Instant analysis: 10 things to know from Week 2 of Oregon high school football
Here are 10 takeaways (in no particular order) from the second weekend of the Oregon high school football season.
Photo by Ken Waz
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Springfield’s Geske gets revenge, 250th win in overtime
Springfield coach Frank Geske became the 14th coach in state history to reach 250 wins Friday night — doing so at the expense of the team he led last season.
Marist Catholic didn’t take it easy on its former coach, but in the end, a two-point conversion try slipped through the receiver’s fingers in the end zone, allowing the Millers to escape with a 36-34 victory.
Geske is 250-125 in his 36th season — including the previous 15 with the Spartans, where he went 120-46 and won a state title in 2009.
The Millers erased a 28-16 deficit late in the third quarter, with Connor Dye scoring twice in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime, then adding his fourth score of the night on a 6-yard run. A halfback pass on the two-point conversion made it 36-28.
The Spartans answered with Brady Bidwell catching a third-down pass from Nick Hudson for a 9-yard score. A false-start penalty on the conversion put the ball back at the 8, and Hudson’s throw went through the hands of his receiver to set off the celebration on the Millers sideline.
The Millers won despite losing standout quarterback Caeleb Kasperek to a left ankle injury late in the first quarter.
Defending 5A champion Summit gets back on track with big road win
Summit and Thurston both needed a get-well win Friday night after each lost in blowout fashion in Week 1.
It would be the defending 5A champion Storm who exited with the bounce-back victory, answering an early Colts touchdown with 34 consecutive points en route to a 46-25 road victory.
Sam Stephens ran for two touchdowns, including a 67-yarder midway through the third quarter that pushed the Storm’s lead to 34-6. Transfer quarterback Jimmy Hughes threw for one touchdown and ran for another as Summit put its 42-14 loss to Tualatin in its rearview mirror.
The Colts, who handed out rings to their 5A baseball state champions at halftime, got two touchdown catches by Luke Newell, with the second drawing them to within 40-18 with 2:07 left in the third. They couldn’t build off that score and fell to 0-2 for the second consecutive season.
No letdown for Wilsonville with showdown against Tualatin ahead
Wilsonville, No. 1 in the initial SBLive Oregon Class 5A media poll, didn’t get caught looking ahead to next week’s showdown with 6A No. 3 Tualatin.
The Wildcats followed an impressive 44-15 opening-week victory against Thurston by rolling past Westview 49-14 to improve to 2-0 for the fourth consecutive season.
Senior quarterback Kallen Gutridge threw for 229 yards and four touchdowns in the first half as Wilsonville built a 35-7 halftime lead. Gedde McKnight returned the second-half kickoff for the score that triggered the running clock.
Mountainside earns bounce-back win against Barlow
Another team looking to rebound this week was Mountainside, which fell at South Medford in coach Keanon Lowe’s return to the Oregon high school sidelines after a three-year absence.
Thanks to sophomore Jordan Hicks, the Mavericks got their first win under Lowe. Hicks ran for four touchdowns, and Jaydon Mashkov tacked on an insurance score in the fourth quarter as they held on to defeat Barlow 34-27.
Senior quarterback Alex Ingalls, who was injured in the third quarter of last week’s loss at South Medford, returned behind center Friday. He took a back seat as the third quarter was the Hicks and Martino Show after Mountainside took a 7-6 lead to the locker room.
Hicks ran for three scores in the period, and Martino — a senior receiver for the Bruins — caught touchdowns of 27 and 57 yards to keep Barlow close.
Newberg spoils Lincoln’s return to its downtown home
During the past two seasons, Lincoln has led a vagabond existence while its downtown Portland campus underwent a renovation that moved the school onto the site of the former football field.
The sparkling new campus opened last year, but it wasn’t until this week that the Cardinals’ football/soccer/track facility finally opened. Unfortunately, Newberg ruined the festivities at Lincoln’s home opener, rolling to a 35-0 victory.
Senior tight end Nolan Dikeman caught two touchdown passes, and Walker Hilton ran for two second-half touchdowns — the second with 9:04 remaining triggering a running clock for the remainder of the game.
McDaniel snaps 15-game skid with dominant home win
McDaniel ended 6A’s second-longest losing streak at 15 games Friday with a 39-8 rout of Putnam.
It had been almost two years since the Mountain Lions tasted victory. Their last win came in Week 4 of the 2021 season, when they defeated Wells 20-12. It had been even longer since their last home win — they’d lost 17 in a row at their Northeast Portland field since beating Cleveland in Week 6 of the 2017 season.
That Friday’s game even took place is impressive. Putnam was in danger of not fielding a team this year after reaching the playoffs last season and going 8-2.
Aloha owns the longest losing streak in 6A at 20 games following a 35-0 loss at Franklin.
Beaverton bounces back to post first shutout in past 6 seasons
A week ago, Beaverton couldn’t keep up as Roseburg erased the memory of a winless 2022 season with a 50-18 victory.
The Beavers returned home Thursday to face McNary, another team that went from a playoff team in 2021 to winless in 2022.
There would be no streak-busting on Beaverton’s home field, though. Instead, the Beavers posted a 21-0 victory for their first shutout since Week 6 of the 2017 season. A couple of sophomores — quarterback Spencer York and receiver Oliver Luebkert — connected on two touchdown passes, and Dez Valencia ran for a score.
The Celtics suffered their 12th consecutive loss entering their South Central Football Conference opener next week at home against South Medford.
Mountain View improves to 2-0 with impressive home win
A year ago, Bend was the only of the four Bend School District teams to open its season 2-0, and the Lava Bears went on to reach the 5A state semifinals.
This season, through two games, only one Bend-area school is again 2-0. This time, it’s Mountain View, which romped to a 37-0 victory against visiting Churchill for the Cougars’ first 2-0 start in a full season since 2018.
Last week, the Cougars rode the legs of sophomore Angel Valenzuela, who ran for 257 yards and four touchdowns against Canby.
While Valenzuela did have a 50-yard touchdown scamper against the Lancers, this week was all about the combination of senior quarterback Connor Crum and junior receiver Jack Foley, who hooked up three times for touchdowns.
Defending 4A champion Estacada drops to 0-2 with home loss to Scappoose
It was a tale of two halves at Estacada’s Buzz Randall Field, with 4A No. 2 Scappoose building a 23-0 halftime lead over No. 4 Estacada, then holding off a furious rally by the defending state champion Rangers for a 23-18 victory.
Scappoose avenged two losses to Estacada last season, including a 14-7 defeat in the semifinals, and improved to 2-0. The Rangers, who lost in the last minute at Mazama last week, became the first 4A champion to open the following season 0-2.
The Rangers started their comeback with a 75-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Riedel to Ryan Thielke. Jacob Brewer drew them closer just before the end of the third quarter with a 2-yard touchdown run.
After a botched snap on a punt gave the Rangers the ball at the Scappoose 35 with 3:19 to play, the hosts recorded one first down before Quinton Olson sealed the victory by intercepting a tipped pass with one minute left.
2A title game rematch comes down to final minute
For the second year in a row, 2A powers Weston-McEwen and Oakland met in a Week 2 showdown — this time in the Southern Oregon community of 927 residents just 2 miles off Interstate 5 in Douglas County.
That meant it was the TigerScots who made the 7-hour bus ride for the showdown, and while their offense struggled in the afternoon matchup, their defense came up big on several occasions to pull out a 7-6 victory and avenge their loss to the Oakers in last year’s 2A state final.
Junior Easton Berry returned an interception for a touchdown early in the first quarter for Weston-McEwen, and the TigerScots made the early score stand up.
They stopped the Oakers’ two-point conversion try after Gabe Williamson’s short touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter, and they sealed the victory with Anthony Nix’s interception with 1:21 left.
“I truly believe both teams got better from this game,” said TigerScots coach Kenzie Hansell, whose team also won last year’s regular-season matchup, 24-16, before falling 46-32 in the final.
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STATEWIDE SCOREBOARD
Week 2 predictions: How did we do?
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Week 1 recap:
What we learned in Week 1 of Oregon high school football
Instant analysis: 10 things to know from Week 1 of Oregon high school football
Our Week 1 predictions: How did we do?
State leaders: Class 6A | Class 5A | Class 4A
Media polls: Class 6A | Class 5A | Class 4A
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