High school football: Sheldon vs. Willamette is a highlight in a big week of big games

The final week of the high school football regular season is here. Headlined by a local league-deciding rivalry matchup between 6A Sheldon and Willamette, everything — league titles, playoff spots and senior nights — is on the table.

We’ll be out at Sheldon, but there isn’t a bad place to be this weekend. Pleasant Hill will play for its first full league title in 25 years. Junction City and Marist Catholic match up in 4A. Crow, Triangle Lake and Lowell all sit in playoff situations.

All games kick off at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, unless otherwise noted. Team rankings are based on Oregon School Activities Association ratings. 

Murray’s pick: No. 7 Sheldon (6-2, 2-1 league) vs. No. 4 Willamette (6-2, 3-0)

This is a big game.

Yes, it’s important because of the spoils — a league title and a top seed into the OSAA playoffs. It’s interesting because these teams know each other, because it’s a crosstown rivalry, and because they’re stacked with seniors who’ll play their final game in the series Friday night and a couple of quarterbacks who have another year left to battle.

Willamette snuck past Summit last Saturday, 21-20 on the road in a nonleague matchup. Sheldon took a surprise two-score loss at North Medford, which relegates its potential silverware from this Friday’s game to a share of the 6A-Special District 2 title and the league’s top seed. That doesn’t matter.

Really, it’s a big game because it’s fun, its coaches say.

“It’s just fun for the community,” Sheldon head coach Tyler Martell said. “It’s cool. You renew some of those old rivalries where kids have played with or against guys from the other team growing up. It’s just nice to have some familiarity with teams and programs, and it’s also nice to not have to sit on a bus for three hours.”

They’ve got two quarterbacks in Oregon State commit Zeke Thomas (Willamette) and Ryker Rohaley (Sheldon) who could star. Thomas, a dual-threat point guard at his finest, made use of his legs in that tough win at Summit. Rohaley, a gunslinger learning his arm, left last Friday’s game at the end of the first quarter with a jammed finger. Martell declined to comment Tuesday on Rohaley’s status.

In Rohaley’s place against the Black Tornado was junior Keaton Welch, who played the final three quarters in the loss. Welch, whom Martell described as a “big, physical kid,” threw for 98 yards, but also rushed for 79 yards and a touchdown on nine attempts. 

Should he be the choice Friday night, Martell said, the Irish are comfortable with that offense — even if it looks different than it does with Rohaley at the helm; Welch has five rushing touchdowns on the year, and the Irish have used him in Wildcat packages. 

“They’re just different,” Martell said of his two quarterbacks. “They’re different guys who force teams to prepare differently.”

The Irish defense, led by middle linebacker Owen Ashton, has allowed the fifth-fewest points in 6A, including 14 points or fewer in five of its eight games — but lost two of the three in which offenses broke through. Sheldon is locked into an automatic bid regardless of Friday’s result by virtue of its head-to-head win over Grants Pass, but can claim a share of the league title with a win.

“I think that you never know, coming off of a really physical game like North Medford, how you’re going to bounce back, but we bounced back pretty dang well, so I’m excited for our guys,” Martell said.

Willamette, meanwhile, has recovered from an early tailspin in which it scored 19 points in two losses to average 38 points across its six wins.

The Wolverines won nonleague shootouts, 37-28 over Sherwood and 54-31 over Jesuit, then leaned on their defense in back-to-back shutout wins in October over the Medford schools. Montana State commit Tripp Johansen has anchored the Willamette defense, then toted the rock for a touchdown last week in that tough win over Summit.

“I think our defense is aligned,” Willamette head coach Josh Line said. “I thought, early in the year, we would always have somebody make a mistake, and we were giving up way too many explosive plays … but we have eliminated that. We didn’t give up any explosive plays against Summit. They just had a great running attack and kind of pounded us a little bit, but still no explosive plays — nobody got behind us for a touchdown.”

Thomas has maneuvered alongside a rotating cast of running backs to find his place. He’s a “risk-taker,” Line said, and that’s what the coach thinks makes him so good. They garnered experience from last week’s game, in which they made the plays when they needed to make them, and will have the chance to make them again Friday.

There’s familiarity in this game that goes beyond the players: Line coached at Sheldon before Willamette, with Martell as his defensive coordinator. The shortest bus ride in their five-team league will have the biggest consequence.

“I think it’s an exciting thing for our community to have such a big game,” Line said. “I know a lot of people pay attention to the game and I think it’s awesome, whether they’re paying attention, for whatever reason, it doesn’t really matter as long as people are excited about high school football in the Willamette Valley and wanting to tune in for what is going to be a great, competitive high school football game.”

Friday’s game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Sheldon High School.

Other home games in a sentence

• No. 5 Thurston (6-1, 5-0) vs. No. 17 Roseburg (5-3, 2-3): The Colts, who’ve already clinched the league title, can crown it with a top-20 matchup against a Roseburg team without a win in three.
• No. 7 Junction City (6-2, 4-1) vs. No. 15 Marist Catholic (4-4, 3-2): This rivalry matchup is crucial for both teams’ hopes at a playoff spot.
• No. 22 Creswell (2-6, 1-3) vs. No. 25 Elmira (1-7, 0-4): This local matchup won’t have playoff implications, but will snap multigame streaks without a win for one of the teams.
• No. 5 Lowell (7-1, 3-1) vs. No. 27 Oakridge (3-5, 1-3): The Devils need a spark after they were upset last Friday at Waldport, while the Warriors could strengthen their resume.
• No. 11 Triangle Lake (3-3, 3-0) vs. No. 14 Falls City (3-5, 2-1): A top-three matchup in their 1A league for the first-place Lakers.
• No. 6 Crow (6-2, 3-2) vs. No. 9 Powers (4-4, 2-3): Crow likely needs a win here for a chance at an at-large playoff bid.
• No. 9 Mohawk (6-3, 3-2): FORFEIT WIN vs. No. 27 Reedsport (0-9, 0-5): Even with a guaranteed win here, Mohawk still needs an at-large bid to the playoffs. 

Away game pick: No. 15 Pleasant Hill (6-2, 4-0) at No. 5 Klamath Union (8-0, 4-0)

This looks suspiciously like last year, Billies head coach Kenny Koberstein said, when a 4-0 Pleasant Hill team entered the final week on the road against another team challenging for the 3A-Special District 3 league title.

They lost that game, 34-29 to Madras, but still claimed a share of the title. This year, what’s left of that Pleasant Hill team — namely a dominant offensive line playing in front of star running back Kai Davis — has another shot at a full title, against another 4-0 team. This time, it’s Klamath Union standing in the Billies’ way.

“These opportunities only come along every so often, and so you’ve got to be excited about them and really attack the week,” Koberstein said. “I think we’re excited to do that, and I don’t think anybody or their grandma’s going to pick us to win, and that’s kind of how we like it. We’ll go over there and see what we’ve got.”

Koberstein’s team looks different this year. Senior Wylie Blake has stepped in under center and embraced his new role. Max Keepers, last year’s conference lineman of the year, has stepped up again in his senior year, Koberstein said — to the tune of a romping scoop-and-score touchdown in last week’s 47-8 win over Elmira. Davis, a junior whom Koberstein says is one of the best players in 3A, has plenty of touchdowns, too.

In part because so much of the team has turned over — 16 of the 32 student-athletes are underclassmen — it hasn’t been difficult to move on from last year’s success. It’s been that way from the beginning, but as they’ve gone on a four-game winning streak which stretches back to the first week of October, these Billies have begun to find their voice.

“These last three or four weeks, it’s finally felt like their team,” Koberstein said. “Their energy, their excitement, how they play, and all the things we talk about being our DNA as a program — it’s been them lately.”

A win Friday would mean the Billies’ first full league title in 25 years, per the OSAA.

Other away games in a sentence

• No. 11 Springfield (6-2, 3-2) at No. 18 Crater (3-4, 3-2): Springfield, which started the season 3-0, could strengthen its position in the at-large conversation with a victory here off another three-game winning streak.
• No. 30 North Eugene (0-7, 0-5) at No. 29 Eagle Point (2-5, 0-5): A pair of winless-in-league teams get a chance at their first.
• No. 12 Churchill (5-3, 5-1) at No. 28 Putnam (4-4, 2-2) (nonleague): The Lancers have nothing left to battle for but OSAA seeding and momentum — both are on the line Friday.
• No. 29 Cottage Grove (1-7, 0-6) at No. 24 Phoenix (3-5, 1-5) (nonleague): Both these teams went winless in October, but can end their season on a high note.
• No. 8 Siuslaw-Mapleton (6-2, 2-1) at No. 29 Coquille (0-8, 0-3): The Vikings are locked into second place and an auto-qualifer, so this one is for OSAA ranking and pride.
• No. 15 McKenzie (2-6, 1-4) at No. 1 Elkton (8-0, 5-0) (3 p.m.): McKenzie is the last team with a shot to knock off the undefeated Elks in the regular season.