The Philomath High School football team took first place out of a 12-school field last weekend at the third annual Dayton Small School Passing Tournament.
The Warriors defeated Amity in the championship game at the event, which featured schools ranging in size from 2A to 4A. Kennedy placed third and in the consolation bracket’s finale, North Marion beat Salem Academy.
PHS coach Alex Firth said PHS finished 8-0 at the tournament and won the championship game by three or four touchdowns.
“It’s a good opportunity not just for the starters but to get some of the young kids in,” Firth said. “We were able to get in a lot of the sophomore kids to play, so I think it helps you in that sense.”
Philomath took 14 athletes to the event.
“It’s a 16-minute game and the rules are pretty simple,” Firth said. “Quarterbacks have 4 seconds to throw the ball, there’s no running, there’s no blitzing. It’s just five receivers and basically seven defenders.”
Points are awarded for touchdowns, interceptions, turning the ball over on downs and PATs — teams can either kick for one point from 5 yards or attempt a two-point conversion from 10 yards.
Firth believes Philomath has an exceptional group of skill position players for this fall.
“It’s saying a lot considering some of the kids that I’ve had but depth-wise, it’s probably the best group I’ve ever had,” he said.
Caleb Russell, who will be a senior this fall, played quarterback throughout the tournament.
The Warriors are coming off a 5-4 season in 2023 and just missed qualifying for a 4A play-in game. Firth has a 14-14 record with one playoff berth through three seasons leading the program.
Also this summer, the Warriors participated in late June in a passing tournament at the University of Oregon’s Autzen Stadium. Firth couldn’t recall for sure but he believes the team ended up going 3-5 in a field that included mostly 6A schools.
“It was fun going down there and playing at their facilities, which are unbelievably impressive,” Firth said. “We were one of the smaller schools at that one but it’s fun to see if you can complete. I was actually super nervous going into it thinking we’re going to get destroyed by some of these teams but talent-wise, we held our own.”
Firth said that overall, summer workouts have been going pretty well.
“We can’t make kids show up but there’s been a really good commitment from a core of about 10 to 12 kids that show up on a consistent basis,” he said. “I think it shows in the passing league that we’re able to run our concepts and the kids all know what’s going on. We’re light years from where we’ve been in past seasons in terms of some of this stuff conceptually.”
Firth said Philomath plans to play Corvallis High on July 24 for an informal 7-on-7 session.
