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QuickTake:
The Irish leaned on junior back Cody Hall’s four touchdowns and 140 yards as they stepped on the gas in the second half to claim a dominant win.
Since last year’s 2-7 frustration, Sheldon football has grown in leaps and bounds. Despite a season-opening loss to 5A Thurston, the Irish have surged toward the top of 6A and back toward normalcy in Eugene.
But for a quarter Friday night, head coach Tyler Martell’s team was mired in 2025.
South Medford, which came to Sheldon last year and dominated on the ground in a 21-0 win, ran it back in the first quarter against the Irish. The Panthers drained the clock from the start with an eight-minute, 33-second march sustained by a pair of fourth-down conversions and a Sheldon interception wiped out by a roughing-the-passer call.
When Panthers quarterback Kanoa Castillo-Simmons tossed up a chance for wideout Levi Wolters, the senior took flight and landed in the end zone with what could’ve been a game-defining score.
But this isn’t last year.
These Irish (6-1, 2-0) silenced a drive that could have put them down by two touchdowns. Then they rode junior back Cody Hall’s four touchdowns and 140 yards to a dominant 38-7 victory over South Medford (1-6, 0-2) — a win that delivered them to the doorstep of a 6A-Special District 2 title charge.
Quarterback Ryker Rohaley kept the ball out of trouble and in the arms of senior wideout Barry Myles (four receptions, 33 yards), and Sheldon advanced another week without much difficulty on the scoreboard.
Hall ”just runs so hard,” Martell said. “But it’s not surprising, because he practices like that every day. He doesn’t get outworked, and his vision when it’s time to put his foot in the ground and go win and beat guys to the corner, it’s impressive.”
“I couldn’t have done it without my o-line,” Hall said. “They set the tone, and I just hit the holes. Without them, I’m nothing.”
Credit: Noah Noteboom / For Lookout Eugene-Springfield
After the Irish drove following the Wolters (six receptions, 81 yards) touchdown but turned the ball over on downs, South Medford had its opportunity to put the Irish in a hole. Castillo-Simmons saved a drive deep into Sheldon’s half with a 22-yard scramble on fourth-and-12, but Myles blanketed his receiver on three ensuing shots into the Irish end zone. A failed fourth-down play in lieu of a field goal attempt relieved the pressure.
“Barry’s just so talented, and we’ve put him on an island defensively and said, ‘Hey, go find a way to cover guys,’ and he’s done it,” Martell said. “And South Medford was one of the first teams we’ve seen that really went after him.”
With the ball back and 3:49 left in the first half, Sheldon leaned on its own ground game and Hall, who dominated as the Irish surged into the red zone on the back of multiple long runs and an 18-yard sideline completion from Rohaley (15-24, 183 yards) to Myles. Hall took hold from 12 yards out and knocked over the pylon with a dive on an outside run to even the score.
“It was awesome, you know?” Hall said. “I knew I had to set the tone and get the energy because we didn’t come out with a lot of energy. I was like, ‘This will give our team a lot of energy,’ so I just had to get in.”
“That’s my boy,” Rohaley said. “I love him to death. He’s awesome. He deserves every honor.”
Unfinished, Sheldon forced a three-and-out, then drove near the red zone to knock through a 25-yard field goal to end the half and take its first lead.
At the half, Hall said he heard a conversation amongst linemen aimed at solving a lack of second-level drive in the run game. That, he said, was the key and the junior, whom Rohaley called “the best running back in the state,” was unstoppable in the second half while the Irish defense’s grip tightened on Castillo-Simmons. Hall wriggled through gaps, escaping for six-, 30- and four-yard scores, the last of which was set up by a rolling Rohaley 37-yard pass to an open Kyler Cordell.
The season-opening loss to the 5A Colts, who’ve blossomed into a title-challenging team of their own, frustrated an Irish program which felt it was more than ready to redeem itself. That five-turnover game felt so far away Friday — the Irish didn’t fumble or throw an interception — that it might as well have been a year ago.
Tinges of those troubles came when Sheldon sputtered, handing South Medford possessions with penalties and extending drives with arm tackles on a slippery quarterback. They could’ve stained an otherwise stunning night.
“We were just lethargic a little bit,” Martell said of the first half. “We were catching them, and they were kind of hitting us in the mouth. South Medford did a great job, but it was just self-inflicted wounds.”
But there wasn’t any stopping these Irish, a year older and a year wiser with the ball, as a slippery quarterback of their own — backup Keaton Welch — rounded the corner a-la Hall into the end zone to cap their night.
“Obviously, we started slow — I think anyone could tell you that,” Rohaley said. “But I think we just settled down, got all the nerves out and then just turned it on.”
Sheldon will travel to face North Medford Oct. 23.
Scoreboard
Thursday, Oct. 15
- Madras 40, Elvira 13
- Days Creek 16, McKenzie 6
- Crow 52, Siletz 0
Friday, Oct. 16
- Willamette 35, Grants Pass 10
- Sheldon 38, South Medford 7
- Thurston 49, North Eugene 13
- Churchill 20, Crater 13
- Springfield 21, Roseburg 12
- Horizon Christian 42, South Albany (JV) 14
- Sweet Home 49, Cottage Grove 12
- North Bend 41, Marist Catholic 40
- Junction City 21, South Umpqua 14
- Klamath Union 48, Creswell 0
- Pleasant Hill 51, Sisters 7
- Sutherlin 34, Siuslaw-Mapleton 22
- Lowell 58, Toledo 28
- Oakridge 22, Central Linn 16
- Mohawk at Vernonia, 7 p.m.
- Country Christian at Triangle Lake, 7 p.m.
- Crow 1, Gilchrist 0 (forfeit)
