Lost River, the 1A-8 champion in 2022 and 2023, captured the 2A title Saturday by defeating Heppner.

BEND — Lost River did what no team has done all season — beat the Heppner Mustangs.

Kyle Diaz hit Kellen Dunlea with a 28-yard touchdown pass with 25 seconds left in the game to upset the No. 1 Mustangs 24-22 for the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 2A title on Saturday at Summit High School.

“I’m pretty happy,” longtime Lost River coach Dennis Dunlea said. “These guys have been pretty resilient all year long and today was another example of that. We lost some momentum in the second half, other than that I thought we controlled them well. We played our best on the last day. That is our goal every year and today we did that.” 

It’s the first title for the Raiders (12-1) since 2023 when they won the 1A 8-man title. Lost River last won a 2A title in 2004.

Heppner, whose last title came in 2019, had a successful season under first-year head coach Rob Wilson.

“These boys are disappointed now, but it was a great season with great memories,” Wilson said. “The young kids have something to aspire to. If they want to get back here, they know what it takes.”

The Mustangs (12-1), who had trailed all afternoon, took their first lead of the game with 3:57 left in the fourth quarter as Caylan Proudfoot connected with Tripp Stewart in the right corner of the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown. Stewart ran in the 2-point conversion for a 22-18 lead.

Heppner was facing fourth-and-3, but an offsides call against Lost River gave the Mustangs a new set of downs, and they scored three plays later.

“They are a good team and they had a plan to stop us,” Wilson said. “For whatever reason, we weren’t ready for that. I was proud of the way we battled back. In the second half, we woke up. We ended up getting back to what we had done all season. We put ourselves in a great position to win the game.”

The Raiders took over at their own 35 to start their last drive. On fourth-and-1, Diaz took off for a 23-yard run to put the ball on the Heppner 33. After a 5-yard run by Dunlea, Lost River scored on the next play to retake the lead for good.

“Super proud of our guys on that last drive,” Dunlea said.

On Heppner’s final drive, Proudfoot had three incomplete passes, then handed the ball off to Alakae Rodriguez. The bruising running back ran 22 yards to the Lost River 41, but the clock had run out on the Mustangs.

“I’m beyond proud,” Wilson said. “They should hold their heads high. There are 35 or so 2A teams that would have liked to have finished second.”

The Raiders wasted no time in opening the scoring, as Diaz hit Drew McDonald for a 30-yard touchdown pass with 5:34 left in the first quarter for a 6-0 lead

Lost River scored on the first play of the second quarter as Connor Guthrie took the ball in from 4 yards out. Dunlea put the Raiders in scoring position with a 43-yard run to put the ball at the Heppner 4-yard line.

The 2-point conversion pass failed, giving Lost River a 12-0 lead.

In the first half, the Raiders did what no other team has done — shut down the Mustangs’ offense.

Proudfoot threw for 63 yards, but Heppner was held to just 43 yards rushing, with Rodriguez accounting for 34.

Trailing 12-0 late in the second quarter, Heppner finally found the end zone as Rodriguez powered his way across the goal line from one yard out with 1:29 left in the first half. 

The drive got a big boost from a 35-yard pass play from Proudfoot to Joseph Albitre that put the ball at the Lost River 33. On second-and-11 from the Lost River 23, Proudfoot connected with Caleb George for 22 yards to put the ball at the 1-yard line.

Lost River took an 18-6 lead on its first drive of the third quarter, using a 38-yard run by Diaz to get to the Heppner 1-yard line. On third-and-goal, Diaz scored from 1 yard out.

On Heppner’s ensuing drive, it used big runs from Rodriguez and Stewart to end up at the Lost River 11. A fumbled snap saw the Raiders’ Chad Sweat come up with the ball.

Lost River failed to capitalize on the turnover and were punting on fourth-and-20 from its own 2-yard line. The snap to the punter sailed out of the end zone for a safety and an 18-8 score.

“That was a big stop on the turnover,” Dunlea said. “Then we gave them a couple and had to go out and play defense. All the momentum was going their way. We felt like we could still do some stuff.”

After the kickoff, the Mustangs methodically moved down the field, capping the 10-play drive with a 17-yard touchdown run by Rodriguez.

Rodriguez finished the day with 123 yards on 22 carries, while Stewart had 82 yards on 16 carries. Proudfoot completed 5 of 8 passes for 102 yards.

For the Raiders, Diaz threw for 94 yards and ran for a team-high 88, while Dunlea ran for 56 yards on six carries, and caught two passes for 41 yards. McDonald had one catch for 30 yards.

“Diaz was exceptional today,” Dunlea said. “He has been all year. During league, Kellen got a lot of attention, but in the playoffs, Kyle has been really exceptional throughout the playoffs. He had a great day today.” 

Heppner had 310 yards of offense, 20 first downs and ran 61 plays, but the Raiders made the most of their 244 yards, 10 first downs and 39 plays.

Rodriguez and Diaz were named the Moda Health Players of the Game.