THURSTON – Without the support of their one-man wrecking ball senior quarterback Noah Blair, the Colts proved the collective strength of their team against the Millers last Friday.
The Colts beat the Millers in their second home game of the season, 39-7. Last year, it was smooth sailing in their previous meeting with Springfield as Thurston made off with a 34-14 victory in September 2023. However, at the time, one of the biggest obstacles that stood in the way of that victory was Springfield’s senior quarterback Zackary Sherman, who rushed for 94 yards and a touchdown on only six carries. He’s an example of one of the star personnel that Frank Geske has lost in this season.
In 2024, Thurston has been dominant on offense recently; before their game against Springfield, the Colts had racked up 140 points over its past three games. In addition, the two teams were living two different lives. Thurston had three straight wins, whereas Springfield had three straight losses.
So Friday night had initially opened with shock. Fans were surprised to see Blair — who threw for 119 yards and three touchdowns and also rushed for 39 yards and two touchdowns last week against Eagle Point — walk the sidelines, dressed down in his jersey and shorts in a historic cross town rivalry.
In fact, some overzealous fans yelled out from the stands toward Blair in the scoreless first quarter, frustrated with the 0-0 score.
Senior linebacker Ashden Weiler charges up the field and squares up against Springfield wide receiver Jaevon Spencer.
“What are you doing Blair?!” “Why aren’t you out there?!” “Get out to the field!”
“Noah for medical reasons, sat today,” head coach Justin Starck said. “Hopefully he’ll be back next week, but we’ll see. If not, I know Kyle (Miller) will be ready to go.”
However, Miller, the senior backup who hasn’t played quarterback since his freshman year three years ago, did not disappoint. He threw for 246 yards and three touchdowns.
“I’m so proud of Kyle,” Starck said. “We know Kyle is an absolutely worthy quarterback, and I believe that he could start for a lot of teams in our league, maybe most of them, but we’re just fortunate to have two great quarterbacks.”
Although, it didn’t seem that way at first. It took a little bit for the Colts to defrost. Neither team scored in the first quarter. The Colts had issues with interior blocking, dropped kicks, and several runs called back for holding penalties.
Meanwhile, the Millers struggled with incomplete passes, interceptions, and fumbles. However, the Millers were holding their own defensively through the first quarter, as Thurston went scoreless this time. Unfortunately for Springfield, their offense wasn’t able to capitalize on this, as the teams tied 0-0 in the first quarter of play.
“It wasn’t so much a slow warm-up,” Starck said. “We just had to adjust with Noah being out. Kyle hasn’t played quarterback since his freshman year, and so he just had to settle in and do his thing. And he did admirably as he progressed in the game. But yeah, we missed a kick early. We were having trouble in the interior blocking for the kicks. So we just decided that our odds were better to go for it. We do have a lot of confidence in our offense though, and with the combination of the confidence we had in them and the trouble with the kicking game, we decided it was best to go for it.”
Things began kicking into gear at the beginning of the second quarter when Miller had a 25-yard pass to junior tight end Caleb Jones on fourth down which provided a touchdown. The extra point made it 7-0. Then, Miller passed 18 yards to senior wide receiver David Macdonald for another touchdown, followed by the extra point, raising it to 14-0. During this time the Millers generated just two yards of offense, with their biggest play being an eight-yard fake punt scramble by the quarterback, Noah Solo. At halftime, Thurston reigned over Springfield 20-0. Notably, two of Thurston’s touchdowns were scored on fourth-down throws.
However, after halftime, Thurston started the third quarter on their own eight-yard line after an illegal block on their return. They went 14 yards in two plays before quarterback Kyle Miller fumbled on the third. Springfield linebacker Khamani James recovered the ball, setting the Millers up to strike on Thurston’s 17-yard line. From there, it only took three plays for Solo to rush it in for Springfield’s first – and only – score.
Springfield junior quarterback Noah Solo, prepares to pass.
For a moment this looked like a turning point in this game. However, the Colts weren’t gonna let that happen again. On Thurston’s next drive, Springfield’s defense forced a punt that would give the Millers the chance they needed to create a one-score game heading into the fourth. However, on this punt the Millers made a fatal error when they were blocked into the football, creating a live ball recovered by Thurston. The Colts drove the remaining 26 yards, putting them up 26-7.
The Millers opened the final quarter on their 19-yard line. Down three scores and with time ticking away, they raced upfield with a 30-yard missile from Solo to Finn Lessner. That was their last first down of the drive though, as on fourth down Solo was sacked for a two-yard loss, giving Thurston the ball at midfield. It only took the Colts one play to bring the line from their 43-yard line to Springfield’s 20, and just five more for Thurston’s fifth score to put them up 32-7.
On Springfield’s second play of the drive, Solo went down with an injury, sidelining him for the rest of the game. As if to rub salt in the wound, just three plays later Springfield punted to the Colts who returned it for a touchdown, giving Thurston its final score of the night as they won 39-7.
Overall, the Colts’ victory was the product of the combined teamwork and efforts of Matt Newell, Weiler, MacDonald, Drayton Young and Cruz Gray. Newell had a total of 103 yards and one touchdown, Weiler rushed 135 yards and one touchdown, Macdonald picked up 91 receiving yards and two touchdowns and Young had a total of 89 yards and one touchdown. In addition, Thurston’s imposing defense managed to get into the backfield for five sacks–Gray was the leader with two.
Junior wide receiver Matt Newell is tackled by Springfield’s Anthony Miralrio and Jaevon Spencer.
“Ashden Weiler ran really well today,” Starck said. “David Macdonald had a couple of huge catches and Matt Newell had his usual great catches. But most of all, we just were so impressed with Drayton Young, our punt returner and kick off returner, he had amazing returns today and set a lot of big plays for a lot of kids. They all picked up the slack without Noah here.”
Young in particular sealed the deal with a shocking 62-yard return touchdown starting at the38-yard line. After a quick field goal, this officially finished the game at 39-7.
Now having finished with at least 31 points or more in their past four matches, Thurston will face off against Roseburg at 7 p.m. Friday.
