QuickTake:

As the preps schedule shifts to Thursday to accommodate a Friday night Ducks game, league play kicks off with a bang. 

Because the Friday night lights will be shining on the University of Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium this week, lights will be shining Thursday night on six local high school games. And this week’s prep slate includes the first chance to see league opponents face off.

Thurston and Churchill duel with a quality win on the line, while Springfield battles Eagle Point in an effort to remain undefeated before a matchup with Thurston next week.

Four Lane County programs head out on the road Friday, including undefeated Crow at undefeated North Lake, and Pleasant Hill at Dayton.

But first …

On Monday night, the South Eugene Axe won a football game for the first time in over three years, with a 20-14 victory at Lebanon over the Warriors’ JV squad.

We’ll have more about that soon in our continuing series on the Axe’s effort to revive its football program (read Part 1 here). Suffice to say the team was thrilled after a fourth-quarter goal-line stand with 10 seconds left secured the win.

Home games

Games kick off at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, unless otherwise noted.

Owen Murray’s game of the week: Thurston vs. Churchill

League play is kicking off this week, and this is an excellent way to begin. Thurston has a marquee win in its bag already with that Week Zero takedown of Sheldon, but lost two weeks ago to West Albany, 31-8, while Churchill is winless and looking for one of its own.

Churchill will have running back Ryder Nagle to lean on in head coach Layne Coffin’s double-wing offense, which also features quarterback Talon Jerabek, as the Lancers try to keep the ball away from a talented Thurston offense.

The Colts, meanwhile, have star tight end/defensive lineman Leofatu Filipe as an option for quarterback Emmit Distefano. Thurston manufactured that early win over Sheldon with a Filipe pick-six on the other side of the ball, and while opportunities to make that play might wane against a run-heavy Churchill team, keep an eye on the junior.

Two losses — 49-22 on the road at Canby, then 15-12 to Liberty at home — have defined Churchill’s season. Coffin felt like he saw measurable improvement between the weeks as the Lancers tried to diagnose the source of their losses.

“From Week 1 to Week 2 was a huge change,” Coffin said. “And you never know how much you’re going to gain because these guys are very good, so as long as we get in there and compete really hard, hopefully we can give them a run for their money.”

They’ve had the time to prepare for it. Both Churchill and Thurston have been on bye with a week to prepare for their first nonconference game. Coffin and Thurston head coach Justin Starck both agreed it supplied productive time to attack mistakes.

Thursday, then, sets up as a game of keep-away. Churchill’s running game, if successful, will be both productive and second-sapping if Thurston can’t build an early lead. That’s why the Colts, Starck said, spent this week working on firming up a rushing defense with which he wasn’t satisfied against West Albany — while trying to jump-start its own ground game and therefore provide more time for quarterback Distefano to operate.

“You have to get stops,” Starck said. “You have to get stops with your defense and get their offense off the field, because their offense will try to chew five or 10 minutes of time off the clock.

“They’re a hard team to get behind on and play from behind because they will absolutely take the air out of the ball and take away your opportunities to score,” he said.

Churchill, Coffin said, continued to refine its ground game in an effort to raise it to a level at which it could stymie the Colts. Starck said Coffin’s teams “get better as the season goes on every year,” while Coffin said “Starck’s been the man around here for quite a while.”

For one of these programs, Thursday’s game could be a turning point.

Other home games in a sentence:

  • Willamette (1-2) vs. Jesuit (1-1): The Wolverines, fresh off their first win of the year, take on one of 6A’s best teams in Jesuit.
  • Springfield (2-0) vs. Eagle Point (2-0): In a matchup of early undefeateds, the Millers face an Eagle Point team that has scored 77 points and given up just 7.
  • Cottage Grove (1-1) vs. North Bend (1-2): The Lions took a hefty loss at Mazama, and now welcome a North Bend team coming off a significant loss of its own (47-0 to Cascade Christian).
  • Mohawk (2-0) vs. Crosspoint Christian (1-2): The undefeated Mustangs continue their nonleague schedule against a Crosspoint Christian team winless since Week Zero starting a series of three-straight away games.
  • McKenzie (1-2) vs. Gilchrist (0-2): The Eagles open play with winless Gilchrist ahead of next week’s matchup with 2025 1A state finalist Crow.
  • North Eugene (0-2) vs. Roseburg (3-0) — 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18: The Highlanders need a jump-start on their season after a running-clock home loss to Caldera last Friday.
  • Marist Catholic (1-1) vs. Cascade Christian (2-0) — 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18: The Spartans stick with nonleague play in a duel between two of 4A’s best.
  • Siuslaw-Mapleton (2-1) vs. Elmira (0-2) — 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19: A pair of local teams in separate districts face off in a nonleague matchup; despite a 57-8 loss at league favorite Vale, Siuslaw-Mapleton has a pair of blowout wins to lean on.
  • Oakridge (1-1) vs. Chiloquin (1-1) — 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19: After navigating a quadruple-overtime loss in its opener, Oakridge looks to build on a 39-34 road win over Vernonia.
  • Creswell (0-2) vs. Coquille (0-3) — 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19: Two winless programs — including local Creswell, coming off a 40-0 loss at Harrisburg — search for their first win of the season.

Away games

Games kick off at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, unless otherwise noted.

Owen Murray’s game of the week: Crow (2-0) at North Lake (2-0) (4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18)

Crow head coach Nick Nevins said before the season that he expected the Cougars’ 1A Special District 3 to be among the best. That’s teed up Friday as Crow’s first league matchup comes without a loss in sight.

The Cougars rolled through nonleague play with barely a scratch on them in two dominant wins over Falls City and Triangle Lake by a combined 90-19, and begin their path toward a league title at a North Lake team, which last season handed the Cougars one of its rare losses.

North Lake, for its part, beat Triangle Lake and South Wasco County by a combined 99-19. It finished ahead of Crow in the 2025-26 league table at 4-2, but bowed out to eventual semifinalist Sherman in the first round of the state playoffs.

Keep an eye on this six-man matchup as a bellwether of just how right Nevins’ prediction might be.

Other away games in a sentence:

  • Junction City (1-1) at Sweet Home (2-0): After a heavy defeat at Scappoose, the Tigers begin league play on the road at Sweet Home.
  • Pleasant Hill (2-0) at Dayton (1-1): The Billies, benefactors of an early blowout win and averaging 48.5 points per game, continue their nonleague swing at Dayton — coming off a shutout win of its own.
  • Lowell (2-0) at Lakeview (0-2): The Red Devils haven’t been touched yet in confident wins over Regis and La Pine; they’ll head to winless Lakeview looking to continue the trend.
  • Triangle Lake (0-2) at Elkton (2-0) — 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19: The Lakers face a stiff test for their first win, with the Elks’ offense riding a pair of 40-point offensive performances in its first two outings.