By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– This game had the writings of the League Championship for the 6A Special District 1 League Title on Friday night between West Salem and Willamette out at West Salem High School. And it lived up to the billing of one of those classic, memorable, and emotional games.
The first half featured defense. A ton of it as neither team could finish drives, and it was a low-scoring 6-2 halftime lead for the Wolverines. Tony Cumberland had a one-yard score in the first half for Willamette as the lone touchdown, and the Titan’s two points came off a safety after West Salem kept the Wolverines pinned deep in their territory.
And it wasn’t the only big moment for West Salem during that first half. With Willamette driving down the field, looking to extend their lead, the Titan defense held them to a Field Goal attempt with two seconds left in the half only to see West Salem block it at the buzzer to keep it at that four-point spread going into that second half.
“Defense played great, especially in the first half. We were just limiting all the explosive plays. They just had to chop away at us and take everything underneath, we stayed on top of everything and we just focused on their star players and everyone had a good pursuit to the ball,” said West Salem’s Evan Wusstig. “No one bowed down to the challenge. Everyone did their job and played with toughness. We knew it was going to be a tough game. We all put our heads down and went to work.
“It didn’t go how we wanted, but it was good work.”
That pursuit, focus, and determination within their defense continued into the second half. But this game came down to one or two plays that decided what would become a 19-10 victory for the Wolverines.
A celebration penalty on a big third down sack allowed a Willamette drive to continue in the third quarter that led to a Wolverine score. West Salem responded, however, getting their lone touchdown of the contest thanks to a 13-yard Koen Campos strike with 1:12 left in the third quarter. It was a 13-10 Willamette lead at this point.
“This game was our biggest game yet and probably will be for the rest of league. This was probably for the league championship. We came out and performed and did what we did,” said the Wolverines Hunter Vaughn. “They’re a solid program. It came down to who wanted it more.”
Willamette got a big return on the Kickoff Return that followed, setting up a Wolverine score with 11:11 left in the game by way of a Zeke Thomas to Kawai Chamberlin 22-yard Touchdown strike that put Willamette ahead 19-10. West Salem was able to stop the two-point conversion, and the Wolverine drives that followed, but the Titans couldn’t overcome the strong defense that they faced on this evening to overcome the deficit in time before the final whistle blew.
“We got to finish offensively. We got to point some points on the board. But our defense did pretty well today,” said West Salem Quarterback Jacob Sanderson. “Our defense has been solid all year. They made some big stops.”
West Salem will look to rebound Friday at North Salem while Willamette will look for a 6-0 start this next Friday when they’ll host North Medford at Willamette High School while trying to get healthy themselves.
“We got to get healthy… We ultimately got to get healthy and keep grinding, waking up early, going to Early Bird lifting and going after school working hard in practice and doing it for each other. We got to sell ourselves for the team and the Lord and Savior Jesus Chirst,” said Vaughn.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
