It’s weekends like this past one where it’s great to be a football fan in Oregon.
That is, of course, if you know which teams to root for.

All told, yours truly made out pretty well last week with the sole exception being the old alma mater getting shut out in a 6-0 loss.

After watching the Beavers get run over by Boise State, the Indians won a close one, the Lions opened the season with a win, the Ducks went to the bag of tricks to survive at Fresno State and the Eagles followed with a rout of the Texans on Sunday.

Speaking of college football, I read a pretty good joke on an OSU Beavers football message board:
“How many Beavers does it take to change a tire? Only one, but they all show up for a blowout.”
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AP high school voters
It’s inevitable that the initial polls for the high school football season are going to look a little out of whack in the face of general perception.

Teams are just getting started, previews have barely been released and for some, the memory of the season before is faint at best.

But sometimes, those polls are crazy, especially the initial Class 4A poll released by the Associated Press on Monday.

Aside from Scappoose earning the No. 1 spot in the initial poll — the Indians are good, but how good remains to be seen — there were still plenty of things that surprised me.

Marist at No. 4 would be the most glaring.

Sure the Spartans got clobbered in Seattle by a very big, very fast Kennedy squad on Saturday night. But they opened their season with a 1-1 overall record without star tailback Brandon Jackson, who will play for the California Bears of the Pac-10 Conference next fall.
Jackson will be on the field this week.

Another surprise was seeing four Cowapa League teams in the top 10. Yamhill-Carlton at No. 6 I can understand as the Tigers and their quarterback, Zach Anderson, appear on a collision course with Justin Engstrom and the Indians for the Cowapa League championship on Nov. 2.

But Astoria and Seaside, while both 2-0, have gotten by with close wins over second-level teams. Win-loss records don’t mean everything.

The biggest surprise came in the “also receiving votes” category. While this year the poll consists only of Class 4A schools, one of those receiving votes was Rogue River, which got clocked by Class 2A Yoncalla last week.
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From high to bye-bye?
In their season opener, the Camas Valley Hornets — located about 25 miles west of Roseburg — beat Jewell 80-34 and Hornet receiver Kameron Wolfe (whose uncle/head coach I covered at Camas Valley when I was but a wee Cub reporter) set a national 8-man football receiving record with 354 yards. But after a key injury in last week’s game, the Hornets — who suited up only 10 for each of the last two week's game and lost star quarterback Nick Weaver for the season with a broken leg — may be forced to cancel this week’s game with Lowell, or worse, the rest of the season due to a lack of players.

Talk about a reversal of fortunes.