Takeaways from Week 1 of Eugene-area high school football
The first week of high school football brought plenty of surprises.
The Churchill Lancers and Marist Catholic Spartans set the tone Friday night with a 36-35 overtime win for the Spartans in a nonleague game at Churchill.
Here are takeaways from the first week of high school football.
Marist tops Churchill in overtime
The Marist Catholic Spartans came away with the win late Friday night as they topped the Churchill Lancers 36-35 in overtime.
"Guys got to be tough and make plays," said new Marist head coach Charlie Landgraf. "That's a really tough offense ... they do a really good job of it, and they were physical. We just knew that (we) had to stop the run and get stops when the opportunities presented themselves.
"(Churchill) is a really well coached team, but just super proud of our guys. Huge credit to Zach Loboy, our defensive coordinator, for just getting it done and calling a great game."
Nick Hudson threw five touchdown passes and had a two-point conversion pass in the third quarter to lead the Spartans to victory. Kaden Erlenbush caught three touchdown passes, including the game winning touchdown.
The Spartans trailed 29-22 with six seconds left in the game when Hudson threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Brady Bidwell. Christian Guerrero delivered on a 15-yard game-tying field goal that sent the game into overtime.
"It was a Hail Mary," Hudson said on the pass to Bidwell. "This guy was right rushing me, I just kind of threw it up and trusted my guys. They came down with it, so it was great."
The defense was the star of the night, as the Spartans held the Lancers on numerous fourth and goal throughout the game, but it was on the final play that the defense stopped them from scoring and sealed the victory.
"We got a lot of great pieces," Landgraf said. "Credit to Aiden Hazen and James Harvey for playing really good games at linebacker."
On offense, the Lancers were led by quarterback Tyler Mikel, who passed for a touchdown and had four on the ground.
The Lancers' Charlie Dexter caught a 7-yard touchdown pass, Danny Doan and Ceville Pasi each rushed a touchdown and Aidan Pangelinan rushed two touchdowns, including one in overtime.
Donovan Jackson caught a two-point conversion to give the Lancers a 29-22 lead with minutes left in the game.
The Lancers opened with a 6-0 lead in the first quarter and extended their lead to 15-7 at halftime.
Marist (1-0) will face Springfield (1-0) while Churchill (0-1) travels to Bend where it will face Mountain View (1-0). Both games are set for Friday with kickoff at 7 p.m.
South Eugene sees first win at home since 2019
Quarterback Landon Lea and a shutout effort by the defense led the Ax to their first home win since 2019, beating McDaniel 20-2.
Lea threw for 246 yards and three touchdowns, rushed for 91 yards, caught a 16-yard pass and had an interception on defense.
Isaiah Francis caught all three TD passes from Lea and had 217 yards receiving.
The Mountain Lions scored their only points on a safety.
South Eugene (1-0) travels to Portland where it will face Cleveland (1-0) in a nonleague game at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Willamette falls to Reynolds at home
Jayden Owens rushed for 89 yards and added a touchdown, but the Wolverines dropped their nonleague season opening game at home to Reynolds 33-19.
Willamette's Michael Murphy caught a 40-yard pass while Alex Kalams-Jurak also caught a 15-yard touchdown.
Willamette (0-1) will play at North Bend (1-0) at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Other first week action across the Eugene-area
Mililani 37, Sheldon 3: Coming off a narrow Class 6A state championship loss to West Linn in 2022, Sheldon fell at home to Mililani of Hawaii. The Irish will get their chance at what will be a state title rematch when they host West Linn at home at 7 p.m. on Friday.
North Eugene 41, Hidden Valley 40: Kelin Knutson ran for four touchdowns and threw two touchdown passes as the Highlanders won their nonleague season opener in double overtime against Hidden Valley.
Springfield 39, Ridgeview 21: The Springfield Millers defeated Ridgeview 39-21 in its nonleague season opener in Redmond.
Wilsonville 44, Thurston 15: Noah Blair threw two touchdown passes but the Colts came up short in their nonleague season opener at Wilsonville.
Creswell 15, Taft 6: The Bulldogs opened their season at home with a win against a Tigers’ team that went 7-3 and made the postseason last fall.
Harrisburg 47, North Marion 38: The Eagles, who went 2-7 last fall, opened the new season with an impressive win at home against the Huskies as they tied the most points they’ve scored in a game since 2018.
Lowell 56, Illinois Valley 18: The Devils were victorious in the debut of new coach Ray Yarbrough as they routed the visiting Cougars. Yarbrough took over for longtime coach Pat Todd, who retired after Lowell went 10-1 last season with its loss coming in the state quarterfinals.
Blanchett 48, Oakridge 6: The Warriors lost to the Cavaliers in Salem and are still looking for their first win since the final game of the 2019 season as their losing streak grew to 18 games.
More scores: In Class 3A, Pleasant Hill defeated 4A Cottage Grove 20-7. Class 4A Junction City defeated 3A Elmira 35-7.
Edith Noriega is a sports reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at ENoriega@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Noriega_Edith
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Eugene-area high school football: Takeaways from Week 1
