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Titans clinch top seed A short-handed West Salem Titan squad still posted a decisive victory Friday night, giving them the top seed in the Oregon 6A football playoffs, and guaranteeing at least a Central Valley Conference football co-championship. West Salem 24, McKay 0 West Salem was without its starting quarterback, its top receiver and a starting linebacker--and also had two key players on the field with broken bones. But the fourth ranked Titans displayed their depth in grinding out a 24-0 victory at home against McKay. West opened the game with a promising start, driving to the McKay 21 on their opening possession before back up fullback Alex Fox fumbled, and the Scots recovered on their own 22. McKay then began a time-consuming drive that stalled at the West 30 yard line, when Scots fullback Solomon Frank was stopped short of the sticks on fourth down with just over two minutes left in the quarter. Another West drive stalled near midfield, but a punt by the Titan's Ryan Allen pinned the Scots back inside their own 15 yard line, setting up the first score of the game, when Cole Mahaffey's punt was blocked by West's Landon Kuenzi, who picked it up on one bounce and ran in five yards for the score to make it 7-0. It was the only score of the first half for either side. The Titans did have opportunities, but were stopped on a fourth down running attempt, and had a field goal attempt by Allen partially blocked.
McKay had to play catch up the entire second half, using a still developing passing attack. Brewer was intercepted four times in the game, and the Scots also fumbled the ball away once.
West (5-0 in CVC play) has next Friday off with a bye, before wrapping up conference play at McNary. McKay (2-3) will host Redmond. McNary 32, North Salem 14 The Celtics won a sloppy game to snap a three game losing skid and stay in the hunt for a CVC playoff spot. Neither team could score in the first quarter, but McNary got on the board first on a five play 44 yard drive punctuated by Sam Wilkerson's 14 yard TD run to make it 7-0 Celtics. Zack Brown pushed the McNary lead to 10-0 when he hit a 35 yard field goal following a Viking fumble at their own 20 yard line. That was the score at halftime.
On the ensuing free kick by North, McNary started with great field position near midfielding, driving 52 yards to make it 19-0 on a two yard TD run by Wilkerson. North finally got on the board late in the third quarter on a Juan Benevidez TD run of five yards. McNary helped the Viking cause with a pair of personal foul penalties for hits on North quarterback Casey Reyes. The Vikings made it interesting early in the fourth quarter when Corbin Garner picked off a Grant Kessel pass and returned it 67 yards for a TD. Manzo's extra point narrowed the North deficit to 19-14. It was a close as the Vikings would get. Turnovers plagued North all night--and Scott Stoddard's interception of a pitch from Reyes to Benevidez was the biggest blow. Stoddard wasn't tackled until he reached the North three yard line, and Wilkerson scored his third TD of the night a few plays later to make it 26-14. The Celtics added one more score on a 13 yard run by Wilkerson for the final margin of victory.
McNary (2-2 in Central Valley action) will face South Salem next Friday, while North hosts Sprague. Redmond 35, Sprague 21 The host Panthers tightened their grip on the second playoff berth from the Central Valley Conference with a home win over the Olympians.
The Olympians cut the margin to 21-14 early in the third quarter when Knifin ran it in from three yards out.
Sprague reduced the deficit back to seven when Kniffin hit Jordan Dohman with 16 yard TD pass of his own to make it 28-21. The Olys got the ball back with three minutes left in the game, but turned the ball over on downs. Redmond ended the scoring with a 22 yard TD pass from Johnson to Guthrie. Redmond (3-1 in CVC play) will play at McKay next week, while Sprague (1-3) travels to North Salem. Oregon City 19, South Salem 3 South Salem got out to the early 3-0 lead over the host Pioneers, but were shutout the rest of the way due to a combination of inopportunistic penalties and failure to convert on third and fourth down in Oregon City territory. Oregon City led 13-3 at half, thanks to a one yard touchdown run by Ryan Versoza and 15 yard run by Justin Gates. Mitch Wagner added a 37 yard TD run in the third quarter as neither team scored in the fourth.
South (2-2 in the CVC) returns to conference play next Friday with a key game at home against McNary.
Of note Members of McNary's 1997 State Championship football team were honored at halftime of the Celtics game against North Salem on Friday night. The team, coached by Tom Smythe, finished the '97 season with a perfect 14-0 record, including a 51-48 win over Beaverton in the championship game played at Portland's Civic Stadium (now PGE Park). Nick Calaycay (jacket pictured) kicked the winning 22 yard field goal with 22 seconds left in the ball game.
GAME PHOTOS BY JOE GOTTSCH (WEST-MCKAY), JAYNE ONCEA (REDMOND-SPRAGUE) AND NISHA STRAUCH (MCNARY-NORTH)
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In the second half, the Titans made some personnel adjustments, back up quarterback Jordan Jenkins moved back to his normal tailback slot, and freshman QB Brett Smith was inserted as the signal caller.
Smith calmly engineered a opening drive covering 78 yards, and threw a seven yard TD pass to receiver Bret Weisbrodt. Allen's extra point was blocked, but West extended their lead to 13-0.
The Titans got the ball back less than two minutes later when they intercepted a John Brewer pass at their own 15 yard line and made the Scots pay on the very next play. Jenkins burst through the middle of the McKay defense and outraced the secondary for an 85 yard TD run. Smith threw to Weisbrodt for two point conversion to make it 21-0 with 4:06 remaining in the third quarter. Allen added a 32 yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring. 
Smith finished the game 7 of 8 for 70 yards and the touchdown to Weisbrodt. Jenkins topped the West rushing attack with 166 yards on 14 carries. For McKay, Tony Gonzales went over a thousand yards rushing on the year with 114 yards on 28 carries--but had no run longer than 17 yards.
The Celtics extended the advantage in the third quarter to 12-0 when North punter Jesse Manzo, forced to punt at the back of his end zone, mishandled the snap and was tackled for a safety. 
Steven Rodriguez topped the McNary rushing attack with 123 yards on 20 carrries, while Wilkerson had 111 yards on 23 carries and 4 TDs. The McNary defense limited North to a total of 80 yards in total offense.
The was tied 7-7 after the first quarter. Redmond got on the board first with a six yard pass from the CVC's leading passer--Cody Johnson to Clayton York. Sprague responded with its first TD pass of the season, as quarterback Adam Kniffin hooked up with tight end Colin Casad on a 25 yard strike.
Redmond scored 14 unanswered points in the second quarter. Panther running back Ty Nordstrom capped off an extended scoring drive with a six yard TD run, then the Redmond defense came up with a score, as Christian Arsenault recovered a Sprague fumble and ran 78 yards for a TD to make it 21-7 at half.
But Redmond responded with a drive of their own, culminating with a 16 yard pass from Johnson to Bo Guthrie to make it 28-14 Panthers.
South Salem quarterback Jonathan Sigado threw for 176 yards on 18 of 34 passing. Receiver Dominic David had another stellar game for the Saxons with six receptions and 103 yards in the loss.
