MWL Players Fill 22 All-State Spots
Thurston Coach Justin Stark, 5A Coach of the Year
Thurston QB Tym Pearson 5A Offensive Player of the Year
Link to All-State Selections

Wow! What a comeback for Thurston, just a little short....  On the legs of Derek Anderson.  Great job, Derek.  Hats off to West Albany, that's a great team.  Their line and QB Reese Miller put on quite a show.  The QB threw strikes when he needed to and big receiver #13 made a couple of incredible catches with Colts all over him.  Did you notice that all Bulldogs keep blocking until the whistle blows?  Bulldog #66, a lineman, crossed the goal line at the same time the Bulldog QB Miller did during that long first half TD run by the WA QB.  The Bulldog D kept Pearson in check, in the air and on the ground.  Enough said.  They were a great team and earned their second straight title.
Great season Colts!  It was fun and exciting.  Hopefully, you set a new standard for the MWL that other teams will try to match.  Fit, fast, strong, quick, hard hitting.  Eight months and we start all over again.
MVP: Super long TV Time outs.  Thurston wins going away if there are no TV timeouts.   We saw the typical fade of Colt opponents in the game, but the TV timeouts gave West Albany way too much time to recover.  I'm not saying the timeouts were long, but the TV announcer said the West Albany players were going home (9 miles) and taking a nap to stay rested.  This was interesting.....  The OU-Missouri game was on during the Colt game.  There was a TV time out in the Colt game that I knew was going to be very long.   After a play was run in the college game, there was a timeout with a commercial in the college game.  The college game started again.  Finally, the high school game came back, but it was another 30 seconds before action started.

Corvallis Weather  Game Time 3:30ish on Saturday, Dec 6 at Reeser.  Colt game follows 4A title game. TV FSN

Friday Nov 21

Wow! Go Colts.

The Thurston fans packed 'em in.  I showed up at 6:10 and had to go sit on the opponents side.  I was given the option of sitting in the extra stands on the 15 yard line on the Colt's side in some hidden bleachers.  No thanks, I'll sit on the 40 with the Sherwood folks.  The Sherwood fans were great sports.

The game reminded me of the first two and a half quarters of the Thurston-Springfield game- a game that for a little over two quarters I had to say the Colts were vulnerable.  Most people don't know that Springfield was down just 0-7 with three minutes left in the first half.  Sherwood was down just 3-7 at half.  Springfield lost their running back early, and Sherwood came into the playoff game without their best RB (on the sidelines with a broken foot suffered in last weeks playoff game) ......

The Colts passed their way to the 19 on the opening drive before a penalty caused them to stall out and they missed a field goal. 

Sherwood then ran five minutes off the clock with ten straight running plays (including one sack) to get them to the 14.  Sophomore Michael Balfour was the driving force of this drive.   There they decided to toss the ball on third down ---- incomplete.  Missed the field goal.

Thurston responded by immediately tossing a shovel pass to Sherwood's Tanner Balderee, who took it to the Colt 5.  But, the Colt's line and backers were just too much for the Bowmen, who lost five yards and had to settle for a 27 yard field goal.

The next four exchanges were of short duration, including three and outs by both teams.  Sherwood's three and out came with 4 minutes left in the half.  That's when we saw Sherwood's player of the night - their punter - once again pin Thurston deep - this time at the ten with 3:53 on the clock in the first half.  But, much like the Thurston-Springfield game, Thurston would score late in the first half.  Unlike the Springfield game where Pearson broke for 96 yards, the Colt's drove 90 yards in about 13 plays with Pearson going 7-8 passing on the drive.  Josh Galbreath hauled in the TD with an 8 yard reception and a 7-3 halftime lead. 

One thing was for sure at halftime.  Thurston was not going to blow out Sherwood in the second half.  The Bowmen's defensive scheme was awesome.  Colt receivers couldn't get wide open deep (there were a few missed long passes) and couldn't find the soft spots underneath.  And most importantly, Pearson couldn't break any long runs.

Sherwood received the second half kickoff.  On the fifth play Tyler Dickson bolted for a 52 yard TD and a 10-7 Sherwood lead.  That was it for Sherwood's scoring for the night, although you expected them to score at some point.  It was stressful watching the Bowmen receivers consistently beat the Colt DB's deep.  The Bowmen QB(s) just weren't quite on their mark, though, and the Colts weren't hurt by the deep ball, wisely getting a PI on a potential long play.

There was no sudden explosion by the Colts this game on offense.  In fact, it was the hard nosed D that won the game for the Colts.  The Colts threw at least three picks which normally would end up with points, but the worst outcome of the picks was the field goal after Sherwood started at the Colt 5.

I sat by the Dad of #43, Michael Balfour, and among several of the Bowmen parents.  They were great sports.  I asked the Dads if they thought that playing without their best running back made a difference.  (The back also starts on D)  They said 'maybe', but they thought that the Colt O and D line were so dominant that the outcome would have been closer but probably still a Colt win.  Now, that's a gracious loser.  Let's (all MWL fans) remember the Bowmen parents the next time we lose a close one.

Glencoe is next for the Colts.  The Colts are down to the semifinals - the final four for you math giants.  Glencoe has won 7 of their last 8, including their playoff games.  The loss during that streak was to Sherwood.  However, that was six weeks ago and Glencoe is a much improved team.  Making the final four means you are in the top 10 per cent of the state at the 5A level.  Depending on where you went to school that's a B+ (schools where an A starts at 93) or an A-.  To earn a solid A, the Colts must beat Glencoe.  Will the Colts settle for a B+ and go play basketball, or earn a solid A and play for the chamionship?

Saturday Nov 15

I took a week off from 5A and went to the Sheldon-Westview game.  Wow, the players are a lot bigger on average at the 6A level.  Whereas a team in our 5A league might have one huge linemen, there are a lot of big boys on the field at 6A.  Sheldon's 175 pound running back looked like a skinny fourth grader lining up behind the humongous linemen.  Also, bigger bodies mean nastier collisions.  Ouch!

Well, not a good night for the MWL.  16 of the 40 division 5A teams played Friday night. The MWL advanced only Thurston to the quarterfinals, where you find the top 20 per cent of the teams in the 5A Division.  Even Thurston's win wasn't as convincing as hoped as their opponent, Klamath Union (6-5 record for the season), scored 40 points against Thurston just two weeks after KU was held to 6 points by Crater.  The Colts play Sherwood next week.  Sherwood has averaged 42 points a game the last four weeks, including their playoff win and a win over still-in-the-playoffs Glencoe.  As interesting and exciting as it was to watch the 6A game, I'm really looking forward to the Thurston-Sherwood game. 

Should playoffs be seeded?  I used to think, "Absolutely not."  But I've changed my mind, all teams play between at least two and three non league games now, and some as many as five non league games.  Pollsters have a pretty good idea who is near the top in the state.  In next weeks quarters, we will see #1 versus #4, and #2 Thurston vs #3 Sherwood.  On the other hand, we have a non top ten team, Jefferson, versus #5 Mt. View.  (Personally, I think Mt. View is overrated, but they somehow beat Hermiston).  Seeding using a combo of the OregonLive.com poll and AP poll would be nice.  Both polls have 7 of the 8 quarterfinalists in their top 10.  Both polls have the same top four.  Unfortunately, two are guaranteed to be gone for the semis.  Seed the top eight.

No one outside of Churchill High School thought the Lancers had a chance against number one ranked West Albany.  Churchill held the defending state champions to 42 points, the lowest anyone has held the Bulldogs since September 12th.  It was good to see the Knapp to Determan combo one last time for a playoff TD.  And it was fitting that Chas Rogers rushed for a TD in his final high school game. 

Marshfield watched Jefferson's Marlon Miles scoot 71 yards on the first play of the game to put the Dems up 6-0.  But the Pirates played valiantly and took a 18-14 lead late in the third.  Marshfield looked likely to ice the game with a first and goal from the three midway through the fourth.  The Pirates then backpedalled without scoring, mostly due to several of the Pirates 18 penalties.  Jefferson took over at the ten and marched 90 yards and scored with 35 seconds remaining.

It was interesting to note how few big scoring plays there were in this round.  No TD's of over 40 yards for MWL teams, and just one over 30 - the Pirate's Tedder to Shepphard.  That tells me that the second round is when the slow teams have already been weeded out.  (Opponents did break some long ones, Jefferson's 71 yard run by Miles, and West Albany's 78 yard run by Miller.)

The state championship game is Saturday, December 6th.  Looks like the Colts first basketball game is December 5 at Cleveland.  Will the Colts be on a field or court?

Friday Nov 7

Churchill overcame an early pick six, and 0-7 deficit, to beat Pendleton and earn a match at number 1 ranked West Albany.  The Lancer D's quickness was just too much for the Buckeroos.  Pendleton busted several long runs and returns, but couldn't finish as Churchill always was able to catch the Buckeroo and toss him to the ground.  Then the Lancers would stiffen up and protect their own red zone.

The game wasn't always pretty.  Midway through the third quarter, I was wondering if most of the players on both sides had been sneaking in basketball practice.  They were dribbling the ball and I thought I heard a coach yell, "That's okay, our goal is less than 7 turnovers a game.". 

Eric Knapp put on a nice running show in the fourth quarter.  Pendleton had been stopping the Determan motion play most of the night, somehow figuring out if Determan, Knapp or Rogers had the ball.  But in the fourth quarter it was mostly Knapp ending up with the ball and the Pendleton players bouncing off Knapp and watching him scramble for big yards.

The Lancers had three O linemen playing who will return next year.  Add in two very good returning receivers, Graham and Derlacki, setting up the possibility of a good year on O for the Lancers.  There is nothing like playoff experience to improve a team.

The Lancers become the third team to face both the number one ranked West Albany and number two Thurston.
Thurston         60  Corvallis 13
West Albany   52  Corvallis   0

Thurston        47 South Albany 12
West Albany  49 South Albany 22

Thurston         42 Churchill  7

I don't think you can make much of these results as Thurston and West Albany are very different teams.  The similarity is that what they do, they do way better than anyone else.  Still, matchups are important.  I'm interested in whether or not Churchill's quickness can offset West Albany's huge size advantage.  My thoughts are that Churchill will have problems with West Albany's offensive size and precision, but there is a chance that the Lancers can keep up with the scoring battle if the Lancers can eliminate turnovers.

I've seen Thurston a lot this year, so I almost want to go see Churchill at West Albany.  But there is also the Westview at Sheldon game.  I haven't seen a 6A game since the reclassification.  I'm very tempted to go to the 6A game. Then, assuming Thurston gets by Klamath Union, go to the Thurston quarterfinal game the next week.  Thurston's season will get immensely more difficult in the quarters.  If Marshfield wins and I read the OSAA chart right, the Pirates will host the quarterfinal game.  Hmmmnn... Maybe I should find my way to Susick Stadium.