By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DALLAS, Ore.– The Dallas football team has done something they have not done since September of 2016:
Beat Silverton.
Everything aligned for the Dragons. The defense was there: Stop the power, they did that.
The offense. They grind out yards, slowing the game down enough to throw the Foxes off their rhythm.
Through three quarters, Dallas led 10-0. They were doing what they needed to do to keep Silverton away.
Coming off their West Albany defeat two weeks ago, the Dragons weren’t going to have a repeat of that and took that 41-21 defeat to heart.
“We were not going to take that, we played horrible in the second half. We were going to play our hearts out on this one,” said Dallas’ Thomas Hess. “We prepared for four days like Champs. My linemen, they fought their hearts out. It’s them.”
Then Silverton woke up.
The Foxes got on the board to start the fourth thanks to Levi Schurter. Schurter had some big carries to start the frame to get the ball rolling for Silverton’s offense.
10-7 Dallas led 11:52 left in the game.
The Dragons pushed their lead to 17-7 when Thomas Hess kept the ball for a score on the next possession.
The Foxes quickly responded on the ensuring kickoff with Ryder Vandeweghe taking the kickoff to the house to make it a 17-14 game with 3:45 left in tbe game.
Silverton’s defense came up clutch on their next possession that followed Vandeweghe’s score, giving themselves a chance with two minutes left in the game to win, or at least tie.
“I’m proud with the way we competed, it came down to the last play,” said Silverton Head Coach Dan Lever. “I didn’t have my team ready, hats off to (Dallas) tonight. It’s showing us that we need to get better.”
The Foxes, who started near midfield, got to inside the ten in two plays before having to spike the ball. Silverton didn’t have any timeouts left at this point.
Next play, they got to the two yard line and saw Dallas break-up a pass to force the Field Goal unit to come out.
That’s when the Dragons had one last trick up their sleeves of sorts because they blocked the game-tying Field Goal with the Dallas side exploding in celebration.
Two plays later, they kneeled it in Victory Formation to seal the 17-14 victory.
“First of all, God…all Glory to him. I couldn’t have done it without him and my teammates. Our line, they did amazing. I’m just grateful that God put us in that position to do all that we did,” said Dallas’ Aidan Galusha, who had a rushing score in the game. “We go into every, single game like it’s a faceless opponent. We don’t care that it’s Silverton. We don’t care that it’s anyone else. We just go in there with the best mentality and plah our ball.”
“I don’t know, I trusted my defense. I knew that they’ll get the stop. I trusted my line, I knew that they’ll get the job done,” adds Hess. “I don’t know, I don’t know how to feel right now. I’m kind of in shock.”
Dallas will travel to Corvallis on Friday while Silverton will host Crescent Valley on Friday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
