Fishermen stop a Scappoose two-point conversion attempt with no time remaining to hang on to a 7-6 win and all but secure the Cowapa championship, holding off the fifth-ranked Indians in a 7-6 thriller Friday night in Astoria.
 

For four quarters, the Astoria Fishermen and Scappoose Indians threw the best punches they had, and neither was about to back down. In a game featuring two electrifying offenses, defense and turnovers stole the stage, and the game wasn't decided until the clock read all zeroes.

Trailing 7-0 and down to their last play, the Indians got an 8-yard touchdown pass from Nick Paxton to Jason Sawyer on the final play of regulation. But the war of the trenches which had waged for 48 minutes had to go on, as Scappoose opted to go for the win with a two-point conversion.

Jesse Oblack took the handoff in the power-I formation, but was stacked up at the 1-yard line as Astoria's defense held firm and helped the No. 4-ranked Fishermen hold off No. 5 Scappoose and all but wrap up their second consecutive Cowapa League championship.

"Any time you're still deciding the game and there's zero seconds on the clock, no matter what's happened up to that point there is still drama at the end," Astoria head coach Howard Rub said. "This was the kind of game I think people who were there will talk about for a long time."

The teams spent three and a half quarters taking turns shooting themselves in the foot. On a night which featured a steady coastal drizzle, they combined for 11 fumbles (each losing two), three interceptions and 15 penalties, most of which proved to be drive killers.

But, with 6:24 left in the fourth quarter, the Fishermen took over after a Scappoose punt at their own 31-yard line. Dane Lund, who had been effectively bottled up (15 carries for 97 yards to that point, with three of those earlier runs totalling 68 yards) finally got loose.

"Lund is a great back, and if you give it to him enough he's going to have an explosive play," Scappoose head coach Sean McNabb said.

And finally, he did.

On first down, Lund took a handoff around the left end, found a gap and sprinted 65 yards down the Astoria sideline, finally getting chased down by Scappoose's Adonis Siscoe and shoved out-of-bounds inside the Indians' 5. After another two-yard run by Lund, the Indians defense bit hard on a play-fake to Lund and Astoria quarterback Jake Davis had clear sailing on a bootleg to the right, raising a hand into the air as he crossed the goalline and broke the scoreless deadlock.

"We ran a little counter action, which we hadn't run most of the night," Rub said. "It slowed up their linebackers just enough for us to find a little crease."

Max Johnson's point-after kick put the Fishermen ahead 7-0 with 5:23 left in the game.

Scappoose covered the squib kickoff at its own 29, and a quick 37-yard pass from Paxton to Siscoe put them on the Astoria 34. But a holding penalty two plays later backed the Indians up, and Johnson ended the drive with an acrobatic interception, diving over Siscoe's shoulder and picking off a Paxton pass at the Astoria 27.

Astoria's next possession started as bad as possible (without a turnover) as a bad snap resulted in a 7-yard loss. But just as Scappoose had done all night, the Indians drew a 15-yard personal foul as a lineman jumped on Davis after the whistle had blown.  The new life didn't last for the Fishermen as Astoria gave 10 yards back with a holding penalty, then saw Lund stuffed on back-to-back runs for a total of minus-2 yards.  After each stop of Lund, Scappoose burned its final two timeouts.  The Indians had forced a punt, but it was going to take an impressive two-minute drill on a night when passing conditions were hardly welcoming.

This time it was Astoria's turn for a bullet to the foot, as Johnson had trouble handling a high punt snap, recovering the ball for a 14-yard loss and giving the Indians the ball at the Astoria 21 with 1:30 to play.

After an incompletion, Paxton got 9 yards on a pass to Siscoe, then kept the ball for a 3-yard run to give the Indians first-and-goal at the Astoria 9.  Forced to run on the next play, Paxton gained just 1 yard and hustled his team back to the line, killing the clock with a spike of the ball with just six seconds left.  On the final play of regulation, Paxton lobbed a pass into the back left corner of the end zone, which Sawyer hauled in over the defense of Astoria's Marcus Brown to pull the Indians within an extra point of overtime.

Instead of taking their chances in a Kansas Plan -- and following the adage of "go for the tie at home, go for the win on the road" -- Scappoose marched its power package onto the field, but Astoria stood the test.

"We knew they were going for two. I think we would have done the same thing there," Rub said. "But, even if you know, you still have to stop it. Lund saw the gap, got (Oblack) by the ankles to slow him down and then the cavalry arrived."

Prior to the late-game fireworks, both teams showed flashes of brilliance followed by drive-killing fumbles and penalties.

Scappoose took the opening kickoff of the game, and right away Paxton and Max Updike connected for 29 yards to move into Fisherman territory. Scappoose drove as deep as the Astoria 16 before Oblack was stuffed by Davis for a 5-yard loss to essentially kill the drive.

After the teams traded punts, Scappoose recovered an Astoria fumble at the Fisherman 44, but gave it right back as Davis clocked Paxton on a blitz and knocked the ball loose, with Chase Banta recovering for Astoria at the Astoria 46.  But again, Astoria was left spinning its wheels, fumbling a snap on fourth-and-1 from the Scappoose 45 to turn the ball over on downs.

A 23-yard run by Oblack quickly got Scappoose back into Astoria territory, and the Indians opened the second quarter with a power running game which penetrated as deep as the Fisherman 10-yard line before Oblack fumbled the ball away, recovered by Alex Eterno at the Astoria 6.

Astoria opened that drive with the help of a Scappoose personal foul penalty to help negate the field position advantage, but ended up punting. 

Both teams hurt themselves with penalties, but in the second half Scappoose saw two potential scoring drives wiped out by the yellow flag.

On their first possession of the second half, the Indians drove as deep as the Astoria 15, but a holding call on the next play put Scappoose out of field goal range and the Indians eventually turned the ball over on downs. Then, after forcing Astoria into a punt, the Indians muffed the fair catch and scrambled to recover the ball at their own 13, once again negating any field position advantage.

Starting from their own 13, the Indians marched all the way to the Astoria 1, going those 86 yards in 11 plays. A false start backed Scappoose to the 6 then, after one play, a holding call backed the Indians to the Astoria 18, where on fourth down Erik Calhoon's 35-yard field goal attempt was rejected by the crossbar.

"That was a huge turning point in the game," McNabb said of the stalled drive. "It just came down to mental mistakes."

"That was the best drive of the night by either team," Rub said. "Other than that drive, there was not a lot of rhythmic offense, not what you would expect when you have the Indians and Fishermen on the field."

Astoria's next possession resulted in Davis' only interception, a deep pass overthrown and picked off by Updike.

Lund accounted for 211 of Astoria's 248 total yards, rushing for 172 and catching six passes for another 39 yards. Davis was just 8-for-18 passing for 51 yards.

Scappoose tallied 330 yards of total offense, rushing for 188 as Gwin logged 82 on 19 carries and Oblack ran 13 times for 65 more.  Paxton was 11-for-23 passing for 142 yards, with Updike catching five balls for 57 yards.

The Fishermen (6-1 overall, 2-0 Cowapa League) -- barring swine flu or tsunami -- begin their Cowapa League championship parade this coming week at Yamhill-Carlton (1-6, 0-2).  Astoria will close out the regular season at home with Tillamook, then at Seaside.

"The key for us was we wanted to control our own destiny in the Cowapa League, so certainly this was huge in that regard," Rub said. "We didn't want this to be like 2007, where we dropped our homecoming game to Scappoose and ended up needing help to make the playoffs and didn't get it."

Scappoose (5-2 overall, 1-1 Cowapa) travels to Banks (5-1, 1-1) Friday in a game which, for all intents and purposes, will decide the Cowapa's No. 2 seed to the Class 4A state playoffs.  The Indians then will host Seaside before closing out the regular season at Tillamook.

"Our kids are disappointed. This hurts," McNabb said. "We've talked a lot every day about being Cowapa League champions. But sometimes you have to readjust your goals, and right now we have control of what's ahead of us.

"We just have to play like hell right now and get that second spot in the Cowapa."

Scappoose   0-0-0-6--6
Astoria         0-0-0-7--7

SCORING SUMMARY
Fourth Quarter
Ast: Jake Davis 2 run (Max Johnson kick), 5:23
Key play -- Dane Lund 65-yard run on first down.
Scap: Jason Sawyer 8 pass from Nick Paxton (run failed), 0:00
Key plays -- Bad punt snap recovered by Johnson at Astoria 21; Paxton 3-yard run on third-and-1 with 0:50 remaining.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing (carries-yards)
Scappoose: Trever Gwin 19-82, Jesse Oblack 13-65, Paxton 8-34, Max Updike 1-7.
Astoria: Dane Lund 20-172, Davis 11-16, Ian Erickson 2-6, Benjo Musa 1-3.
Passing (comp-att-int-yards)
Scappoose: Paxton 11-23-2-142.
Astoria: Davis 8-18-1-51.
Receiving (catches-yards)
Scappoose: Updike 5-57, Adonis Siscoe 2-46, Sawyer 2-30, Oblack 2-9.
Astoria: Lund 6-39, Jesse Boord 1-10, Marcus Brown 1-5.

TEAM STATISTICS
Total Rushing
Scappoose 41-188, Astoria 34-197.
Pass Yards
Scappoose 142, Astoria 51.
Total Offense
Scappoose 330, Astoria 248.
First Downs
Scappoose 15, Astoria 10.
Fumbles-lost
Scappoose 5-2, Astoria 6-2.
Penalties
Scappoose 10-95, Astoria 5-50.
Punts-avg.
Scappoose 3-36.3, Astoria 3-37.7.