NEWPORT — On a play that could’ve turned into a disaster and changed the game’s trajectory, Philomath quarterback Caleb Russell took advantage of a fortuitous bounce, spotted a wide-open Rocco De La Rosa and the rest was history.
The play covered 90 yards and was just one example Friday night of Philomath High’s explosive capabilities on offense in a 46-10 victory at Newport.
Gallery: PHS football at Newport (Sept. 6, 2024)
A collection of photos from Philomath High School’s 46-10 football victory at Newport on Friday.
Moments earlier, the Cubs pinned PHS deep in its own territory following a 46-yard punt. On first down, Russell mishandled the snap but got a fortunate bounce and, throwing out of the end zone, spotted a wide-open De La Rosa who was on an out route in the flat. De La Rosa shook off one would-be tackler, stiff-armed another and took off on a sprint down the right sideline.
“Honestly, we got pretty lucky that Caleb was able to get that off,” De La Rosa, a junior, said. “The line definitely played a big part in that by just keeping where they are on the fumble and I don’t know, turned the burners on — that felt pretty good.”
Newport’s defense on the play was in a formation intended to stop a long pass attempt.
“We’d been hitting them deep with the ball so they backed out and then the flat was wide open and he just took it and ran,” PHS coach Alex Firth said. “He’s a great athlete.”
It was one of two big plays by De La Rosa in the season-opening rout. In the final seconds after Newport had scored a touchdown against the second-teamers, he returned the ensuing kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown.
“Our KOR (kickoff return) team did great,” he said. “I had it on the right hash and just followed my blockers. I waited for the block, they did their job, and that’s just like the way it’s supposed to go.”
De La Rosa took the ball at the 17 after following blockers, broke to the left for daylight. He finished the evening with 226 all-purpose yards.
As a team, Philomath had 347 yards of total offense, which does not account for return yardage. Russell completed 9-of-12 passes for 253 yards and four touchdowns. De La Rosa had two catches for 102 yards.
“We’ve been thinking about every single game for so long and how every single game means so much just because we have to win them all,” De La Rosa said. “We’re shooting for, honestly, an undefeated season because we want to have high expectations.”
Russell, a senior, said the team enters this fall with a renewed approach after going through 7-on-7 competitions over the summer.
“In other years, like since my freshman year, we haven’t done 7-on-7 and we started early in the summer and we grinded,” he said. “We know this is the year to do it — we’ve got dudes … CD, Warwick, Hudson and Rocco — straight animals at wide receiver.”
Junior CD Nuno, another impressive athlete out of the PHS receiver room, caught four balls for 62 yards and a touchdown. Senior Warwick Bushnell had a 67-yard TD reception.
Although Philomath’s athleticism at the skill positions were obvious, those players found a lot of daylight thanks to the offensive line.
“They came out in a front that we hadn’t practiced against and they adjusted right away, which shows a lot of maturity,” Firth said. “I think that there were a lot of run lanes that we took advantage of.”
The starting offensive front included left tackle Jamin Peters, left guard Chase Leslie, center Peyton Humphrey, right guard Brady Russell and right tackle Tiernan Bovbjerg.
Said Caleb Russell, “I was very impressed with the line. They gave me a perfect pocket.”
Senior Grant Niemann had seven rushes for 52 yards and a touchdown. Junior Lake Mulberry scored a TD as well and had 22 yards. Niemann also scored on a pass play.
“I thought Grant ran the ball really well and then we got Lake in there down in the red zone and I think that they created some holes and did what they needed to do,” Firth said. “They gave us time to throw the ball — I mean, some of those routes take a while to develop.”
Philomath’s offense had to overcome early-game hiccups. On the team’s game-opening drive, De La Rosa on third-and-7 went in motion and found himself wide open on the left side. The pass sailed a little high and the attempt fell incomplete. A three-and-out on the first drive — not the way the Warriors would want to come out.
On the ensuing punt return, senior Jeshua Gonzalez-Bush pounced on the ball to give the Warriors another shot on offense. But Newport came up with an interception to get the ball back.
“I knew they weren’t as good of a team (as us) but I still started off bad,” Russell said. “The interception kind of set me down and I told Firth, ‘I promise you, we’ll score every possession from now on. So yeah, I had to come back from that.”
Firth said the Cubs had shown a different look in a jamboree appearance at Sweet Home.
“When we came out, they were running a different defensive front, a different offense than they ran in the jamboree so it took us by surprise a little,” Firth said. “We had to do some adjustments and then I think we dropped the ball early and threw a pick early. That’s just not seeing live bullets — that is what it is. We got our feet under us and then things started clicking.”
Newport’s best drive of the game followed with the Cubs going 57 yards on 14 plays that led to a 37-yard field goal by junior Becker Wills. It turned out to be a defensive victory, however, with Philomath coming through when Newport reached the red zone.
On first-and-10 from the 15, senior Hudson Raab burst through the middle and had a tackle for loss to put the Cubs behind the chains. Two plays later on third-and-10, sophomore Kaden Howard broke up a pass toward the right sideline. The home team had to settle for three.
The Warriors responded with a touchdown on a quick drive that took less than 3 minutes. Philomath started picking up chunks of yardage on the ground with Niemann and Mulberry and Russell connected with Nuno on a third-and-5 to move the chains.
Two plays later, Nuno caught a pass, sprinted down the left sideline and muscled his way into the end zone, breaking at least three tackles over the final 10 yards to six points. Raab followed with the extra point for a 7-3 lead.
“We were able to settle in and do what we normally do and that’s to really take advantage of the speed we have at the receiving position,” Firth said.
Philomath scored 33 points in the second quarter and led 40-3 at the half. On the team’s second touchdown, Russell hit Bushnell on the left sideline after a holding penalty had wiped out a long pass on the previous play. Bushnell caught the ball over his right shoulder and outsprinted the Cubs’ defense to paydirt.
Newport’s next possession ended in three plays. The Cubs’ quarterback in shotgun formation couldn’t handle the snap and Raab was in position to recover the fumble at the 7. Two plays later, Niemann scored untouched from five yards out.
The Cubs continued to struggle. Down 20-3 and needing something to happen to get back in the game, Newport had a three-and-out and avoided another turnover when De La Rosa nearly had an interception. But on fourth down, the snap sailed over the punter’s head and Philomath ended up with yet another short field at the 11-yard line.
On the next play, Philomath scored with Niemann taking a pass out of the backfield to the end zone. Raab’s extra point gave Philomath a 27-3 lead with 7:09 remaining in the half.
Later after the 90-yard TD by De La Rosa, Newport again had ball security issues with another fumble. On the play, senior Ethan Baley found daylight on a 15-yard run but Howard knocked the ball loose and after it bounced around on the ground for a few seconds, Jamin Peters recovered.
Newport’s final possession of the first half didn’t go any better. On third-and-8, Warriors senior Brady Russell had a tackle for loss and on fourth down, Newport again had snapping problems in punt formation and turned the ball over on downs with a 7-yard loss. Philomath had the ball at the 32 and chose to run out the clock with a pair of runs.
With a lead of more than 35 points at halftime, the game commenced in the second half with a running clock.
Early in the fourth, Philomath’s defense came up with another big play. With Newport in a third-and-8, Gonzalez-Bush broke through the protection and pressured the QB into a fumble. The ball bounced backward and freshman Cole Barron recovered for the Warriors.
The game started nearly on time after the Warriors arrived at Morrow Field later than expected with the team bus breaking down on Highway 20.
Philomath (1-0) will play its season opener against Milwaukie this coming Friday with a 7 p.m. kickoff at Clemens Field. A 5A school, the Mustangs had a Week 0 game and come into the PHS contest with a 1-1 record — a start that includes a 29-28 loss to Hidden Valley and 35-14 win over Putnam.
Philomath’s sparse numbers on the line means there is not a junior varsity team heading into the season. Firth said he’s going to attempt to get some nine-man games but added that those can be difficult to find.
