By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SCIO, Ore.– The Scio Football team got their first taste of adversity to start the 2026 season.
Against Warrenton, the Loggers saw the Warriors march down the field on their opening drive, capitalizing on two third-and-long, to pull ahead 7-0 four minutes into the game. Dylan Ballard found Jackson Simonsen for 22-yard’s for the game’s first score.
It was just a slow start for Scio. They couldn’t get anything going offensively, their defense was there, but something had to give. The Loggers needed a break to get something going in terms of momentum.
And sure enough. It came.
The swing in momentum came off a Pick-6 by Gavin Maxson at the 9:12 mark. Scio converted on the two-point conversion and they took the lead 8-7. From there, the Loggers were in business.
Their defense continued their stronghold after the passing score by Warrenton, more so after Maxson’s interception score. And their offense did the same. They followed Maxson’s score with a Field Goal with 4:07 left in the half and Colton Medeiros punched it in from five yards out with 32.3 seconds remaining that pushed Scio’s lead to 18-7 by the halftime break.
Not a bad momentum swing at all, especially after the defensive play that got it all started for the Loggers.
“About three plays before that, I didn’t fulfill my responsibility, which led to an interception and I had to get my get-back. It was necessary, we were down. They punched us right off the bat with seven points and we needed to respond and I figured, ‘hell, why not me?’,” said Maxson.
Both team’s defense’s matched intensity in the third quarter. It remained 18-7 going into the fourth quarter. Scio would tack on one more touchdown, by way of Medeiros again, to put the game out of reach down the stretch. The Loggers took the game 25-7 to open the season.
Friday was a great way for the squad to know that they can respond if they get punched first, but they can’t make it a habit. They got to be able to start from the opening kickoff, and it’s something that they’ll work on entering Week 2 of the season.
“We don’t get punched in the mouth and not respond. We got to fight back. It was a great feeling. It’s a great feeling knowing that we can put up 25 on them and they can’t respond, it’s great,” said Medeiros, who scored two rushing touchdowns on the day. “(We got to) start now, start now. First blood. We can’t start in the second quarter. We can’t wait to get the ball moving.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
