Senior quarterback Caleb Russell put on a passing clinic Friday night at Clemens Field in Philomath High’s 56-0 rout over The Dalles, a performance that included 375 yards through the air with a school record seven touchdown passes.
Russell threw TD passes to five different receivers — two each to senior Hudson Raab and junior CD Nuno. Senior Warwick Bushnell, junior Rocco De La Rosa and senior Grant Niemann also found the end zone on receptions.
Gallery: PHS football vs. The Dalles (Sept. 27, 2024)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s 56-0 football victory over The Dalles at Clemens Field on Friday.
“Boy, he was finding guys, I mean, he was really accurate with the ball today,” PHS coach Alex Firth said. “We had a couple of drops and we had one called back for an illegal formation but other than that, we were dialed in in terms of pass and catch.”
Russell etched his name in the record books with the performance. Not only did Russell set a new school record but he tied the all-time record for most TDs thrown in a game among schools in Philomath’s classification (3A until 2006 and 4A since). In fact, counting all classifications, Russell is just the 29th quarterback in Oregon high school history to throw seven or more TDs in a game (the record belongs to Crescent Valley QB Rocco McClave, who threw 10 TDs in a 2022 game vs. Dallas).
“I think every single one of them had a touchdown, I mean, I could just pick whoever,” Russell said about his receiving corps. “Just give them the ball in space and they’re going to run. … They’re all amazing — I can throw it to any one of them.”
Nuno had six receptions for 127 yards with a pair of TDs in the second quarter — both scores coming on catches over the middle. On the second one, he showed a flash of his exceptional athleticism when he made a nice grab and survived a wicked hit from the defender on his way to the end zone.
“Props to the other guys … it’s not just the receivers and the quarterback but definitely the offensive linemen and the other receivers blocking for me,” Nuno said. “It’s all for each other.”
In the first quarter, Raab caught a 27-yard TD over the middle and then danced down the left sideline all the way to paydirt. Niemann’s touchdown catch came early in the second quarter on a third-and-goal play from the 7. De La Rosa scored midway through the second when he went in motion right to left, outran coverage down the sideline and caught a ball for a play that covered 40 yards.
The longest play of the evening followed a few minutes later when Russell connected with Bushnell on a 75-yard TD down the left sideline. The seventh touchdown pass came on the team’s first series of the second half with a 15-yard toss to Raab.
“Like I’ve said, you can’t just take one guy away,” Firth said. “Teams that have one dominant receiver, other teams will scheme them away — you can’t scheme four kids away. You can try but at some point you’re going to get exposed because either someone’s going to mess up or we’re just going to beat the coverage.”
Against the Riverhawks, that’s pretty much the story. The Dalles just couldn’t cover Philomath’s receivers.
“We caught them in man coverage a couple of times, we caught them without a safety once,” Firth said. “It’s just stuff like that — basically the matchups that we can create with those receivers.”
Russell’s evening was remarkable in terms of the statistics. By halftime, he already had 360 yards passing with six touchdowns. And at the end of the evening — he exited early in the second half — Russell had completed 18-of-27 passes for those 375 yards with no interceptions.
“We got stopped on our first possession but we started clicking heading into the second quarter,” said Russell, who has played QB ever since he was introduced the sport as a youngster. “It was the wide receivers and the line was doing great again. I just kind of laid it up for them and they ran for touchdowns.”
Both Russell and Nuno mentioned the efforts of the offensive line — a particular unit on the team they’ve heaped praise on in previous victories.
“We have a great offensive line this year and the receivers — we’re taking care of it — but the quarterback, he’s getting it to us all the time,” Nuno said.
Firth said it took Philomath a while to break down The Dalles defense. The Warriors went three-and-out on their first series and turned the ball over on downs later in the period.
“We pretty much did our standard starting off a little slow,” Firth said. “We had to feel out their defense a little bit and see what they’re doing. They were dropping seven in coverage and it took us a little bit to adjust to it.”
Philomath scored 35 points in the second quarter alone, including 21 in the final 4 minutes.
With the mercy rule kicking in, the game clock continued to run in the second half. The Warriors still added two more touchdowns in the third — Russell’s final TD throw to Raab and then junior Lake Mulberry’s eight-yard run late in the quarter.
With all of the success passing, the Warriors haven’t produced much on the ground so far this season. Philomath ran for 42 yards against the Riverhawks and most of that came in the second half when the Warriors pumped the brakes on their offense with a game that was well out of hand. Firth admitted that the team’s unbalanced offense does create concern.
“That worries me a lot — that’s what we really need to work on, especially as the weather starts to get bad,” Firth said about the running game. “Especially a close game, when you need to grind something out, you need to be able to run the ball. So yeah, we need to work on that.”
Besides all of the offensive fireworks, Philomath’s defense also came up big to post its second shutout this season. The Warriors had some big hits and finished with four takeaways — fumble recoveries by junior Josiah Peters, senior Brady Russell and De La Rosa — and an interception by sophomore Kaden Howard on the final play of the first half.
The Dalles offense couldn’t do much all evening with only 65 total yards — zero rushing — and two first downs.
Early on, Brady Russell had a tackle for loss for the first play from scrimmage for the visitors. Late in the opening quarter, sophomore Chase Leslie laid out the Riverhawks’ running back to force the fumble recovered by Peters.
On the first possession of the second quarter for The Dalles, the Warriors forced a three-and-out. Junior Tiernan Bovbjerg had a QB hurry on a second down play and then Niemann and company stuffed the running back on third down to force a punt. Late in the first half as The Dalles tried to get something going, sophomore Gavin Bennett had a key knockdown on a first-down pass attempt.
Russell added a QB hurry to his evening early in the third quarter and sophomore Bryce Hruska broke up two passes early in the fourth. Also in the fourth, senior Mitchell Berklund nearly came up with an interception. On the Riverhawks’ final possession, Bovbjerg had a TFL.
Philomath ended up with 417 yards of total offense, converted on 7 of 10 third down plays and averaged 9.5 yards per play — an astounding average.
“It’s definitely about saying positive, you know, when we all lift each other up,” Nuno said when asked how this team clicks. “Like on the first drive, we got stopped but it doesn’t matter, it’s just next play, best play — that’s what we all believe in.”
The 56 points was the most Philomath has scored in a game since a 67-18 win at Yamhill-Carlton in 2015.
Philomath will now face Sweet Home on the road at 7 p.m. Friday. The Huskies got off to a 3-0 start with wins over Madras, Molalla and Milwaukie but stumbled this week at home to North Bend, 20-12. Philomath defeated North Bend, 43-20, on Sept. 20.
“They’re a good team, they’ve improved dramatically,” Firth said. “Our league is incredibly tough this year so it gets significantly tougher at this point, I mean, exponentially.”
