The Main Event: Football playoffs
■ Game facts: Friday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m., 6800 SW Wilsonville Rd., Wilsonville, Tickets: Adults ($10), students ($6).
■ What2Know: It felt inevitable that the Colts and Wildcats would meet again in the postseason. Sure enough, the two teams face off this Friday in the quarterfinals, the fourth time in the last six seasons the two teams will play in a postseason game. Thurston has won the past three playoff meetings (2018 championship, ’19 quarterfinals, ’21 semifinals), but Wilsonville’s won two in a row overall (2022 and ’23 week one). In the 2018 and ’21 playoff wins, Thurston upset a top-seeded Wilsonville team, so Justin Starck and the Colts are no strangers to upsetting the Wildcats.
■ Pierre’s take: Wilsonville took it to Thurston 44-15 in Week One this season, but a
much-improved Colts team should have a better showing this time out. Wide receiver
Walker Bonar, who finished the year with the most receiving yards in Class 5A, missed
that Week One game, and should be an impactful addition. Whether quarterback
Noah Blair and the Colts offense can keep up with Wilsonville star quarterback Kallen
Gutridge remains to be seen, but in the postseason, anything can happen.
Conference Call
Weekly tidbits from around our area teams’ conferences:
First round football action
Eight teams from our area conferences competed in the first round of football playoffs last weekend. Class 4A teams led the way, with Sky-Em teams No. 2 Marist Catholic (42-14 vs. Crook County), No. 9 Junction City (35-28 at Baker), and No. 12 Cascade (32-8 at Tillamook) all winning.
In Class 5A, Midwestern League’s No. 14 Eagle Point (9-46 at Mountain View) and No. 16 Crater (7-42 at Wilsonville) both lost to top teams.
In Class 3A, all three Mountain Valley teams fell: No. 6 Sisters (22-26 vs. Yamhill-Carlton), No. 9 Elmira (21-26 at North Valley), and No. 14 Siuslaw (14-34 at Dayton).
Marist Girls Soccer marches on
Springfield native Cloe Chase and top-ranked Marist Catholic reached the semifinals in the Class 4A girls soccer bracket. Chase had 3 goals and an assist in Marist’s first round 6-0 win over No. 16 Astoria, and added a goal and assist in Marist’s 3-1 quarterfinal win over No. 9 Gladstone.
Chase is up to 117 career goals, and 51 this season alone. The career goals puts her tied for fifth all-time in the state, and 51 goals in a season is tied for the third-most in state history.
The Spartans host No. 4 Hidden Valley on Tuesday in the semifinals; the championship game is Saturday.
