Wilsonville silences Putnam, claims Northwest Oregon Conference title

By René Ferrán | Photo by Leon Neuschwander 

The Wilsonville players read the social media posts by their Putnam compatriots during the week leading into Friday’s Northwest Oregon Conference championship game at Randall Stadium. 

The Kingsmen rightfully were proud of what they’d accomplished entering the game — the last undefeated team in Class 5A, their first 8-0 start in the past 36 seasons, the third-highest scoring offense in 5A. 

The Wildcats sat back and absorbed all the talk.

“We just let them talk,” said senior receiver Cooper Hiday. “Because we showed them on the field what’s up.”

What was up at the end of the night were the hands of 46 players reaching toward the NWOC championship trophy hoisted above them by coach Adam Guenther following a 42-14 victory — the seventh consecutive season for the Wildcats (7-2) to add one to their trophy case.

“They said they were the best team in the state, the fastest offense, or whatever, and that just lit everyone up,” said sophomore safety Mark Wiepert. “When you give this locker room evidence to make us mad, we were all so excited for this. We all had that fire, and it was very cool to beat it out of them early. We punched them in the mouth.”

Wilsonville built a 28-0 halftime lead as junior quarterback Kallen Gutridge ran for a first-quarter touchdown and tossed two long touchdown passes to Hiday.

When the Kingsmen (8-1) looked as if they might come to life after halftime, with Adam Tetrick’s interception setting up a 12-yard touchdown run by Jaxon Doyle, Wiepert snuffed their momentum by returning the ensuing kickoff 92 yards to rebuild the 28-point lead. 

Gutridge then capped another short drive with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Kheller Larson in the final minute of the third quarter, bringing on the running clock.

The Wildcats finished with eight tackles for loss and five sacks, holding the Kingsmen to 159 yards of total offense — 81 coming on their final drive against the second-team defense.

“They were a little bit more athletic than any other team that we played,” said Putnam senior Oaklund Selfors, who had a team-high five tackles (two for loss). “They didn’t stop. They kept the pressure on and played all four quarters.”

While the Kingsmen won’t match the 1986 team’s 11-0 start that marked the program’s last league championship, they’ll still play host to a playoff game for the first time since that season.

Selfors said what the Kingsmen will take from Friday’s loss is that “when we face adversity, it’s not something that we can crumble upon. We have a strong base, but we’ve got to keep it strong. We’ve got to keep moving forward. There’s no changing this now. We just have to work for next week.”

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Wilsonville 42, Putnam 14

Putnam – 0 – 0 – 7 – 7 — 14

Wilsonville – 14 – 14 – 14 – 0 — 42

First quarter

W — Kallen Gutridge 38 run (Greg Keswick kick), 9:08

W — Jacob Ogden 18 run (Keswick kick), 1:59

Second quarter

W — Cooper Hiday 58 pass from Gutridge (Keswick kick), 8:55

W — Hiday 62 pass from Gutridge (Keswick kick), 2:44

Third quarter

P — Jaxon Doyle 12 run (Chase McDonald kick), 9:19

W — Mark Wiepert 92 kickoff return (Keswick kick), 9:03

W — Kheller Larson 23 pass from Gutridge (Keswick kick), 0:59

Fourth quarter

P — Tyler Creswick 2 pass from Konnor Bickford (McDonald kick), 1:34

STATISTICS

RUSHING—Putnam: Doyle 22-95, Odin Lundstedt 2-10. Total 33-55. Wilsonville: Ogden 10-61, Gutridge 6-50. Total 19-125.

PASSING—Putnam: Bickford 13-22-0-104. Wilsonville: Gutridge 8-15-3-194.

RECEIVING—Putnam: Creswick 5-63, Jackson Heath 3-20, Emmitt Pratt 2-12. Wilsonville: Hiday 2-120, Wiepert 2-19, Nick Colyer 2-23.

DEFENSE—Putnam: Oaklund Selfors 5 tackles, 2 for loss; Creswick 2 tackles, 2 interceptions; Adam Tetrick 2 tackles, interception. Wilsonville: Jonatan Lazaro-Hampton 4 tackles, 1.5 sacks, pass breakup; Ryder McElroy 4 tackles, 2 for loss, sack; Wiepert 4 tackles; Brennan Martin 4 tackles, sack; Mason Seal 5 tackles, 1.5 for loss.

FIRST DOWNS—Putnam 10, Wilsonville 11. FUMBLES-LOST—Putnam 1-0, Wilsonville 1-0. PENALTIES-YARDS—Putnam 8-51, Wilsonville 2-30.