In the opening minutes of Friday night’s regular-season finale against the No. 1 team in Class 4A, Philomath High’s players on the sideline found themselves jumping up and down wildly as senior Warwick Bushnell returned an interception 44 yards up the field to set up the team’s first offensive opportunity in the red zone.
Four plays later on first-and-goal from the 3, junior Lake Mulberry bullied his way into the end zone to give the Warriors an early lead over what at the time must have been a shell-shocked Marist Catholic squad, a team that was coming off a 47-0 rout over the previous No. 1 team, Cascade.
Gallery: PHS football vs. Marist Catholic (Nov. 1, 2024)
A collection of images from Philomath High’s final regular-season home football game vs. Marist Catholic on Friday.
On the opponent’s ensuing drive, the Spartans went three-and-out. Senior Hudson Raab tackled Marist’s dynamic sophomore running back Conner Harvey for no gain on first down and a couple of plays later, Philomath’s defense pressured the quarterback into overthrowing a receiver.
It was the start that then-No. 5 Philomath needed.
“We got off to a good start but I think the thing that happened was the field condition started getting worse and worse and it was starting to become more difficult to throw the ball,” PHS coach Alex Firth said. “The running game wasn’t there — they loaded the box and dared us to throw and we just couldn’t establish the throwing game.”
Marist (8-1) came back with 34 unanswered points to end up with a 34-6 victory on a slippery Clemens Field. Harvey ended up with 126 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.
“The field conditions were not really conducive really to either team tonight,” Firth said. “They did a really good job in their run game and we had a bad snap. I mean, that’s to be expected in wet weather. I told the kids before the game, ‘We’re going to have a fumble, we’re going to have a bad snap’ and it is what it is when it looks like this out there.”
Philomath ended up No. 6 in the final Oregon School Activities Association rankings with its 7-2 overall record and will next face No. 11-seeded La Grande Friday or Saturday in the first round of the 4A playoffs. With the Clemens Field playing surface in such poor shape, Firth said the game will likely be moved to either Corvallis High or Crescent Valley.
La Grande comes into the game with a 5-4 record after losing its last two games — Oct. 25 against Crook County, 33-6, and Friday at Pendleton, 39-35. The most impressive win for the Tigers appears to be a 27-14 victory on Oct. 17 over Class 3A Burns. The team’s other four wins were against opponents with losing records. La Grande is the highest-ranked four-loss team in the OSAA rankings at No. 9.
“We’ll just bury this one and play in the playoffs next week,” Firth said about moving past the Marist loss.
Firth’s mention of the bad snap occurred on Philomath’s possession following the aforementioned three-and-out. The Warriors picked up a first down on a 13-yard reception from senior Caleb Russell to junior CD Nuno but the drive stalled on the next play with the ball hitting the ground for a five-yard loss. Mulberry recovered the fumble but Philomath was now behind the sticks and not able to recover.
On fourth down with Raab back to punt, the snap went over his head and ended up as a 27-yard loss all the way back to the 11-yard line. Marist scored two plays later on a 3-yard Harvey run.
“They’re a good team and you can’t make those kinds of mistakes — we just have to overcome them,” Firth said. “We did what we could and just couldn’t string things together.”
Philomath’s next possession showed promise with the Warriors driving down to the Marist 23 only to lose the ball on a fumble. It was one of four turnovers for PHS with the Spartans also coming away with three interceptions.
Despite those early issues, the game remained close throughout most of the first half. The rain started to come down hard in the second quarter and both teams had serious problems with slipping and sliding around on the field.
The Spartans went up 14-6 with 7:46 left in the first half. An interception set up Marist at the 15-yard line and on the first play, Harvey scampered to the end zone.
The real dagger came late in the second quarter, however. Marist took over the ball at its own 31 with 1:01 remaining in the half and put together a six-play, 69-yard drive to go up 20-6 at the break. Senior Christian Guerrero scored the TD on an 18-yard pass from senior Nick Hudson.
The big play occurred on the drive’s second play when Hudson connected with senior Aaron Bidwell on a 40-yard pass. On the previous play, Nuno made a TD-saving tackle when Harvey broke through to the second level.
“We had a couple of plays where we just had guys slip in coverage,” Firth said. “We had some balls that just spun out weird and had a few interceptions and we had a fumble.”
Coming out for the third quarter, the game was still within reach for the Warriors. Philomath showed promise with a 12-play drive that got down to the Marist 21. Bushnell caught a 13-yard pass and also took a handoff for another 15. Nuno also picked up a first down with a 12-yard reception. But the drive stalled with back-to-back running plays that lost a yard followed by an incomplete pass on third down. On fourth, Matthews had Bushnell in its sights but the receiver fell to the ground as the slippery surface got the best of him.
Marist responded with a 6-play, 78-yard drive capped by a Harvey 17-yard touchdown run and the Spartans extended their lead to 21 points. Marist added another TD in the fourth quarter with another Harvey run to account for the final score.
Philomath had players in the starting lineup come off the field during the game, including Russell and Bushnell. Firth is barred from sharing information on specific injuries but said that in general, the players were just struggling with the conditions.
“Everybody was getting cold, I mean, they were over here swimming on the sideline in the mud and were starting to get some cramps and stuff, things were tightening up,” he said.
Marist outgained Philomath in total yards, 333 to 188. Nuno had five catches for 71 yards. Bushnell had 48 yards rushing on five carries and 21 yards on three receptions. Raab had four catches for 34 yards.
Philomath’s seniors were recognized during pregame activities. In addition to Russell, Raab and Bushnell, other seniors include Mitchell Berklund, Jeshua Gonzalez-Bush, Colton Hruska, Peyton Humphrey, Grant Niemann, Zack Powers and Brady Russell.
Philomath finished 3-2 in Special District 3 for third place, which comes with an automatic berth in the playoffs. Along with Marist and Cascade, the league got a fourth team into the playoffs with Stayton nabbing the only at-large spot available thanks to a No. 8 final ranking. Philomath beat the Eagles, 49-14, on Oct. 11.
