High school football: Six Lane County teams still in it as quarterfinals arrive

The Oregon high school football playoffs have reached the quarterfinal round, and six Lane County teams remain.

Thurston is the only local team to host a game this Friday, against Sandy. Every other program travels to face a higher seed.

Two of those teams — 6A Willamette and 4A Junction City — will face the top seeds in their respective brackets while the other three — 6A Sheldon, 2A Lowell and 1A-6 Crow — are No. 5 seeds facing No. 4-ranked teams.

All games kick off at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13.

Murray’s pick

Thurston (8-1, 6-0) vs. Sandy (7-3, 4-0)

Thurston’s season is a before-and-after year, head coach Justin Starck says: before West Albany, and after.

Before, the Colts were riding high off a season-opening 20-17 win over 6A Sheldon. They’d snatched five turnovers as they knocked off a rebuilding Irish team (which has now advanced to the 6A quarterfinal round).

In their next game, though, on Sept. 4, the Colts were dominated 31-8 by visiting West Albany in a rainy, disappointing performance. Something had to change. In Starck’s words, “We needed to go see the wizard, so to speak.”

There was no magic involved in what came next, the “after”: Thurston (8-1, 6-0) is on a seven-game winning streak, won the 5A-Special District 5 championship and booked its spot in this week’s home quarterfinal against No. 7 Sandy with an authoritative first-round victory. 

But when senior quarterback Emmit Distefano was carted off last Friday night in the Colts’ playoff win over No. 15 St. Helens, it could have been before-and-after all over again.

Before the top quarterback went down. After he went down.

Not this time. They kept rolling, behind quarterback Dean Knowles and a running game headed by Quintin Fisher, which has been on the rise since Week 2.

Starck declined to comment Tuesday on whether Distefano would be ready to play in Friday’s game.

Distefano watched from the sideline as his team completed the win over St. Helens. Junior Bentlee Davenport racked up three total touchdowns — one interception return, one kick return and one punt return — as the Colts thrashed St. Helens, 49-6.

“(Davenport is) really good, really, really special, and we’re happy to have him, and thank goodness people don’t realize how good he is,” Starck said. “And they don’t show him the respect that he deserves, and we’re just thrilled that they don’t, because he makes them pay.”

Davenport starred Friday in a receiver room that also includes a pair who frequently face double-teams in wide receiver Bodie Bonar and three-star tight end Leofatu Filipe. Quinn Piquette and Rocco Folino have shone, too. 

“We’ve got all these great kids, and more than anything, it’s just a matter of, ‘How can we give our quarterback enough time to give them the ball?’” Starck said.

Like that West Albany game, Friday’s quarterfinal could be wet. Fisher, sophomore Zenon Orlinski and senior Logan Raube populate a reinvigorated Colts’ backfield behind a revamped offensive line. That’s another before-and-after.

“The O-line has gotten it together, and they’re playing at a way higher level,” Starck said. “Granted, the quality of our opponent hasn’t been as good, but after that West Albany game, we made it a goal to improve our run game, and we’ve done that. So now we’re going to have to go out and prove it against a quality opponent.”

If it is to oust the Colts on their home turf, 5A-Special District 1 champion Sandy must be the first opponent in five games to score on Thurston’s starting defense, which has allowed the fourth-fewest points in 5A.

Before its 20-17 first-round win over Ridgeview, Sandy had hung 36, 61, 56 and 43 points on its last four opponents. It has a dominant running back of its own and a defense to lean on which has teetered between impressive and questionable (in three weeks in October, it allowed 12, then 41, then 20 points in wins.)

Thurston is a complete team now, with a quarterback (should he play) who is the oil in its gears. A Colts team with Distefano is a known quantity, and a formidable force. Without him, though, it’s proven its chances don’t slim down much. 

With or without doesn’t matter so much, they believe, as how much they’ve grown.

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

Other local games

6A No. 5 Sheldon (8-2, 3-1) at No. 4 Tualatin (8-2, 3-2)

The Irish emerged from the first round with a 35-34 victory which felt less stressful than it looked. They’ve become increasingly clutch with back-to-back late wins, but were rarely stifled on offense against Lakeridge of the talented Three Rivers League, and never trailed in the win. 

That said, a Sheldon defense that was one of the best in 6A in the regular season has given up 27 and 34 points in back-to-back weeks after giving up more than 20 points just once before that. Its offense has been up to the task with varying weapons available (the Irish missed star back Cody Hall in the first game, and spread the ball to seven different receivers against Lakeridge), but must face another tough Three Rivers team.

Tualatin beat Grant 40-7 in the first round. Its only losses have been to the state’s No. 1 and No. 2 teams.

Sheldon’s rebuild this season is a success. But whether the Irish can legitimately challenge for the state title hinges on their ability to outduel the best team they’ve seen yet.

6A No. 9 Willamette (7-3, 3-1) at No. 1 Lake Oswego (10-0, 5-0)

When these two teams met in Week 0, it was a potential interconference game of the year. A Willamette program coming off an undefeated regular season last year — with its star quarterback, Zeke Thomas, back for his junior year — would host the reigning 6A state champion.

Then the Lakers rolled into Eugene and flattened the Wolverines in a 34-7 demolition. Willamette head coach Josh Line said Lake Oswego was “a better program — a better team.”

Now, Willamette has a chance to prove it’s reached that level, too. Thomas, who threw two interceptions in that season opener, has been untouchable down the stretch with nine total touchdowns in his last two games. He’s been unlocked as a runner, with six of those touchdowns and 451 yards coming on the ground. The Wolverines dropped 42 points on No. 8 Sprague in their first-round win.

Lake Oswego hasn’t stumbled since the opener and seized the top seed in the bracket after dominating what was likely the most talented league in 6A and scoring at least 27 points in all but one game (a 21-7 win at No. 2 West Linn Oct. 9). For all its success, Willamette is the underdog on the road, but it has a chance to shock the state.

4A No. 9 Junction City (7-3, 4-2) at No. 1 Cascade Christian (10-0, 6-0)

A loss on the final day of the regular season at home to Marist Catholic put a damper on a phenomenal run for the Tigers, who came off a loss to Sweet Home Sept. 18 and nearly ran the table. They got back on track with a one-score win at No. 8 La Grande last week, but that slow-down has set them up for a run-in with No. 1 Cascade Christian.

The Challengers eased past Marist last Friday in a 58-28 win — the second time they had beaten the Spartans this year after a 67-28 win in September — to get to this point, and look every bit the juggernaut a top seed should be. Junction City knows how to manage close games, with multiple one-score wins on its schedule, but has to stay in the game to make it there. 

The 4A field has gone completely chalk except for the Tigers’ upset over La Grande, and Junction City will have to score another upset to keep rolling.

2A No. 5 Lowell (9-1, 4-1) at No. 4 Culver (10-0, 5-0)

Lowell looked like a juggernaut for seven weeks of this season. Then, a 50-12 loss to Waldport left the Devils scrambling for position and lower in the bracket than they would’ve been. They won easily in the first round, 52-16 over Oakland.

They won’t play Waldport, which was dumped out of the bracket with a first-round upset loss. But Culver is undefeated, has shut out its opponent in five of its 10 games and routed them in the other five. Advancing won’t just require a return to the explosive offense which helped Lowell cruise through its schedule, but a stouter defense after it wavered down the stretch.

1A-6 No. 5 Crow (7-2, 4-2) at No. 4 Ione-Arlington (8-1, 6-1)

Despite a pair of costly losses, Crow has emerged to become a bona fide contender in the 1A-six man bracket. The Cougars fell at North Lake and at home to Elkton in two games where their offense was shut down; they averaged 47.5 points per game in nonforfeit wins and 9.5 points in their two losses. Now, their 1A-six man No. 1 scoring defense must face the classification’s top scoring offense.

Since that Elkton game Oct. 9, they’ve been back on track as they ran the table out of necessity to grab an at-large bid into the bracket. They beat Powers, 42-12, in the final week of the regular season and got a bye into the second round. 

Their matchup is against an Ione-Arlington team which has put up 70 or more points in each of its last two games, with one loss (34-12 at No. 3 Jordan Valley) on its record. Crow quarterback Michael Parker and his team, led by star back Aidan DeLeon, have a chance to reach the final four for the second straight year. If they do, it could set up a rematch with the team they upset in that round last year: No. 1 Elkton.