EUGENE — Playing at Marist Catholic in an Emerald League showdown on Halloween night, Philomath High’s football team came from behind to post a 14-13 victory.
Bill Shiell broke loose on a 29-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and Tim Vincent scored on a 60-yard interception return in the fourth quarter for the Warriors. Down 13-12 with three minutes remaining, Philomath took the lead on a two-point conversion pass from Kelly Howard to Mark Pittman.
Gallery: PHS football at Marist Catholic (Oct. 24, 2025)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s 49-0 football loss at Marist Catholic in Eugene on Friday.
The year was 1975 — and the Warriors haven’t beaten Marist since. Granted, the two schools have played only a handful of times through the decades but the Spartans have dominated over the last four meetings, winning each game by an average of 39 points.
“I don’t know if we have to kill a rubber chicken at the 50 or what,” PHS coach Alex Firth said when asked about Marist’s dominance in the series.
Oh, and for those who don’t get the reference, it comes from “Bull Durham,” a baseball movie from the late 1980s that included a scene of players turning to superstitions and rituals to try to break a losing streak.
The Warriors got into an early hole Friday night in Eugene but unlike their predecessors from a half-century ago, there would be no comeback. The Spartans were strong in every facet of the game and rolled to a 49-0 win.
“Offensively, we had zero rhythm — I mean, no rhythm at all,” Firth said after a postgame chat with his team. “There was nothing, we just sputtered. We just kind of self-immolated … That’s on me and I’ve got to go back and look and see what we’re doing and if there are things we can fix.”
Firth needs a quick fix because a good Sweet Home team will visit Clemens Field next week for the regular-season finale.
“We’ve got to get the mojo back … find our feet again and figure out what we need to do to improve,” Firth said.
Sweet Home has one of its better football teams in several years with a 6-2 record. The Huskies beat Marist Catholic earlier this month, 27-20, and posted a 48-7 rout over Cottage Grove on Friday night.
Against the Spartans, Philomath could not find its footing all evening, trailing 28-0 at halftime. The Eugene school scored its first touchdown on a fourth-and-15 pass from quarterback Elijah Martin to a wide-open Gabe Dietmeyer in the end zone — a moment that would be indicative of how things were going to turn out.
“Obviously we had some breakdowns defensively in the secondary that cost us,” Firth said. “We didn’t really do great in long yardage situations. We would have them in third-and-long and give up a big play, they’d get first downs and keep the drive alive. So we’ve got to do a better job in those long-distance situations.”
Six of the team’s seven touchdowns came on pass plays — four of them by 29 yards or longer. Dietmeyer reached the end zone three times and Martin completed 19 of 28 for 296 yards and four TDs.
“I don’t know if it was coverage confusion or they were just doing a good job of anticipating our coverage and running routes against it with deeper coverage,” Firth said. “We’ll have to look at it. … They were setting stuff up, you could see it coming. They’re well coached.”
Other than limited success on a few quick screens and a couple of other random plays, Marist kept Philomath’s standout receivers, CD Nuño and Rocco De La Rosa, in check all evening. Nuño had six catches for 52 yards while De La Rosa picked up 20 yards on three carries out of the backfield.
De La Rosa also had a 44-yard kickoff return after Marist had scored on its game-opening drive.
“They kicked the first one to him and he almost housed it,” Firth said. “So he’s not going to see a ball again the rest of the season.”
Starting the possession at the Marist 25, Philomath was not able to do anything with the field position and ended up turning the ball over on downs.
As far as positives, Philomath did a decent job in the first half at stopping Marist’s ground game. Spartans junior Conner Harvey had just 34 yards on 12 carries at the break.
“I thought we did a pretty good job against the run game, which is kind of something that we emphasized during the week,” Firth said.
In the second half with the game out of hand, Harvey added 92 yards to his total and finished with 126 yards on 23 carries.
All told, Marist finished with 484 yards of total offense to Philomath’s 111. The Warriors managed just five first downs in the game and turned the ball over three times on interceptions.
Individually, Philomath junior lineman Jamin Peters picked up a highlight reel moment when he caught a pass after the ball had been deflected at the line of scrimmage.
“My guy blocked the pass and the ball landed in my hands,” Peters said. “I didn’t even see the ball — it just landed in my hands and I started running.”
Peters didn’t get very far and in fact, the play was a 1-yard loss. But it was still a special moment as big No. 60 was able to find out what it’s like to carry the football.
“It felt great — it was about time,” Peters said.
Marist Catholic 49, Philomath 0
Friday, Oct. 24, at Kevin Teller Field, Marist Catholic HS, Eugene
Team 1 2 3 4 F Philomath (5-3, 2-2) 0 0 0 0 0 Marist Catholic (4-4, 3-1) 14 14 7 14 49
First Quarter
MC — Dietmeyer 35 pass from Martin (Fitzpatrick kick), 8:27
MC — Hazen 49 pass from Martin (Fitzpatrick kick), 3:21
Second Quarter
MC — Skinner 5 pass from Buzzard (Fitzpatrick kick), 3:54
MC — Dietmeyer 31 pass from Martin (Fitzpatrick kick), 0:45
Third Quarter
MC — Dietmeyer 8 pass from Martin (Fitzpatrick kick), 3:10
Fourth Quarter
MC — Harvey 5 run (Fitzpatrick kick), 7:58
MC — King 29 pass from No. 7 (Fitzpatrick kick), 1:27
Category PHS MC First Downs 5 20 Total Net Yards 111 484 Rushes-Yards 13-47 25-136 Passing 64 348 Punt Returns 0-0 2-3 Kickoff Returns 6-62 1-20 Interception Ret. 0-0 3-22 Comp-Att-Int 10-23-3 22-31-0 Punts 4-35.8 2-47.0 Fumbles-Lost 1-0 1-0 Penalties-Yards 3-22 5-30
Individual Statistics
RUSHING—Philomath, De La Rosa 3-20, Bennett 5-17, Bennett 1-6, Altishin 1-5, Nuño 1-1, Grapoli 1-1, Howard 1-(-3). Marist Catholic, Harvey 23-126, Rossow 2-10.
PASSING—Philomath, Altishin 10-20-3-69, Iverson 0-2-0-(-5), De La Rosa 0-1-0-0. Marist Catholic, Martin 19-28-0-296, No. 7 2-2-0-47, Buzzard 1-1-0-5.
RECEIVING—Philomath, Nuño 6-52, Jo. Peters 2-18, Howard 1-0, Ja. Peters 1-(-1), Grapoli 1-(-5). Marist Catholic, Dietmeyer 6-108, Giustina 5-27, Hazen 4-113, Skinner 3-29, Harvey 3-3, King 2-47, Drennan 1-20.
