No. 4 Willamette rides big first half to defeat Sheldon 

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The biggest all-6A football game in Eugene in eight years was all Willamette in the first half Friday night, Sept. 26, as the Wolverines outscored visiting Sheldon in the first half, 29-0.

And that’s all the state’s fourth-ranked team needed as it held on for the 29-7 win in a game fraught with plenty of emotion and some bad vibes between coaching staffs.

“It was a little weird,” said Willamette head coach Josh Line, who coached the Irish for seven seasons from 2017 to 2023 before taking over the Wolverines program last year.

“It was good to see some of the guys I worked with for a long time and some of the kids, too. But it was a little weird. It’s not something that probably happens very often, where you end up coaching against your old school.”

Wolverines strike early

Willamette, now 4-0 in the Southwest Conference, was led by its shifty and physical running back Zuzi Alwineyan, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound junior transfer from Newberg, who scored two first-half touchdowns on runs of 5 and 10 yards.

Tony Cumberland, the Wolverines’ 6-foot-5, 285-pound University of Oregon signee, scored the first touchdown of the game, lining up in the wildcat position and taking the snap from center then busting into the end zone on a 1-yard run less than three minutes into the game.

That play was set up by a 29-yard run by Alwineyan.

Cumberland took the snap again on a two-point conversion attempt and easily scored to make it 8-0 Wolverines.

“He’s a baller,” said Kawai Chamberlin, Willamette’s junior tight end/linebacker, of Cumberland.

“He’s a 5-star, 4-star (player) for a reason. And he’s a great participant to the team. He does whatever he needs to do, he’s a baller.”

Sheldon, which dropped to 1-3 on the season, found it difficult to get anything going in the first half against a very tough Wolverine defense, led by Cumberland at defensive end, who was in the Irish backfield all night.

“The Cumberland kid’s a load,” Sheldon head coach Tyler Martell said. “You’ve got to know where he is. There’s no one who can block him.”

Alwineyan’s second rushing touchdown made it 22-0, after senior Jonathan Morgan’s point-after-touchdown kick, with 21 seconds left in the first quarter.

Willamette got one more score in the second quarter, a beautifully placed pass by sophomore quarterback Zeke Thomas to senior Hunter Vaughn in the left corner of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown pass with 5:26 left in the first half.

“They played us tough, but I’m really proud of our kids,” Line said. “Really happy for our community. I think that’s really the message here. This is a community that hasn’t had a lot of success on the football field, and we’ve been working really hard to try to change that.”

The stands were packed at Wolverine Stadium, and the crowd was loud for a team that many believe could win its first state championship for the school.

“I think we’re great,” said junior lineman Tripp Johansen, one of seven players on the Willamette roster who played at Sheldon last season before transferring in the middle of the 2024-25 school year. 

“I think we have the players to win it all. I am super-excited; obviously a little biased, but I think we can go all the way.”

Irish connect in second half

The Irish, outsized and playing without starting quarterback Micah Ritchie-Tuisue, who sustained ankle and shoulder injuries after a hard second-quarter sack, played valiantly in the second half.

They scored the only points of the half on a 13-yard pass by sophomore backup quarterback Ryder Rohaley, who was on Willamette’s roster last season, to junior wideout Barry Myles in the right corner of the end zone with 1:33 left in the third quarter to make it 29-7 after the kick.

It was the first meeting between Line and Martell, who took over for the Irish last year and was part of Line’s staff at Sheldon.

The tension between the two programs centers around the players who transferred from Sheldon for a chance to play for Line on a team stacked with talent. Willamette has 14 new transfers on its team this year.

“These coaches are amazing, and I’d run through a wall for them,” Chamberlin said of Line and his staff.  “Ever since Coach Line got here last year, he’s changed the program around. It just means a lot to the community. And I’m glad we can put on a show for them and let them experience this new culture.”

Willamette heads to West Salem next Friday, Oct. 3, for a matchup with West Salem, while Sheldon visits North Salem. Both games kick off at 7 p.m.