North Medford comes up short

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EUGENE — North Medford's defense played well enough to win, but the Black Tornado offense waited too long to get rolling on the road against Willamette Friday in nonconference football.

After North Medford put together its only scoring drive of the night in the fourth quarter, undefeated Willamette held the ball the rest of the game to register a 10-7 victory at Wolverine Field.

Willamette improved to 3-0 on the season, while North fell to 1-1.

"Our best drive of the night was our last," said North Medford coach Jeff Olson. "It was our best execution of the game."

Junior quarterback Matt Maurer completed the long, sustained march with a 2-yard quarterback keeper.

"Matt Maurer did a very nice job on the drive," said Olson. "He was very determined. He's a good leader. He doesn't rattle under pressure."

Willamette went ahead 10-0 on the first play of the fourth quarter when Eric Ruiz went in from 1 yard out. A key play to keep the drive going was a fourth-down, 44-yard pass completion from Spencer Phillips to Kenny Gebhardt.

Phillips finished the game 5 of 10 passing for 117 yards.

"Willamette is a heck of a team," said Olson. "They have two very good running backs, and our kids made them earn everything they got."

Junior linebacker Cory Haggans excelled for the North defense.

"Our backs were against the wall a lot because we didn't have good field position," said Olson. "That hurt us a lot. If we play like this and continue to improve, we'll win some football games."

North Medford 0 0 0 7 —7

Willamette 0 3 0 7 —10

W — FG Aguilar 44

W — Ruiz 1 run (Aguilar kick)

NM — Maurer 2 run (Higgins kick)

GRANTS PASS 24, OREGON CITY 3 — At Grants Pass, senior quarterback Justin Hoy helped ignite the Grants Pass offense in the nonconference victory.

With the Cavemen struggling to move the ball on the ground against the physical Oregon City defense, Hoy guided Grants Pass to two scores in the second quarter, the first coming on his 2-yard run and another by way of a 36-yard pass to Ryan Miller.

Hoy finished 7-for-8 passing for 116 yards and no interceptions. Brock Dean scored on a 5-yard run in the third quarter and Jamey Keefe connected on a 32-yard field goal for Grants Pass (3-0).

Criss Bowen led Grants Pass on the ground with 85 yards on 17 carries.

Oregon City (0-3) managed just 134 yards of total offense to 286 for Grants Pass.

Oregon City 0 3 0 0 —3

Grants Pass 0 14 7 3 —24

GP — Hoy 2 run (Keefe kick)

GP — Miller 36 pass from Hoy (Keefe kick)

OC — FG Ferguson 33

GP — Dean 5 run (Keefe kick)

GP — FG Keefe 32

Class 5A

MARSHFIELD 33, ASHLAND 28 — At Coos Bay, Marshfield turned a pair of Ashland fumbles into short touchdown drives in the game's first two minutes and held off a fourth-quarter Grizzly rally to beat the eighth-ranked Grizzlies in a nonleague game.

Ashland's troubles began on the first play from scrimmage, when quarterback Talon Haggard and running back Lewis Sebrell botched a handoff and Marshfield's Bo Cutting recovered at the Grizzlies' 28-yard line. Four plays later, Talo Silver's 9-yard sweep put Marshfield (2-1) ahead to stay.

Ashland (2-1) failed to cover the ensuing kickoff and Marshfield pounced on the loose ball at the Ashland 22. Kyle Brown scored from 5 yards out to make it 14-0 less than two minutes into the game.

Ashland's first four possessions resulted in a pair of fumbles, a bad snap in punt formation and a failed fake punt that turned the ball over on downs. Marshfield capitalized three times, the third coming on Kyle Tedder's 5-yard scoring pass with 1:57 left in the first quarter that extended the lead to 21-0. The Pirates ran all 14 of their first-quarter plays in Ashland territory.

Haggard (189 yards passing, 109 rushing) threw for two scores and ran for two others to keep Ashland competitive. But the Grizzlies never had an answer for the Marshfield ground game, which rolled up 321 yards 7.6 yards per carry.

MOUNTAIN VIEW 42, EAGLE POINT 7 — At Bend, Mountain View, coached by former North Medford assistant coach Steve Turner, improved to 2-0 in the nonconference game.

Quarterbacks Scott Plants and Matt Robertson each led Mountain View to two touchdowns in the first half as the Cougars rolled up 499 yards of total offense.

For Eagle Point, Garrett Davis scored on a 5-yard run in the third quarter.

Eagle Point 0 0 7 0 — 7

Mountain View 13 17 6 6 — 42

MV — Cashman 6 pass from Plants (Laughlin kick)

MV — McCreery 41 run (pass failed)

MV — Turner 4 pass from Robertson (Laughlin kick)

MV — Barber 12 pass from Robertson (Laughlin kick)

MV — FG Laughlin 34

EP — G. Davis 5 run (Goff kick)

MV — Helms 7 run (kick failed)

MV — Smith 22 pass from Robertson (kick failed)

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