quietly has become one of the top quarterbacks in 5A. Friday night, the senior was 18 of 29 for 212 yards and a touchdown, and he ran for a career-high 119 yards and two touchdowns. For the season, he’s thrown for 1,224 yards and 11 touchdowns, completing almost 59% of his passes (89 of 151).
“It’s been amazing watching Chase grow as a young man and as a football player,” Everett said. “Chase truly has started to become that extension of the coaches on the field. We lost two players on offense during the game, and he was able to make sure the replacements knew where and what to do before every play. He’s taken full control of the offense and has been able to change some plays to put us in a better position.”
The Panthers have three games remaining before a rare Week 9 week off that they hope rests them for a first playoff appearance since 2018. First up is McKay, which notched its first win last week at Crescent Valley, followed by Lebanon (which has won its past six meetings with the Panthers) and finishing with the Polk County rivalry game against Dallas.
“There are no ‘easy’ games in our conference,” Everett said. “Any team can beat anyone in our conference on a given night. Our team has done a great job of understanding that and taking each game as a new challenge.
“But we need to continue to develop our 2s and 3s, so when the time comes, we are able to avoid drop-offs of game plans and momentum. It took us a quarter or two on Friday to adjust to the injuries, and we can’t be that slow to adjust in the future.”
What can Brown do for Eagle Point? How about propelling Eagles to 4-1 start
Before the season, Eagle Point coach Erik Johnson expressed confidence that senior running back David Brown was ready to have a breakthrough season that could carry the Eagles following the graduation of backfield mate Isaiah Hill and the transfer of quarterback Caiden Lacey to North Medford.
Not even Johnson could have anticipated what Brown has accomplished through five games.
Brown went over the 1,000-yard mark for the season in Friday’s 35-20 victory over Willamette, finishing with 202 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries. He has 1,037 yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground, and he’s caught seven passes for 146 yards and three scores.
Johnson credited “his buy-in and trust of the offensive line” with Brown’s success this season, which has been critical to the Eagles’ 3-0 start to Midwestern League play.
The next two weeks, though, will tell the story of Eagle Point’s season. The last time the Eagles started a season 4-1 four years ago, they went 2-2 down the stretch and missed the playoffs.
This year, they will play host to Thurston (also 3-0 in MWL play) and travel to Crater. Then, in Week 9, they’ll take on Springfield. With the MWL guaranteed four playoff berths, a 2-2 finish this time should be enough to make the playoffs, but the Eagles have bigger goals in mind — a first league title since 1967, for starters.
“We feel confident in the last stretch of the regular season,” Johnson said. “This will be the toughest test mentally and physically that we’ve had all year. Handling adversity will be the key to this final stretch.”
La Salle Prep snaps 14-game losing streak with ‘extremely satisfying’ win in Tri-Valley opener
A wave of relief washed over the La Salle Prep sideline Friday night as the final seconds ticked down on its 39-17 victory over Parkrose.
The Falcons had lost 14 consecutive games dating to the COVID spring season. In the interim, they’d gone through two coaching changes in one offseason, a COVID-19 outbreak that led to several forfeitures and eight losses by a minimum of three scores.
They began turning the corner in their final nonleague game, a 27-22 loss to Milwaukie in Week 4, before coming up with the breakthrough win against the Broncos — who like La Salle Prep dropped from 5A to join the 4A Tri-Valley Conference this season.
“The win was extremely satisfying for our kids and our whole community,” coach Dustin Janz said. “The past year and a half has been a challenge, but one that we are happy to face. A year ago, we were a team of mostly freshmen and sophomores and took our lumps because of our youth and lack of physicality. This past offseason, our players committed themselves to working hard in the weight room and have improved a lot. We have further to go but have been on the right path since last January.”
Among those freshmen of a year ago who have emerged as sophomores are running back Manu Tanzambi and linebacker Dayne Lavoie. Tanzambi took over as lead back in Week 3, and on Friday, he rushed for 162 yards and two touchdowns on just seven carries.
Lavoie leads the team with 48 tackles, including 13 against the Broncos along with an interception. He teams with junior Grant Ellison, who leads the team in overall Defensive Points (the team assigns points to tackles, sacks and other hustle plays), to form one of the best linebacking tandems in 4A.
The Falcons were a playoff team just three years ago, but to return to the postseason, they’ll need to crack the top half of the conference standings. Estacada reached the semifinals last fall, and Woodburn has been one of the top turnaround stories of 2022 — both are 4-1 this season.
If La Salle Prep can knock off either, that would propel the Falcons squarely into the postseason picture. Otherwise, it could come down to a Week 9 matchup at Gladstone for La Salle Prep to complete the turnaround.
“We have to continue to focus on ourselves and nobody else,” Janz said. “There are some very good teams on our schedule in the next month. We understand that and respect their abilities but can’t allow that to affect who we are and who we’re working to become. We have played well at times all season long, and each week it has gotten better and better. It is our goal to continue that trend and be in the conversation down the stretch.”
Newcomers at quarterback, running back have kept Marshfield on winning track
The biggest question mark entering the season for Marshfield was how the Pirates would fare at quarterback following the graduation of 4A offensive player of the year Dom Montiel.
Through four weeks, sophomore Ashton Fitzgerald-Thorton had managed to keep the Pirates’ ship on course. They were 3-1 under his direction, with a Week 2 nonleague loss to Cascade their only blemish, as he completed 56.5% of his passes for 515 yards and four touchdowns.
He missed last week’s 27-7 victory over Junction City because of a knee injury, which wasn’t as severe as the torn ACL for which he needed surgery a year ago but serious enough to give him a week off. In his place, senior Landon Croff — Montiel’s primary backup last season — stepped in and went 17 of 25 for 142 yards and a touchdown.
Croff considered taking the football season off to prepare for the baseball season, but he turned out two weeks into the season and added leadership and experience to the quarterback corps.
The Pirates also have benefited from the emergence of junior running back John Lemmons Jr., the middle child of head coach John Lemmons. He has taken over as the lead back from Miguel Velazquez, who ran for 878 yards and 19 touchdowns during Marshfield’s state title run.
Lemmons Jr. has gone over 100 yards each of the past three weeks, including a career-high 158 yards and two touchdowns last week. Assistant coach Lee Jensen said Lemmons “has the speed to hit holes. He is a smaller player (5-6, 150) but very quick. Obviously, he has been a big part of the offense.”
Coach Lemmons said he expects Fitzgerald-Thorton to return this week against Ashland, and the Pirates will need all hands on deck during a grueling final stretch that includes a Week 7 home game against Henley and a season finale at Mazama.
“We need to travel well this Friday and come home with a win to set ourselves up for the biggest game of the year thus far against Henley,” Lemmons said. “I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen thus far, but we still have much to improve on. The Pirates need to just keep getting better and not let the Pirates defeat us.”
Colton rallies for road win over Willamina to continue best start in past 15 seasons
A year ago, through five weeks of the season, Colton found itself 1-3, including a canceled game in Week 2 and three consecutive losses to Tri-River Conference opponents.
The Vikings already have avenged one of those defeats this fall, beating Regis 50-48 a week ago. Then, on Friday, they rallied for a 34-14 victory at Willamina — knocking the Bulldogs from the unbeaten ranks while improving to 5-0 for the first time since 2007.
Senior Lance Gunter’s third-quarter interception return for a touchdown kicked off the comeback. The Vikings then relied upon their ground game to position them for the go-ahead score on a 19-yard pass from Wyatt Holliday to Nolan Earls.
Holliday later ran for a touchdown and threw a clinching touchdown pass to Rickie Henderson, continuing his comeback from a knee injury early last season that required surgery. He’s directed an attack that has averaged 40.8 points through five games.
“Wyatt is the real deal,” said second-year coach Jason Stewart. “Last year as a freshman, we weren’t able to use him, but as you can see, he’s healed up and feels better than ever. He runs and throws the ball like nothing ever happened. He’s a remarkable kid.”
The Vikings have gone 17 years since their last playoff win and almost four decades since winning a league title, but Friday’s win has them in the driver’s seat to their first championship since 1984. They still have games against Santiam and Culver (both 2-1 in Tri-River play), with their Week 9 matchup in Central Oregon a potential league title showdown.
“All we need to do is tighten up the brotherhood,” Stewart said. “Our team is run on two major terms — accountability and discipline. Practice hard every day and keep the fire lit. The Colton boys are hungry. They want it. They believe in it. My staff and I just have to keep them healthy and having fun.”
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