WEST LINN – Another highly ranked opponent, another dominant win for West Linn's football team.
The top-ranked Lions continued their impressive run Thursday night by blitzing past No. 3 Tualatin 37-0 at home to take sole possession of first place in the rugged 6A Three Rivers League.
Junior Baird Gilroy threw four touchdown passes and the defense held the Timberwolves to 37 yards as West Linn (6-0, 2-0) once again showed it is a serious threat to repeat as state champion.
“Tualatin's a huge rival. We want to beat them bad every year,” said Lions senior Gus Donnerberg, who caught one of the touchdown passes. “We always take practice that week more serious than a lot of our league games in the year. We were all really locked in.”
The Lions smothered Tualatin's running game and came after senior quarterback AJ Noland in waves, sacking him five times. Junior Baron Naone and sophomore Silas Reynolds each had two sacks and Donnerberg had one.
“We've been watching that run game all week and we knew that we were going to give it to them in the first quarter,” said Naone, who had two other tackles for loss. “We came out strong. We showed the state what was up.”
The 6-foot-5, 215-pound Gilroy completed 15 of 25 passes for 212 yards and touchdowns to Donnerberg, junior Danny Wideman and seniors Gabe Howard and Ryan Vandenbrink. Gilroy, a first-year starter, has thrown for 1,500 yards and 14 touchdowns this season.
“Each week I'm just looking to improve myself as a quarterback,” Gilroy said. “I think I'm having a pretty good season so far. I'm kind of happy with where I'm at, although there's always room for improvement.”
Donnerberg, who has a team-high 491 receiving yards this season, raved about Gilroy's progress.
“Baird's an incredible athlete and an incredible quarterback,” Donnerberg said. “For his size, to have arm talent like that is super impressive. I think he's going to do really big things.”
The Lions wasted little time taking control of the game, scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions to lead 20-0 with 3:57 left in the first quarter. Gilroy threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Howard, senior Nick Sakys ran for a three-yard score and Gilroy connected with Vandenbrink for a 12-yard touchdown.
Donnerberg turned a screen pass into a 22-yard score and senior Gage Hurych kicked a 35-yard field goal in the second quarter for the Lions, who led 30-0 at half. West Linn triggered a running clock with 5:47 left in the third quarter when Wideman caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Gilroy for a 37-0 lead.
The Timberwolves (5-1, 1-1), who lost to West Linn 42-30 last year, were impressed by the Lions.
“They should be No. 1 right now,” Tualatin senior receiver and linebacker Jayden Fortier said. “They're physical, they're fast, they make plays. We just didn't come ready to play. That's on us. But they played a great game.”
Noland, who has committed to Colorado State as a safety, was making his second start at quarterback after junior starter Nolan Keeney suffered a broken collarbone in Week 4 against Jesuit. Under heavy pressure, he completed 4 of 16 passes for 50 yards and finished with minus-46 rushing yards on nine attempts.
The Lions were doing what they could to confuse Noland, who moved from receiver to play quarterback.
“We were doing a lot of switching, stuff like that, so we could mess with the quarterback, get him to our outside so we could make sacks and tackles,” Naone said.
“I think we have the best defensive line in the state, and we have super good depth. We're super long, we're super strong. We use our length really well with the bull rush. We're super fast, too. We have really good feet. We get to every point on the field.”
Gilroy said West Linn's defense was “incredible.”
“They're so good,” he said. “That's a high-powered Tualatin offense and they shut them out.”
West Linn finished with 394 total yards. Vandenbrink rushed for 78 yards on 11 carries and Wideman had five catches for 81 yards and one touchdown.
The Lions have won their first five games by an average margin of 32.5 points. They don't appear to have lost a step after graduating a deep and talented senior class.
“I knew we had some young guys that could come up and fill the shoes of a lot of our seniors last year, but still, I'm super impressed,” Donnerberg said. “We get better each week.
“There's always a target on our back just because we're West Linn and we're coming off a state championship. All we can do is just look forward and keep playing.”
jerryu@osaa.org
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