Putnam football players could have hung their heads after opening the season with a 71-7 loss at Roseburg, the team's 29th consecutive defeat.
But the Kingsmen – who have new starters at 16 positions, including three playing the sport for the first time – showed their resilience Friday with a 42-14 home win over Centennial in a 5A nonleague game. First-year coach Michael Snyder sensed a change in his players as they warmed up Friday.
“The week before they were all nervous. You could tell everyone was uptight,” Snyder said. “But the energy pregame Friday, it was loose and fun. It was like a completely different team.”
The win was Putnam's first since opening the 2022 season with an 8-0 record. It set off a wild celebration as the student section swarmed the team in the end zone, chanting and dancing and lifting players up on their shoulders.
“It was a really cool moment not just for the football team, but for the community,” Snyder said. “The 29-game losing streak, everyone was feeling that in the community.
“I don't think I've ever had so many people come up to me and give me a hug and thank me after a game. It was a really good vibe and just something that this community needed.”
Putnam got the ball rolling on its second play from scrimmage when sophomore Cooper Lemen threw a 92-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Rylan Stewart.
“That just woke everyone up,” Snyder said. “The team never looked back. Everything was on point.”
Putnam led 28-0 at half and cruised past the Eagles (0-2). Lemen completed 13 of 24 passes for 303 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions. Senior Dean Kost had eight catches for 144 yards and two touchdowns and Stewart had five catches for 159 yards and one score. Junior Utah Cunningham ran for a touchdown and returned a kickoff 85 yards for a score.
The Kingsmen didn't want the celebration to end.
“I had to kick guys out of the locker room because they just wanted to be there, they were just so excited,” Snyder said. “We were there until almost midnight.”
Snyder is hopeful that it will provide a jolt for the program.
“I had a lot of kids come up to me after the game like, 'Hey, I think I want to come play football now,'” he said.
Bowman playing at 'elite level'
Through two games, senior quarterback Kellen Bowman is putting up exponential numbers for South Salem (2-0).
In one half of play Friday, Bowman completed 29 of 36 passes for 470 yards and six touchdowns with one interception to lead a 63-8 home win over Southridge in a 6A nonleague game.
Combined with a 575-yard game at Forest Grove in the opener, he is 70 of 83 for 1,045 yards and 12 touchdowns with two interceptions. The third-year starter has done all of that in five quarters of action.
“He has a complete grasp of what we're trying to do with the system,” Saxons coach Josh Vanlue said of the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Bowman. “He's seeing things at an elite level. We have two third-year starting receivers, so when you have that much experience in one system, the game just slows down for them. It's just become second nature to him.”
He has mastered the team's Air Saxon offense.
“We try to snap the ball every 12 to 14 seconds and play as fast as humanly possible,” Vanlue said.
As a junior, Bowman set the state record for passing yards in a game with a 692-yard performance against Grants Pass. He passed for 3,214 yards and 17 touchdowns last season.
Vanlue said Bowman has the second-best arm of any quarterback he has coached, behind only Gabe Matthews, who starred at South Salem before a college baseball career at Oregon.
“He's got elite arm strength, but he's also able to put some touch on it,” Vanlue said. “His accuracy is what has really improved a ton. He's got high-level arm talent, but he knows when he's got to fit it over and under defenders. He's really taken to learning the quarterback position and turned it into a craft.”
Bowman has committed to play baseball at the University of Portland as a pitcher, but he isn't ruling out a future in football, according to Vanlue.
“I think he's kind of wanting to play both at this time,” Vanlue said. “He's starting to get some I-AA interest.”
Senior receivers Ben Greer (11 catches, 196 yards, two touchdowns) and Sam Johnson (eight catches, 172 yards, two touchdowns) also had big games Friday. In two games, Greer has 25 catches for 405 yards and four touchdowns.
Lakeridge gamble pays
No. 10 Lakeridge scored a touchdown and two-point conversion with 21 seconds left to outlast visiting Lincoln 43-42 in a 6A nonleague game Friday.
The Pacers (2-1) drove 70 yards in the closing minutes to draw within 42-41 on a seven-yard touchdown pass from junior Carson Pickens to sophomore Jagger Salazar. Instead of playing for overtime, Lakeridge coach Spencer Phillips rolled the dice.
“I just knew that if we went to overtime, we just weren't going to stop them,” Phillip said of the Cardinals (1-1). “It was an offensive battle. The decision to go for two was easy.”
The Pacers went with their “Dolphin” package, a wildcat formation named for senior running back Colby Owen, who has committed to play lacrosse for the Jacksonville University Dolphins. The 6-1, 200-pound Owen already had run for two short touchdowns in the game.
“We just asked our offensive line coaches which way we thought we were running the best that night,” Phillips said. “We called it that way, and Colby got in.”
Owen started to his right behind two tight ends and junior running back Jack Carrothers, then cut back into the end zone.
Pickens completed 31 of 44 passes for 305 yards and three touchdowns. Salazar had six catches for 101 yards and two touchdowns and junior Hudson Armerding had eight catches for 84 yards and one score.
The Pacers have won two in a row since a 22-14 loss at North Medford in which they committed seven turnovers. They start seniors at only six of 22 positions.
“We're very, very sophomore- and junior-heavy,” Phillips said.
Ravens rising
No. 9 Ridgeview is emerging as a darkhorse contender in the 5A Intermountain Conference, the domain of Mountain View and Summit in recent seasons.
By routing No. 7 Canby 36-15 at home Friday, the Ravens completed their nonleague schedule at 3-0. They also went 3-0 in nonleague play last year – all by shutout – but they believe beating Lebanon 35-21, Crater 37-0 and Canby this year was a better showing.
“Our nonleague wasn't as strong last year,” coach Pat Pileggi said. “We wanted to schedule some teams that we could compete with and get better, find some success. This year we felt like, 'We've done that, let's play some better teams.' Canby I thought was the best of all of them. The kids stepped up and matched their physicality.”
Against Canby, junior Callen Schaefer caught a touchdown pass from junior Bennett Wyatt and ran for a score on a fly sweep. Juniors Bronx Lick and Lucas Geaslin had touchdown runs and senior Jordan Rodriguez threw a scoring pass to senior Finn Chambers.
After going 1-8 overall, 0-5 in the IMC in 2023, the Ravens finished third in the conference the last two years, dropping all four games against Mountain View and Summit. This year, they again must deal with the Cougars and Storm, who are ranked second and fourth, respectively, in the OSAAtoday 5A coaches poll.
“We're getting closer,” Pileggi said. “That's the carrot we're chasing, those two. Both schools are about twice the size of us, so it's an uphill battle constantly. But we're closing the gap.
“We're learning how to win. Just having that expectation to win and compete every single week, I feel like we've turned the corner there. The kids are playing with confidence.”
Breakthrough for Scio
Co-No. 7 Scio made a statement by going on the road to dominate No. 4 Santiam Christian 37-13 in a 3A nonleague game Friday.
Dating back to 2018 – the last time Scio won a district title – the Loggers (2-0) had lost five consecutive games to Santiam Christian by an average margin of 29.2 points. That included 35-0 defeat last year, when Scio finished with a 4-5 record.
But after giving up a 75-yard touchdown run to Eagles junior Levi Thorson on the second play of Friday's game, Scio took control behind senior quarterback Arley LeBard, who passed for two touchdowns and ran for 150 yards and one score.
“It felt great,” LeBard said. “I've never beaten them before, no one has beaten them before, so we had a chip on our shoulders, and we were ready to play. We talked about adversity all the time, and the adversity hit the second play of the game. We got together, talked it out and we responded.”
LeBard threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to senior Troy Bochsler to make it 7-7, then senior Colton Medeiros ran for a score to put Scio ahead to stay at 14-7.
Leading 21-13 at half, the Loggers got a field goal from sophomore Jakoby Baker, and one-yard touchdown run from Medeiros on fourth-and-goal and another scoring pass from LeBard to Bochsler to pull away.
Santiam Christian, which lost at No. 2 Kennedy 19-14 last week, fell to 1-2.
-- Jeremy McDonald contributed to this report
St. Paul topples Lost River
One week after falling 60-6 at No. 1 Heppner, No. 5 St. Paul rebounded in a big way Saturday at home against second-ranked and reigning state champion Lost River in a 2A nonleague game.
The Buckaroos (2-1) rolled to a 37-0 win over the Raiders (1-1), owning a 362-56 edge in total yards. St. Paul led 22-0 at half and tacked on two touchdowns in the third quarter.
Buckaroos coach Tony Smith said it was “great to bounce back.”
“Our kids played good football and really responded well against a quality football program,” Smith said. “Very proud of our effort in practice and during the game today.”
St. Paul rushed for 286 yards, led by senior Bricen Britton (16 carries, 130 yards, one touchdown). Senior Jack Gregory completed 4 of 8 passes for 76 yards, including touchdowns of 11 yards to senior JJ Hempfling and 42 to senior Peyton Alloway. Gregory and senior Max Cain also ran for scores.
Hempfling, Britton and Cain had interceptions for the Buckaroos. St. Paul held the Raiders to minus-4 rushing yards limited junior quarterback Keagan Dunlea to 5 of 19 passing for 60 yards.
Lost River plays host to Heppner (3-0) on Friday.
No. 1 for Jesuit's Rombach
Jesuit turned back visiting Sprague 31-21 on Friday for its first victory under coach Phil Rombach, the successor to Ken Potter, the state's all-time leader in wins.
Coming off a 38-0 loss at No. 6 Nelson in their opener, the Crusaders trailed the Olympians 14-0 in the first quarter before rallying to lead 21-14 at half.
Senior Jack Wilson tossed a 19-yard touchdown pass to junior Jora Atwal, senior Luke Ortner ran for a 43-yard score and Wilson added a one-yard touchdown run to put Jesuit ahead.
Sprague (1-1) drew even at 21-21 when junior Julian Lutz ran for a 29-yard touchdown late in the third quarter. Jesuit took a 28-21 lead early in the fourth quarter on a 48-yard pass from Wilson to senior Kyle Goodwin and made it 31-21 on a 37-yard field goal by sophomore Noah Lanphere with 2:35 remaining.
Ortner rushed for 140 yards and one touchdown on 19 carries. Wilson completed 15 of 23 passes for 287 yards and two scores and ran for one touchdown. Goodwin had eight catches 196 yards and one touchdown.
jerryu@osaa.org
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