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QuickTake:
The Colts overcame the Lancers’ run-heavy ball-control game plan behind quarterback Emmit Distefano’s four total touchdowns to take their first league win of the season, 34-16.
Thurston and Churchill football have defined the last half-decade of the Midwestern League. The two programs, which together own all of the last six league titles, entered league play Thursday, Sept. 17 with the goal of imposing their disparate styles of play on their rival.
Churchill approached its Homecoming night with the goal of wearing down its rival on the ground and keeping the ball away from Thurston’s stable of wide receivers and quarterback Emmit Distefano. It did so with two extensive campaigns which ended in Ryder Nagle touchdowns.
But the Colts (2-1, 1-0 Midwestern), led by Distefano (15 of 17, 196 yards, four total touchdowns) and Leofatu Filipe, shrugged off that pair of long Lancer (0-3, 0-1) scoring drives and kept focused to claim a 34-16 win.
“This group has been mentally tough and resilient,” said Thurston head coach Justin Starck. “(It’s about) knowing that when you face an offense like that, you can’t get tired. They’re going to grind you, and you’ve got to be able to respond and keep fighting. That’s what we did.”
Distefano, who started with nine straight completions, spread the ball around to seven different receivers, including touchdown passes to Bodie Bonar (three receptions for 61 yards), Filipe and Wade Sisler.
The Colts built a 14-0 lead after the first quarter. But the Lancers answered with an eight-minute, 17-play touchdown drive that ate up the majority of the second quarter, powered by the bruising Nagle, who carried the ball 22 times for 90 yards. Nagle punched in a 9-yard score on the ground after picking up third-down conversions via both the run and the pass.
With time running out in the half, DiStefano and Quintin Fisher (9 carries, 39 yards) marched the Colts down the field with tempo.
The Thurston quarterback recovered from a sack to drive his offense to the 2-yard line with a 17-yard third-down roll-out completion and a 15-yard scramble on the next play, before swinging wide to hit Sisler in the shallow corner of the end zone with nine seconds remaining in the half.
“It was just positivity on the sideline,” Distefano said.
Churchill head coach Layne Coffin’s team came out of the halftime break, seized the ball and tested the Colts’ focus with a drive that ate over six minutes. The drive ended with a fourth-and-goal conversion on a looped pass from quarterback Talon Jerabek (7-12, 100 yards) to Nagle in the back of the end zone. A successful two-point conversion brought the Lancers back into striking distance at 21-16.
That, Coffin said, was what his offense looks like at its best, and when Thurston turned around and punted after a three-and-out, momentum looked as if it had swung for good. But Filipe compounded a pair of Churchill penalties with a second-down sack and buried that chance at a Lancers comeback.
“It’s just football,” Filipe said. “That’s just what I do, you know?”
On the ensuing drive, Distefano stacked a 45-yard completion to Bentlee Davenport with a 10-yard scramble for a lead-extending score before Filipe ended Churchill’s chances with a batted pass and half-sack on the other end.
“We just stayed disciplined and got our job done,” Filipe said. “We don’t get selfish. When we have to make a play, we’ll make a play.”
Bonar could’ve put the game even further out of reach when he broke free over the middle, but went down at the 1-yard line to burn clock. Logan Raube punched in the final score for the Colts.
History suggests this isn’t a definitive end to hopes of season success for Churchill; the Lancers returned from a midseason defeat to Thurston to beat the Colts in the state playoffs last season. Coffin, too, saw another level to his team Thursday.
“All in all, I thought we played pretty darn good,” Coffin said. “I don’t want to make it sound like I don’t think we played good … we played our best game. It may not look like it on the scoreboard, but as far as physicality, and technically playing against a team that’s that good and that well-coached — I was really happy with a lot of our kids.”
Thurston’s Starck also was happy.
“I’m just proud of this group, and we’ve just got to keep getting better,” he said. “There’s bigger games to come, bigger opponents down the road — if we have to play these guys again, they’ll be really good. (Coffin) always does a good job of having them play their best football at the end of the year, so we don’t really want to see them again, but we got this one. We’re happy.”
Scoreboard
Thursday, Sept. 17
- Willamette 54, Jesuit 31
- Thurston 34, Churchill 16
- Springfield 21, Eagle Point 7
- North Bend 49, Cottage Grove 20
- McKenzie 32, Gilchrist 0
- Mohawk vs. Crosspoint Christian, 7 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 18
- North Eugene (0-2) vs. Roseburg (3-0), 7 p.m.
- Marist Catholic (1-1) vs. Cascade Christian (2-0), 7 p.m.
- Crow (2-0) at North Lake (2-0), 4 p.m.
- Junction City (1-1) at Sweet Home (2-0), 7 p.m.
- Pleasant Hill (2-0) at Dayton (1-1), 7 p.m.
- Lowell (2-0) at Lakeview (0-2), 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 19
- Siuslaw-Mapleton (2-1) vs. Elmira (0-2), 1 p.m.
- Oakridge (1-1) vs. Chiloquin (1-1), 1 p.m.
- Creswell (0-2) vs. Coquille (0-3), 5 p.m.
- Triangle Lake (0-2) at Elkton (2-0), 4 p.m.
