By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
JEFFERSON, Ore.– The Jefferson Football team enters their biggest week of the season with something that hasn’t happened in five years:
A Two-Game Winning Streak.
That last two-game winning streak came during the 2021 season where they had two two-game winning streaks and even a three-game winning streak as the Lions went 7-4 on the year and reached the 3A State Quarterfinals.
Over the next four years, it’s been lean. Winless the next two years, winning one game in 2024, going JV-Only last year. Even this year began to look like the same result wise as they battled through injuries through their first four weeks of the season, starting the year 0-4 as they embarked on a 2A, 9-man schedule this season.
Then. The stars aligned, and things began to change for the better two weeks ago against Regis. The Lions won their second game over the last five years when they defeated Regis in a high-scoring shootout 46-41. The next week they trailed Sheridan 22-8 before everything started clicking and they pulled away in their 71-22 victory over the Spartans. Handing the squad their second win of the year and in back-to-back weeks.
“It really feels good, it’s our first multi-win streak since 2021, so it feels really good and I’m really proud of all the kids that were not injured at the start of the season that stuck it out while we were having those difficult games. These last two weeks have been a big positive because the kids who came back are bringing a lot of energy.” Jefferson Head Coach Josh Threet said.
Threet spoke highly of his players, including that of freshman Keegan Wilson, who’s playing a demanding position at Center as an underclassmen and has risen to the occasion.
“He’s started every single game at center. He plays offense and defense and I never hear a complaint out of his mouth about anything. Great work ethic, good kid and a good center,” said Threet.
“They’re a really tight-knit group, they work really well together and they have a system that they know. Those are the big things, so I think, be pretty good,” Threet said of his group.
The squad is underclassmen-heavy with eight sophomore’s and seven freshmen this season, and they’ve developed fast.
And with them having lofty goals this season, Jefferson knows they got their hands full coming down the stretch with their final three games with Santiam, Corbett and St. Paul. The Lions have the Wolverines this Thursday, short week for a young squad and not a lot of time to polish things up, but they went to work on Monday in preparation for the game ahead.
“Short week. It’s a really big week for us because they want playoffs, and if we want playoffs, we have to win out. We have to win out, so this is a really big week for us because it’s a short week,” said Threet. “We got to sharpen up our plays, really clean it up and we got to sharpen up defense. We made a couple of mistakes last game that we need to clean up and we’re hoping that we can do that.”
The kickoff against Santiam will be at 7pm at Jefferson High School.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
