THURSTON – At Thurston’s previous home game, spectators witnessed the rare site of a team taking care of the Colts when Churchill came to The Farm.
It was a different story last week against North Eugene on Thurston’s Senior Night and last regular-season ome game of the year.
Thurston beat the Highlanders last Friday 55-13 in their highest-scoring game of the year. Although this blowout might not be anything new to Thurston fans since the Colts have won five games by more than 20 points this season, it’s evident that the Churchill loss ignited a fire within the Colts.
“We made a big effort to improve on (physicality),” coach Justin Starck said. “Over the last two weeks, but more specifically the bye week. We’ve spent significant time in the weight room and focused on getting stronger and being more physical.”
Thurston had a total of 304 passing yards, 304 receiving yards and 173 rushing yards. There were several scoring leaders: David MacDonald with two touchdown receptions; Justin Fisher with one touchdown rush; Matthew Newell with one touchdown reception; Caleb Jones with one touchdown rush; Payton Ferriera with one touchdown; and Ryan Roser with two touchdown receptions.
By the third quarter, due to Thurston’s lead, the referees decided to implement a mercy rule of running the clock for the rest of the game.
Starck took advantage of the opportunity by withdrawing his starters and utilizing the rest of his roster.
“We wanted to keep the starters healthy,” Starck said. “It’s a good feeling to be able to rest those guys and keep them hungry and healthy. And it was also a great opportunity for those guys to get that experience.”
Although Starck was glad that his team was more physical and had improved, he still stressed that there was an arduous journey ahead.
He acknowledged the strength of their competition and the unpredictability of playoff brackets, emphasizing the importance of each game for their ranking. He remains solely focused on beating their next opponent: Willamette.
“We’re not even thinking about the playoffs right now,” Starck said. “We just want to find a way to beat Willamette. That’s all that’s important. That’s all that matters. Right now, there are some great teams in the state. We’ve done this a lot, so we know that there are great teams out there, and you just never know until the brackets come out, who you might match up with.”
Starck also mentioned how vital the Willamette game will be in regards to the playoff seeding.
“We also need to move up in our ranking,” Starck said. “We’re not ranked very high right now because of the strength of schedule. We’re hopeful with this win, and if we can find a way to beat Willamette, that may move us up a little bit into a better part of the bracket.”
This intense matchup will be this Friday at Willamette, 7 p.m. where both teams will put it all on the field.
In other games:
Cottage Grove Lions 53, La Pine Hawks 7
RECAP: The Lions dominated the Hawks in their second-highest-scored game of the season on the road last Friday. Several leaders led the Lions for the win: Clayton Dewitt with 16 rushes, and a total of 101 yards and 1 TD; Declan Monahan with 1 rush TD; Gavin Grogan with 2 TD receptions and one rushing TD; and Trevor Cooper with 112 passing yards.
