Advertisement

Bobcats lose in eight-player football semifinals

the world, coos bay, ore.
·6 min read

Nov. 23—Myrtle Point's run in the eight-player football playoffs came to an end Saturday when top-ranked St. Paul beat the Bobcats 46-22 at Cottage Grove High School.

The Buckaroos advanced to the championship game and a meeting with Lost River this coming Saturday at 1 p.m., also at Cottage Grove. Lost River beat Powder Valley 40-14 in a semifinal at Caldera High School in Bend.

St. Paul beat the Bobcats for the second time this season. Lost River is one of the other two teams to beat Myrtle Point — the other was Crane, which the Bobcats eliminated in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinals, Myrtle Point couldn't contain St. Paul's powerful rushing attack. The Buckaroos amassed 425 rushing yards and 30 first downs, effectively eating up the clock in the second half after taking a 40-14 lead into the break.

Clay Smith ran for 197 yards on 29 carries for St. Paul and scored two touchdowns. Ralph Pohlschneider also was over 100 yards with 126 yards on just eight carries and a touchdown. St. Paul quarterback George Pohlschneider passed for two scores — one to Ralph Pohlschneider and the other to Warren Rose, who stole the ball in the end zone from Myrtle Point defensive back Andreas Villanueva.

For Myrtle Point, Villanueva had two touchdowns on passes from Logan Backman, one covering 57 yards and the other 10 yards. Billy Reynolds had the other touchdown for the Bobcats, on a 6-yard run.

But several Myrtle Point drives stalled in St. Paul territory and in the second half the Buckaroos ate up more than 17 minutes of clock with just two drives, even though only one resulted in points.

Backman completed eight of 16 passes for 177 yards. Villanueva had three catches for 89 yards and Howard Blanton three for 40. Reynolds had a team-best 58 yards rushing on 12 attempts, while Troy Warner had six carries for 28 yards.

Villanueva also had 12 tackles to lead the defense, while Blanton had 10, Jacob Koser nine and Logan Clayburn eight.

CLASS 1A SIX-PLAYER: The combined Spray/Mitchell/Wheeler team won the first OSAA-sanctioned six-player title when it beat Triangle Lake 32-13 in the championship game Saturday at Caldera High School.

A week earlier, Spray/Mitchell/Wheeler eliminated Powers in the semifinals, handing the Cruisers their only loss of the season. Triangle Lake had entered the championship game unbeaten.

In the championship game, Carter Boise had three touchdown runs and a touchdown pass to lead the Rattlers, who scored the first 20 points before a defensive touchdown for Triangle Lake. Boise ran for 148 yards and completed 16 of 24 passes for another 162 yards.

CLASS 2A: Top-ranked Oakland shut out Heppner 26-0 at Hillsboro Stadium on Saturday to advance to the championship game against the combined Weston-McEwen/Griswold squad, which beat Colton 31-30 at Barlow High School.

The championship game will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Hillsboro Stadium.

Oakland, which won the district that also features both Bandon and Gold Beach, got two touchdown runs form Cade Olds, as well as scores from Silas Arscott and James Baimbridge, on a pass from Cole Collins.

In the other semifinal, quarterback Easton Berry scored the winning touchdown on a 2-yard run with just 9 seconds to go in the game.

Colton had gone in front on a 50-yard touchdown by Ben Behrens with 2:38 to go. Berry passed for 202 yards and ran for 81 for Weston-McEwen.

CLASS 3A: The top two teams in the state will meet for the title after No. 1 Kennedy beat Banks 15-7 at Hillsboro Stadium and Cascade Christian dominated Dayton 42-20 at Cottage Grove High School.

The championship game will be at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Cottage Grove.

Kennedy, one of two Class 2A schools that opted to play up to Class 3A so that it could play 11-man football instead of the new nine-man format in Class 2A, lost to Coquille in last year's championship game for the lower classification.

The Trojans shut out Banks over the final three quarters, intercepting two passes. Elijah Traeger had two touchdown passes — to Owen Bruner and Brett Boen. The latter was the winning score, coming late in the third quarter.

Cascade Christian ran for 256 yards and passed for 202 to eliminate Dayton, which had earlier beaten both Coquille and South Umpqua in the playoffs.

Quarterback Keith Reed had two touchdown passes and two touchdown runs for the Challengers, who also kept Dayton out of the end zone on the Pirates' final five possessions after a touchdown early in the second quarter pulled them within 21-20.

CLASS 4A: Tillamook and Estacada will play for the state title at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Hillsboro Stadium after each won Saturday. Tillamook beat La Grande 28-21 at Barlow High School and Estacada beat Scappoose 14-7 at Hillsboro Stadium. Scappoose earlier had eliminated both defending champion Marshfield and top-ranked Mazama.

Judah Warner rushed for 100 yards and scored all four touchdowns for Tillamook in its win. Tyler Moncrief had a game-clinching interception with 1:35 to go. The Cheesemakers have won 10 in a row since a season-opening one-point loss at Marshfield and a loss to Banks the following week.

Estacada used its punishing ground game to roll up 366 yards against Scappoose. Cory James had the winning touchdown on a 4-yard run in the third quarter. He and Waylon Riedel, who had the other touchdown, both rushed for more than 100 yards.

CLASS 5A: Summit and Wilsonville will play for the title after each won Friday. The top-ranked Storm beat Thurston 41-14 at Willamette University and Wilsonville toped Bend 23-14 at Barlow High School.

The championship game will be played at 7 p.m. Friday at Hillsboro Stadium, part of a tripleheader that also includes two Class 6A title games.

Summit scored the first 41 points against Thurston, with quarterback Hogan Carmichael throwing three touchdown passes and running for two scores.

Wilsonville got a go-ahead touchdown by Jacob Ogden and game-clinching field goal by Greg Keswick in the fourth quarter against Bend.

CLASS 6A: West Linn beat Central Catholic 49-17 and Sheldon topped Tualatin 28-14 in the semifinals for the championship bracket to set up a 3 p.m. state title meeting at Hillsboro Stadium this week.

In the Columbia Cup, for the teams ranked No. 17-32, North Salem will meet Westview at 11 a.m. after North Salem beat Liberty 39-21 and Westview topped Lakeridge 35-14. The Columbia Cup is a new feature this year.