STAYTON — Down 21-14 on Friday night with time running out in the first half, Philomath needed a big play to head into halftime on a positive note in its season opener at Stayton.
Quarterback AJ Altishin and the Warriors went into their two-minute drill and on the possession’s first play, wideout Rocco De La Rosa made his way downfield on a deep out route with hopes of moving the chains.
Gallery: PHS football at Stayton (Aug. 29, 2025)
A collection of photos from Philomath High School’s 52-27 football loss at Stayton on Friday.
“I was going to go out and then the corner was just sitting like 12 yards where I was going to be, so I just broke it back in,” De La Rosa said about the play. “Thankfully, AJ saw me and trusted it, threw it up and let me do my thing.”
De La Rosa outjumped three defenders for a clean catch, made a move to his right and sprinted to the end zone for an 80-yard touchdown with 44 seconds left in the half. The game was tied, 21-21, at the break.
“That’s what I keep telling AJ — ‘just throw it up to them and they’ll go get it,’” PHS coach Alex Firth said about the receiving corps. “He just popped up, picked it off and he was gone. He’s a good athlete, just really fluid.”
Despite the fireworks toward the end of the first half, Warrior mistakes combined with the opponent’s effective running game and a higher-than-usual number of PHS players going down with cramping led to a 52-27 win for the home-field Eagles.
“The mistakes piled up and frankly, we just had guys cramping, guys were hurt, and we started losing bodies,” Firth said. “It was one of those things with the guys we have playing both ways. It’s a numbers game, you know, and we ran out of gas basically is what it came down to.”
De La Rosa was the star of the game for the Warriors with three catches for 138 yards and a touchdown and five rushing attempts for 87 yards and a touchdown. He even threw a 27-yard TD strike to Nuño.
Philomath opened the game in thrilling fashion by scoring on its first play from scrimmage. De La Rosa took a pitch on a play to the left and made it to the end zone on a 61-yard jaunt.
“It’s a hard play because they catch the ball outside the tackle box, so if a team leverages inside, it’s really hard to defend,” Firth said. “We did it two or three times and I think we had good success on all of them.”
After the Eagles took a 14-6 lead, Philomath tied the score with 7:21 left in the second quarter on De La Rosa’s TD pass to Nuño, who made the catch at about the 1-yard line and stepped into the end zone.
Firth said it’s obvious that there are things the team needs to work on before going up against Newport this coming Friday. He felt Altishin performed well in his first varsity start.
“AJ threw some really nice balls — I mean, we’ve got dudes that can catch footballs and run,” Firth said. “We’ve just got to figure out ways to get them the ball, maybe in better situations, and let them do what they can do.”
De La Rosa and Nuño, both seniors, give Philomath a dangerous 1-2 punch from those wideout spots and junior Kaden Howard is coming into his own as a third receiver option.
In the second half, Stayton scored on its opening drive, recovered a Philomath fumble and then added another TD to seize momentum at 35-21. The Warriors could never get much going the rest of the way except for Howard’s 83-yard catch-and-run TD down the left sideline with 11:30 left in the game.
“We’ve just got to go back and look at the film and see where we have to maybe do something a little different or just try to figure out schematically if anything’s broken,” Firth said.
Despite the final score, Philomath outgained Stayton in total yards, 426-418. The Warriors did most of their damage through the air to the tune of nearly 300 yards. Altishin finished 11 for 25 for 265 yards and one interception. The run game produced 134 yards, nearly half of that total coming on the game’s first play. Senior Lake Mulberry saw some success with 47 yards on eight carries.
Stayton’s run game, however, was at a different level. The Eagles racked up 361 yards on the ground with junior Wyatt Kerrigan leading the way with 203 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown. Senior Wyatt Fred had 16 carries for 89 yards and three TDs. Junior Hunter Mollerstrom added 85 yards on 10 carries with a touchdown.
Philomath will make its Clemens Field debut Friday with a clash against Newport, which will be playing its first game. Last season, the Warriors won handily on the road, 46-10.
“We struggled a little bit with their option so we’re going to have to address that,” Firth said, “but I think that we’ll deal with it.”
The kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 29, at Stayton HS
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philomath (0-1) | 6 | 15 | 0 | 6 | 27 |
| Stayton (1-0) | 7 | 14 | 14 | 17 | 52 |
| Team Statistics | PHS | SHS |
|---|---|---|
| First Downs | 12 | 22 |
| Total Net Yards | 426 | 418 |
| Rushes-Yards | 17-134 | 54-361 |
| Passing | 292 | 57 |
| Punt Returns | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Kickoff Returns | 4-40 | 3-32 |
| Interception Ret. | 0-0 | 1-35 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 12-27-1 | 3-10-0 |
| Punts | 1-24.0 | 3-33.7 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 3-3 | 3-0 |
| Penalties-Yards | 8-39 | 7-70 |
