Playoff week 2 has the largest single slate of 5A & 4A games, while the other classes have already cut the field down considerably. And as some marginal qualifiers are already edged out, the games should be great, though it will be tough to top some of the first week heroics.

We projected #9 Clatskanie and #6 Santiam Christian to be the best game of all, as well as the 3A Game of the Week, and sure enough, it took two overtimes for the Tigers to take the 21-14 win over the Eagles. Conventional wisdom is that defense wins big games, and turnovers lose them. In this one, the Tigers’ defense had 4 red-zone stops and 5 interceptions.

#9 Canby’s 47-35 win over #6 Jesuit got everyone’s attention, as the Cougars, and Laurence Calcagno in particular, made the Crusaders the only defending champion outsted in the first week (Nyssa was eliminated before the playoffs). Calcagno carried 7 times for 106 yards, but a 97 yard fumble recovery and return for a touchdown, and another fumble recovery on the last Jesuit possession, is what put the game away.

Hermiston turned a few heads with their 38-27 upset of Wilsonville as well. Fifty three Bulldog rushes exceeded the total number of plays the Wildcats ran, as Hermiston broke open a halftime tie by wearing out the Wildcat defense.

Our 2A expert “Liverworts” predicted a possible 1 point game between the #7 Kennedy Trojans and the #6 Oakridge Warriors in the 2A game of the week. A 36-34 classic lived up to the expectations, and here’s one fact that made it really remarkable. Kennedy’s Adrian Rodriguez rushed for 330 yards, and produced 426 total yards, and the Trojans still lost! And it wasn’t an overtime game because, ironically, Rodriguez was (finally) stopped, on a 2 point conversion try.

Cipole was confident the Grants Pass @ Tigard game would be a great one, and he was right on the money, as the Cavemen’s Zach Morgan touchdown toss to Dee Wiersma completed a 36-29 win with 1:37 left. His touch for great games continued at the St. Paul rodeo grounds the next day, where the Bucs edged Joseph 34-28 behind 138 yards and 3 touchdowns by Ryan Pierson. And has there been a more beautiful November afternoon than what greeted some of the Saturday games?

1A regularly produces the gamut of games, and the class saw a remarkable 90 points by #1 Mohawk, and one of two other overtime playoff games in Butte Falls, where Perrydale pulled out a 28-22 win, with a defensive stop.

The other overtime game was the emotionally draining game of the weekend, where David Douglas continued the Scots’ return to relevance by coming from 2 touchdowns down in the 4^th. quarter in Forest Grove, and then forced a fumble at the goal line to preserve a 35-28 win over the Vikings.

Some other games went to the wire as well, as Gladstone’s Thane Rice intercepted a Cameron Dixon pass on the last play of the game to preserve a 21-14 win in their rematch with Cottage Grove, who had won 3 weeks earlier, and last year as well. At about the same time, Centennial fumbled at midfield to end an attempt to reach field foal range, and that preserved a 27-24 win for Sprague, who had to score 14 4^th. quarter points to complete a comeback.

Redmond topped Oregon City 28-25, and Estacada edged La Grande 35-33, in another pair of nail biters. And was any game more interesting than the Clackamas win over Wilson 20-13, despite not one, but two successful on-side kickoffs, and a swinging-gate formation conversion of a fourth down, by the tricky Trojans? 

Can the second week top the first week? Several games appear likely to measure up to the challenge.

Game of the Week, all classes, not just 3A, will be the last game of the weekend, when the #1 Gold Beach Panthers (11-0) face the #2 Regis Rams (11-0) at 4PM Saturday at Willamette University in Salem. The Panthers wiped out Willamina 38-0, after jumping the Bulldogs for 14 points in the first 4 minutes, while the Rams beat back Burns 39-14, breaking open a 13-6 game with 14 points in 24 seconds. This may be the effective championship game in the quarterfinals. Can anyone say seeding?

The 6A Game of the Week won’t be far behind in terms of anticipation, as the #9 Canby Cougars (9-2) host the #1 Lake Oswego Lakers. The Cougars were a #3 seed, but the Pacific Conference ended in a 3 way tie. It wasn’t on the field action that relegated the Cougars, the team with the best overall record of the three, to the third seed. The win over Jesuit eliminated not only the defending champs, but any injustice in that seed, by giving them a home field advantage against Lake O., who hammered Gresham 51-9 behind a line that on average outsized the Gophers by 45 pounds per man, and opened all kinds of holes for Zach Young, who ran for 223 yards and 3 touchdowns. That gives Young a 6A leading 30 scores for the season.

One thing that is for sure in the playoffs, “West” will win this week. That could be a tip on the Hermiston Bulldog (5-6) @ #1 West Albany Bulldog (10-0) dogfight, but it’s sure to be the case when the #10 West Linn Lions (8-2) visit the #4 West Salem Titans (8-1). And it might be a pick of the Titans, who are a single point in the season opener against Lake Oswego from being #1, but after a 17-3 win over Beaverton, the Lions proved they belong too.

The 5A Game of the Week will be in Bend, when the #6 Sherwood Bowmen (8-2) take on the #2 Mt. View Cougars (9-0). 5A also has as interesting of an upset possibility as any, when the defending champion #9 Corvallis Spartans (6-4) visit the #3 Ashland Grizzlies (10-0).

“Rematch” was one of the themes last week, and the one in Gladstone didn’t turn out the same as it did the first time. Rematches will be a theme again this week, as the Coastal Collision of the Week comes off in 4A, when the Newport Cubs (5-5) take another shot at the #10 North Bend Brown Bulldogs (7-3), who handed the Cubs a 32-22 loss in Newport in week 2.

The #9T Perrydale Pirates (7-3) get a rematch as well, with the #3 Imbler Panthers (10-0), and this time it will be in Pirate land. The Panthers pummeled the Pirates 56–14 in week 4 in Dufur (Imbler is the only member of the 8-man great 8 that couldn’t get to Dufur for the 8-man classic, so they went there 3 weeks later to play Perrydale), but Perrydale is healthier now than then, and could have a weather advantage as well.

Imbler at Perrydale is mostly a freeway trip, so the “Bus Ride of the Week” is either #3 Cascade Christian Challengers (8-2) @ #6 Vale Vikings (8-2) in 3A, which trumps the 4A haul of the Henley Hornets (7-3) @ #2 Ontario Tigers (10-0) by about an hour, or 2A #9 Nestucca Bobcats (8-3) @ #2 Heppner Mustangs (8-2).

The Challengers and Panthers stand the best chance of that long return being a fun ride; the Tigers have only allowed an opponent more than one score when they score over 50 points, and the 8 points the Mustangs allowed in their 41-8 win over Scio are the only points they have allowed to any 2A team. The Bobcats will need more offense than they did in their 8-6 victory over Glendale, the lowest scoring game of the first week of the playoffs, though yet another nail biter.

The “Under the Radar Game of the Week” that I’m not hearing or reading a lot about, but maybe should get some attention, is when the #2 Westview Wildcats (9-1) visit the Clackamas Cavaliers (8-3). It’s probable that many don’t think the Cavs can contend with the Wildcats, but this is the eighth playoff opponent that Clack has collided with, and that #7 Strength of Schedule should have them prepared for the challenge. Having the state’s leading QB in Ryan Cook doesn’t hurt either when you are the underdog.

Also under the radar is the Lewis & Clark Conference, who could account for half the 3A final four. Both the #3T Rainier Columbians (10-1), who blew up the Toledo Boomers 38-6, and the #9 Clatskanie Tigers (10-1), who had that double overtime triumph, are playing at home. The Columbians lost only in Alaska, 37-0 to the 11-0 Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears, a team that would be a couple classes higher than the Columbians in Oregon, and are the two-time Alaska state champions. The Tigers lost only 30-22 at Rainier in their neighborhood rivalry game. The Columbians host the #7T Grant Union Prospectors (8-2), while the Tigers host the #7T Dayton Pirates (9-2).

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