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QuickTake:
Keaton Welch rumbled for two scores and Ryker Rohaley threw for three touchdowns as the Irish squeaked into the state semifinals.
Keaton Welch is just like this.
Every game, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Sheldon backup quarterback waits on the sideline while Ryker Rohaley manages the Irish offense. He watches while his team drives into the red zone, then as it gets inside five yards.
Once they’re in the sweet spot — a yard or two out — Rohaley jogs off and Welch jogs on. That’s where Sheldon’s Wildcat quarterback, its bruiser, its thumper with eight rushing touchdowns on the year, shines. It’s just “the person I am,” he said.
“I think it’s just a mentality thing,” Welch said. “Like, I’m going to score here. No one’s going to stop me.”
Friday, no one could. Behind Welch’s two rushing scores, No. 5 Sheldon (8-2) outraced No. 12 Lakeridge, 35-34 in a first-round playoff game Friday, Nov. 6. Rohaley threw for three scores, including the go-ahead touchdown to Barry Myles with 9:47 left, before sealing it with a 16-yard third-and-7 completion to Jett Wong.
The Irish defense bowed up just enough to send the Pacers (5-5) home and Sheldon onto the quarterfinal round. It’ll face No. 4 Tualatin Nov. 13.
Running back Cody Hall returned from a short-term injury which held him out of last Friday’s league-clinching win over Willamette to carry five times for 29 yards on the Irish’s first touchdown drive, then break free for a 40-yard dash to set up their third, a 1-yard rushing score from Welch.
Missing last week “hurt,” Hall said. But seeing his team win was an antidote as he worked over the next week without knowing if he could play. He started jogging Wednesday, then by Thursday knew that he was healthy enough to go — especially for a playoff game.
Pregame, then at halftime, Hall was reminding Sheldon’s seniors that this could be their last game. He loved them, he said later, and he wasn’t ready to be done with his favorite team.
Hall didn’t score Friday, but he racked up 125 rushing yards on 21 carries as the Pacers’ defense struggled to keep Sheldon’s offense off-schedule. He added multiple long receptions, too, and says he’s watched San Francisco 49ers star Christian McCaffrey his whole life for an image of what an all-purpose back should be.
Meanwhile, Rohaley (17-for-23, 214 yards, three TDs, interception) hit two of those seniors, Cam Thomas and Barry Myles, for 18- and 22-yard first-half touchdowns. Lakeridge, though it couldn’t hang with Thomas (2 catches, 21 yards, TD) or Myles (3 catches, 70 yards, 2 TDs) in flight, stayed stride-for-stride with the Irish as running back Colby Owen racked up the first of his four scores, wideout Hudson Armerding rolled for a long score and neither team got a stop until deep into the second quarter.
Sheldon head coach Tyler Martell told his team throughout the week that they needed to move on from what was a fervently dramatic victory at the end of the regular season. They did, he felt, but when its dominant defense started to wilt, the former defensive coordinator took it in stride.
“You just have to continue to remind them that they’ve been really, really good,” Martell said. “And we have good players. In that game, it was easy to hang your head at times, but you have to take a step back and realize we still have the lead, take a breath and just do the things you’re coached to do.”
Welch got his two scores on either side of the halftime break, just as the game started to slow down and Sheldon lifted its head. Hall’s 40-yard breakaway set up his 1-yard score before a defensive pass interference call in the end zone set the Irish up in Welch range with 5:32 left in the third quarter.
The junior quarterback faked a toss left, exited right and tucked. A Lakeridge defender clung to his ankles, then watched from the ground as Welch shook off more goal-line contact and yelled into the night air from the end zone.
“He’s so big and physical, and he embraces that contact,” Martell said. “He’s embraced that role where I think a lot of guys would pout if they were the backup quarterback and all he’s done is be a Sheldon football player. He really cares about the Irish, and when he gets his opportunity, he makes the most out of it.”
Myles’ second receiving touchdown, the ultimate winning score, came on a Rohaley seam shot which saw the University of Nevada commit turn around to snag the ball, then fumble after he turned around and recover as he rolled into the end zone for what referees ruled a 39-yard score.
Lucky, maybe. But Martell says the Irish create their own luck.
“We’ve said all along — and we said all week — you have to get a little bit lucky this time of year,” Martell said. “And you kind of create your own luck at times by how you prepare, and I think we prepare the right way.”
Wong, meanwhile, made his impact over the middle with 19-, 10- and 15-yard catches before that third-and-7 arrived. Another hard-fought Hall catch-and-run set the Irish up inside Pacers territory when Lakeridge called its final timeout down one point with just over two minutes remaining.
Wong’s post-corner was true, and Rohaley rolled left before delivering into Wong’s numbers.
“I just leave it up to Ryker, always getting the ball there,” Wong (4 catches, 55 yards) said. “I’m just running my route, always pure and good.”
Sheldon will face No. 4 Tualatin (8-2), 40-7 victors over No. 13 Grant Friday night, Nov. 13.
Scoreboard
Friday, Nov. 6
- Willamette 42, Sprague 29
- Sheldon 35, Lakeridge 34
- Wilsonville 56, Churchill 22
- West Albany 42, Springfield 7
- Thurston 49, St. Helens 6
- Cascade Christian 58, Marist Catholic 28
- Junction City at La Grande
- Warrenton 28, Siuslaw-Mapleton 26
- Scio 49, Pleasant Hill 18
- Lowell 52, Oakland 16
- Crane 44, Mohawk 16
- Dayville-Monument-Long Creek 51, Triangle Lake 26
