By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
MILL CITY, Ore.– It’s been a minute since the Santiam Wolverines started the season 3-0.
It’s been since 2018 in fact since they accomplished that feat en route to a 2A State Runner-Up finish.
Fast forward, eight years and Santiam has gotten off to a 3-0 start. Their third victory of the year came in the fashion of a 48-10 victory over Monroe/Alsea on Friday night. The offense was clicking. Jaxen Sloan contributed five touchdowns for Santiam in the victory. All three passing scores went to Kellen Crofoot and two came on the ground.
Carson Childress scored another two on the ground, both coming in the first quarter as the Wolverines jumped out to a 20-0 lead after the first quarter.
“I couldn’t do it without my other teammates out there. They’re my boys and I couldn’t do it without them. They helped me a lot today. We all worked together and I couldn’t have done it without them,” said Sloan.
The momentum continued into the second quarter as they extended their lead to 34-0 by halftime and that lead by the start of the fourth quarter they, Santiam, led 48-0. After their 7-3 season last year, they wanted to continued that momentum into this season. 2A Playoffs? They want to return to that this year. They want to win a playoff game too.
And they’re off to a strong start in the pursuit of that goal.
“We’re just clicking along. It’s way better than last year. We’re communicating better than we did last year and so the ball is clicking this year a lot better,” Childress said about their early season success.
And working on the little things will be huge this next week with 2A/1A Special District 2 play starting this next week for Santiam. The squad is opening up league play with St. Paul, it’ll be a true test for Santiam and the preparation starts now in cleaning up the little things in preparation for the Buckaroos on September 25.
“It’s just the little things. We’ll get them down this week with communication,” Childress said.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
