Prep football preview: Springfield, Thurston matchup tops Friday schedule

League play is in full swing with Week 4 of prep football coming around. That means there are more local matchups to focus on, and those start this week with an enticing 5A-Special District 5 battle between Thurston and undefeated Springfield.

Elsewhere, North Eugene and Churchill fight to get out of the basement in 5A-Special District 5, while a trio of 4A teams need bounce-back wins and Siuslaw-Mapleton sets up for what should be a good duel against Creswell.

All local games kick off Friday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. 

Home games

Owen Murray’s pick: Thurston (2-1, 1-0) vs. Springfield (3-0, 1-0)

Last week, the Colts pulled away from Churchill, eventually winning 34-16 in their league opener last Thursday behind a confident performance from quarterback Emmit Distefano and a defensive shutdown on the last drive from Leofatu Filipe. Their nonleague resume includes a win over Sheldon and a loss to West Albany (itself now 3-1 with its only loss coming to a Mountain View team which looks solid), and head coach Justin Starck’s team has more challenges coming down the pipe.

That starts with the Millers, who remain undefeated through battles against Bend, Corvallis and Eagle Point. They’ve given up just 21 points so far (and none in that 34-0 win over Corvallis) while scoring 75, and Friday’s road test at Thurston sets up as a potential top-of-the-league preview.

Thurston, facing a strong run game in Churchill’s double wing, leaned on its own alongside Distefano’s arm to outpace the Lancers last week.

“We were really not happy after the West Albany game [where] really a lack of any kind of run game made it difficult for us to throw the ball,” Starck said. “They dropped everybody in coverage and we had to commit to the run game. So we made a strong commitment. We really challenged our linemen and running backs and just everyone to block better and really just get the run game going [against Churchill], and so we were pleased with the progress we made in that direction.”

Distefano accounted for 196 passing yards on 15 for 17 passing in the win over Churchill, including a pair of 40-yard bombs to receivers Bentlee Davenport and Bodie Bonar. Starck thinks there’s more to come from the senior, whom he said has taken care of the ball well, even if there’s more room for explosives.

“We’ve got some big-play kids and we haven’t had a ton of big plays this year,” Starck said. “But we have to be really careful about that, because if we force that, we can make some mistakes, and we’ve done a nice job not turning the ball over, knock on wood — it’s a really big knock on wood too, because we know that. So we can’t get greedy. You can’t be so proud of not turning the ball over and then and then say, ‘Oh, but I wish we had more big plays.’”

The solution, then, Starck said, could be to lean conservative in a game which he believes will be won by consistency. That doesn’t mean the big plays won’t come, but they don’t have to take center stage for the Colts to succeed.

At Springfield, the Millers have navigated an early slate with strong challenges in different phases before arriving at a Thurston team which should prove its stiffest test yet. They’ve elevated several players into bigger roles, which head coach Frank Geske said has been one of his team’s keys.

“We’ve got some emotional leaders that keep us fired up and keep our heads in the game,” Geske said. “And we can hit. We really couldn’t hit the last two years — we could barely tackle two years ago.”

That hitting ability came from a rededication to the weight room, pure physical growth and to the technical side of the game — “When you develop an ability to get off blocks, the rest is pretty simple,” Geske said.

On the other side of the ball, quarterback Brayden Wickersheim is growing into his own, and has a diverse set of weapons to wield in an offense which Geske said is much stronger throwing the ball than in past years. That lightens boxes for the Millers’ run game, too, which will battle a tough Thurston defensive line led by Filipe and linebacker Parker Edwards.

Meanwhile, the Millers’ defensive line will face running backs Quintin Fisher (nine rushes, 39 yards vs Churchill), Zenon Orlinski (six rushes, 42 yards) and Logan Raube (five rushes, 10 yards) alongside Distefano in a bid to remain undefeated against a team that they might see again. This week, it’s an early measure of just how good these two might be.

“I don’t care where they put this game,” Geske said. “Our kids get fired up, their kids get fired up. We’ve just finally got a team that is willing to play all 48 minutes.”

Other home games in a sentence

• North Eugene (0-3, 0-1) vs. Churchill (0-3, 0-1): These two each have a league loss already to their names but have put solid work on film early on.
• Junction City (1-2, 0-1) vs. Marshfield (2-1, 1-0): After two weeks of road trips and heavy defeats, the Tigers return home to face a Pirates team coming off an 8-7 win over South Umpqua.
• Marist Catholic (1-2) vs. Sweet Home (3-0, 1-0): The Spartans came out of a top-of-4A battle against Cascade Christian worse for wear, and now face a Sweet Home team in league with a 35-point win over Junction City under its belt.
• Elmira (0-3) vs. Umatilla (1-1): The Falcons, who haven’t yet challenged an opponent on the scoreboard, get one last chance to boost their resume in nonleague play against an Umatilla team toting both a dominant win and a big loss.
• Siuslaw-Mapleton (3-1) vs. Creswell (1-2): A nonleague matchup between local teams, with Siuslaw-Mapleton, which continues to bounce back from a big loss to Vale three weeks ago, and Creswell, which enters on the back of its first win, 29-26 over Coquille.
• Lowell (3-0) vs. Myrtle Point (2-1): Lowell, blowout winner of three-straight nonleague matchups, gets an opportunity for one more against Myrtle Point, which won its first two before losing by 16 on the road last week.
• Mohawk (2-1) vs. Prospect Charter (2-1): Mohawk enters its last nonleague game looking to bounce back from its first loss, 38-16 to Crosspoint Christian.
• Triangle Lake (0-3) vs Siletz Valley (0-1, 0-1): The Lakers, who’ve struggled in three nonleague games, begin league play at Siletz Valley, which lost its only game so far, 47-6.
• Crow (2-1, 0-1) vs. McKenzie (2-2, 1-0): The Cougars, dealt their first loss at North Lake last Friday, can draw even in league play with a home matchup against McKenzie, which scored 8 points in each of its last two games after posting 25 and 37 in its first two.

Away games

Owen Murray’s pick: Sheldon (2-1) at Sprague (1-2)

Since that opening loss to Thurston, the Irish have put together wins over West Salem (31-14) and 5A Summit (21-14). They’re led by quarterback Ryker Rohaley, who is in his first season as the full-time starter after taking over for Sheldon’s injured starter last year, on what head coach Tyler Martell declared in preseason a “redemption tour” after a 2-7 2025 season.

Sprague, meanwhile, is something of an enigma: the Olympians dismantled a Caldera team which boasts a star running back in Waylon Clarke early before losing 31-21 at Jesuit and 35-0 at Grants Pass. They’re back at home to face Sheldon ahead of a league opener next week at West Salem in what should be a good litmus test.

Sheldon, meanwhile, starts league play next week against that Grants Pass team before one more nonleague game against Clackamas the week after. 

Other away games in a sentence

• Cottage Grove (1-2, 0-1) at South Umpqua (1-2, 0-1): The Lions took a 49-20 loss at home to North Bend to open league play, but head to South Umpqua, the loser of two straight, for a second league matchup.
• Oakridge (2-1) at La Pine (2-1): Since its four-overtime loss to open the season, Oakridge has won a pair and enters a road nonleague matchup at two-win La Pine with a chance to keep rolling into league play next week.
• Pleasant Hill (2-1) at Salem Academy (1-2, 0-1): The Billies took their first loss of the season, 35-32, at Dayton last week after starting 2-0; they’ve got this road nonleague game before opening league play next week at home.