CORVALLIS — In the midst of an exceptional season at wide receiver and a key tool in Philomath High’s offensive attack, junior Rocco De La Rosa had to give up the pads for a couple weeks while recovering from an injury.
During a road win at Junction City and a home loss to Marist Catholic, he stood on the sidelines.
“It was definitely frustrating,” he said. “I mean, I had faith in our team and we were a lock for the playoffs but it was hard for sure.”
Gallery: PHS football vs. La Grande (Nov. 8, 2024)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s 39-27 football playoff victory over La Grande at Corvallis on Friday.
Finally this past Wednesday, De La Rosa was officially cleared to rejoin his teammates on the gridiron. Two days later, he made up for lost time with four touchdowns — three on receptions and one on a run — to help the Warriors advance past La Grande Friday night, 39-27.
Philomath’s head coach, Alex Firth, wanted to get the ball in his hands.
“We made a change and put him in the backfield,” he said. “Teams struggle with backside of the backfield and he’s one of our best athletes, best receivers. So we put him back there just to try to take advantage of linebacker coverage having him back there because it was a mismatch. Obviously, it paid off.”
Senior quarterback Caleb Russell is another player that’s been hobbled with late-season physical challenges. Playing against the Tigers with a heavily-taped ankle, Russell completed 25-of-36 passes for 369 yards and four touchdowns.
Russell was glad to see De La Rosa back on the field as part of a lethal receiving corps that also includes junior CD Nuno, senior Warwick Bushnell and senior Hudson Raab.
“He’s an animal so having him back is huge,” Russell said. “In my last game, I only had like 130 (yards) so this felt good to come back and throw it around a bit.”
Nuno was another often-used weapon within the offensive scheme against the Tigers. He had nine catches for 132 yards and one touchdown. Bushnell finished with four catches for 37 yards.
Philomath (8-2) advances into the second round of the playoffs for the first time in nine years. The Warriors, seeded sixth, will head to Klamath Falls this coming Friday to face third-seeded Henley. The Hornets won their first-round game over Seaside, 43-35.
“It feels great,” De La Rosa said. “Ever since summer, our goal has been to win the state championship and to get one step closer to that is really exciting.”
Russell believes the team can keep the momentum going.
“We assume we play Henley so that’s going to be a tough second round,” he said. “We’ve got to just keep moving forward.”
Firth said the players deserve to have fun with the success they’re seeing this season.
“They’ve really worked hard,” he said. “They’ve earned this, you know, they committed to it in the offseason and they did what we asked. There’s a lot of cohesiveness on the team … they’re really a tight group so they all pull for each other and it’s nice to see things click.”
As one might expect, De La Rosa enjoyed getting so many touches against La Grande — he was the team’s top receiver with nine catches for 179 yards and and top runner with 58 yards on 10 carries. The Tigers basically kept losing De La Rosa on the field and could not make the necessary defensive adjustments.
Three of De La Rosa’s touchdowns came in the first half with two on receptions of 14 and 84 yards. On the latter score, which occurred early in the second quarter, Russell hit a wide-open De La Rosa in stride for a 20-0 Warriors lead.
Philomath unveiled a new wrinkle in its offense later on in the second quarter. Running out of the wildcat formation, De La Rosa broke off his longest run of the night for 24 yards.
“We practiced it for the first time on Tuesday a little bit and then a little bit more on Thursday,” De La Rosa said. “We got the general idea but it worked out pretty well. The way it was set up, there was really nothing they could do. We were reading everything they did and we were winning every time.”
So, after that initial long gainer, Firth called the same play and De La Rosa scored from 5 yards out.
“That’s new — it’s the go-go,” Firth said. “No one has seen it yet. There’s more to it, obviously, but it’s fun, it’s another way to get him the ball.”
Philomath’s game-opening possession produced the first six points with the Warriors covering 64 yards on seven plays. Junior Lake Mulberry scored on a second-and-goal play from the 1. La Grande then went three-and-out and Philomath took a 14-0 lead on De La Rosa’s 14-yard TD. Nuno had two key receptions of 28 and 15 yards on that drive.
Down by two touchdowns, La Grande took nearly seven minutes off the clock and had a first-and-goal from the 5. Junior Sovann Chab got warmed up and broke loose on several effective runs out of the backfield, including a nine-yard gain on fourth down.
But Philomath’s defense stiffened and kept the Tigers out of the end zone. Raab had a tackle for loss on a third-down play and on fourth down, sophomore Jamin Peters made the stop as the Warriors took over on downs.
On the ensuing possession, Philomath scored again with the 84-yard strike.
La Grande (5-5) got on the scoreboard with 9:27 left in the second quarter on a 36-yard pass from junior Mathias Fields to junior Landon Hood.
The Warriors responded with the touchdown drive that ended with the wildcat formation runs and De La Rosa standing in the end zone. Twice on the possession, Philomath had to overcome holding penalties. De La Rosa had a key catch on a third-and-7 throw that picked up 20 yards.
Philomath scored another touchdown with 40 seconds left in the half. Nuno had catches of 15 and 28 yards on the drive, the latter one good for a touchdown.
Philomath led 33-7 at halftime but La Grande tried to make a game of it in the third and fourth quarters. The Tigers came out for the second half and scored quickly with Chab breaking free on a 66-yard touchdown run. Philomath’s offense sputtered a bit but the Tigers didn’t have much luck themselves over the rest of the quarter. A holding penalty and three straight incompletions killed one drive and a bad snap over the QB’s head doomed the next one.
In the fourth quarter, Philomath went up 39-14 on De La Rosa’s fourth TD of the night — a 23-yard reception on fourth down. La Grande countered quickly with another score thanks to runs of 51 and 12 yards by Chab to get the ball down to the PHS 6. From there, Hood caught a TD reception from Fields.
Later in the quarter, both teams lost the ball on turnovers. Philomath fumbled on a play that La Grande junior Bekham Hibbert fell on — the Warriors would have lost possession anyway since it was fourth down. But La Grande didn’t have the ball long because Philomath senior Mitchell Berklund came up with an interception.
The Tigers scored on the last play of the game with backup quarterback Carson Weimer getting into the end zone on a sneak. La Grande set up the situation with three straight completions from Weimer to senior Aaron Weaver for gains of 40, 28 and 19 yards.
The Tigers finished the game with more first downs than Philomath (18-17) and racked up 243 yards rushing and 420 total yards. Individually, Chab had 216 rushing yards on 18 carries — a 12.0 average.
The Warriors had 469 total yards with 369 through the air and 100 on the ground.
Firth knew that La Grande would attack out of the wing-T with an aggressive running game.
“Yeah, they run the ball and they got us with a slant route and then down here, it was just the end of the game,” Firth said, the latter reference pointing to 85 yards that the Tigers picked up on five plays to score on the game’s last play.
The game site and time for the Henley game is to be determined. The Hornets hosted their first-round game at nearby Mazama High School.
“They’re a spread and that’s what we kind of like more,” Russell said. “We don’t like these running teams especially against our defense. I think every game is winnable so we’ve just got to come out and play our best.”
