Mid-Valley Sports

Wow.

That’s all I could say as I strolled the sidelines at Corvallis High on Friday night.

(Now former) Gazette-Times photographer Casey Campbell (Friday was his last day at the GT and we will miss him tremendously) and I were astonished at what we were witnessing in the second half of the Spartans’ game against Wilsonville.

After a pretty dominating display in the first half, the Spartans could do nothing on offense or defense in the second half and Wilsonville stormed to a 34-21 win.

It was a devastating loss for the Spartans, who were up 21-3 at the half and limited Wilsonville to 35 yards in the first half.

“This will take us down a step,” junior linebacker Jordan Brown admitted. “We want to keep going up but we obviously took a step back and hopefully we can bounce back from this.”

Senior quarterback Ross Orman has been through this before. Last year, the Spartans dropped their first two games to Thurston and Wilsonville and they weren’t close. They returned home to battle Glencoe to double overtime before falling.

But they won six of seven Mid-Willamette Conference games and reached the playoffs.

A trip to Glencoe awaits this Thursday.

“We’ll earn a lot about our team by how we respond next week in practice,” Orman said. “This isn’t an easy loss to take.

“We can go two directions with this. I think with the coaches we have and the leaders we have on this team that we’ll turn this into a positive. For now it’s tough.”

Orman said the right things on Friday, but it may be harder for this young team to overcome such a tough loss.

It was a weird game all around.

• Corvallis scored its first points when Wilsonville’s quarterback was whistled for intentional grounding in the end zone, resulting in a safety.

Funny, that’s how Wilsonville scored its final two points as Orman was whistled for the same thing.

• Wilsonville’s last two scores came after turnovers, and took just one play each.

• Unofficially, I had Corvallis for 14 penalties for 108 yards, and Wilsonville for nine for 79 yards. It seemed every play had a yellow hanky on the field.

Not fun to watch at all.

In fact, Corvallis was whistled for personal fouls on the first two plays from scrimmage of the game, helping the Wildcats get in range for a 32-yard field goal.

All told, Wilsonville used 35 yards of penalties on its 63-yard drive to open the game.

• Give it up to Brown, who never seemed to quit on defense and could have been the unsung hero. He chased down Jordan Cooper after a 45-yard run to the 11 with the Spartans down 25-21 late in the fourth quarter. Two plays later, Alberto Nunez intercepted a pass and returned it to the Spartans 45. However, a fumble ended the drive for CHS.

• Orman was part of all three CHS TDs on Friday, meaning he has now had his hand in all eight this season. He has five TD passes and three TD runs.

Still, it was a tough loss, one the Spartans will need to regroup from if they hope to salvage this season like last year.

And I guess I should give it up to the CHS students for being loud. Apparently, Mr. Wright said it was one of the best crowds in the last five years, well that’s what my friend Philip Campbell told me. They did have the big bell out to ring after scores. Too bad for them they only got to ring it in the second quarter.

In other news and notes:

• Crescent Valley had another laugher on Friday night as Andre Oglesby rushed eight times for 162 yards and three TDs in a 55-0 rout of Cleveland.
The Raiders should have another easy game next Friday when they open Mid-Willamette Conference play at home against Woodburn.

A week later they face off with Silverton at home in a game that could be key in earning a possible playoff berth.

• GT reporter Kevin Hampton was over in Philomath and he watched the Warriors suffer an equally tough loss as the Spartans.
PHS led 14-0 with less than five minutes to play and lost 15-14.

PHS coach Troy Muir had this to say:

“What made us a good football team last year, we’re not doing those things right now. Our leadership’s got to get better, our practices have got to get better. We’ve got all the talent to be a successful football team, but the next three games before we get into league, if we don’t straighten some things out, it’s going to be a long season.”

• Alsea’s Tyson Schreiber was a one-man wrecking crew as he scored seven TDs against Eddyville. He ran for 318 yards.

• No report from Santiam Christian at Rainier but one Web site listed SC as winning 3-0.

Hey, a win is a win at this stage.

• West Albany rallied form a 13-3 deficit at the half to win by three over Jefferson, according to my West Albany source AnnaMae Sutherland.
A good bounce-back win for the Bulldogs, who were coming off a 22-20 loss to Sherwood last week, their first regular season loss since reclassification.

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