By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
ADAIR VILLAGE, Ore.– Arley Lebard was on a mission on Friday night.
The senior rushed for over 150 yards, rushed for a score and threw for another two.
Yes. The Loggers threw the ball that much.
Lebard, like many of his teams were driven. It’s been since 2018 that Scio has beaten Santiam Christian. And it took some work, but they found a way.
The adversity was there. Second play of the game, Levi Thorson went 75 yards for the game’s first score. Thorson took advantage of a running lane created by his offense and didn’t look back on the play.
From there however, Scio clutched up. Lebard found Troy Bochsler on the Loggers first possession of the game on a 21-yard strike that tied the game up at seven.
The Loggers defense clutched up and got their offense back the ball. Scio would take the lead following a Colton Medeiros score and the following PAT made it 14-7 with 4:52 left in the first quarter.
“In the locker room, we were talking about the adversity. We knew it was going to happen and we just had to trust in us,” said Bochsler of facing the adversity. “We just need to fix our small mistakes, fix our pad level and fix our effort and I think we’ll be a really good team.”
Scio’s lead reached 21-7 before the Eagles drew the Loggers back in. A Thorson to Harrison Hedlund connection made it a one score game with 1:03 left in the first half.
That’s where more adversity arrived as the score remained 21-13 entering the second half. How will Scio respond?
They answered with more crisper play. Defense continued to lock down and their offense added some cushion to their lead. A field goal in the third,, Medeiros scored again early in the fourth and the Lebard-Bochsler connection found each other again late in the game as all of a sudden Scio was back in front 37-13
“It felt great. I never beaten them before, no one has beaten them before so we had a chip on our shoulders and we were ready to play,” said Lebard. “We talked about adversity all the time and the adversity hit the second play of the game. We got together, talked it out and we responded.”
The 37-13 score remained through the final whistle as the Loggers improve to 2-0 on the year.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
