By James Day
This is shaping up as a special season for the Silverton High School football team.
The Foxes defeated West Albany 28-21 on Sept. 28 and downed Lebanon 28-6 on Oct. 5 to move to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the Mid-Willamette Conference. Silverton is ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press Class 5A poll behind Sherwood, and the Foxes top the OSAA’s RPI list. Silverton hosted Woodburn Oct. 11 after Our Town’s presstime and has a potential showdown for the league title Oct. 19 at Crescent Valley.
The Foxes got a huge boost from the win against perennial Mid-Willamette power West Albany played before an overflow crowd at McGinnis Field.
“That was a slugfest,” said Foxes coach John Mannion. “It was kind of an ugly win, but the kids kept fighting and competing. It was a good team win, but we have a lot to improve on. We’re glad to come out of the game standing up at the end.”
Silverton stormed out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead on a 32-yard scramble by sophomore quarterback Cole Chandler and a 27-yard fourth-down touchdown pass from Chandler to senior wide receiver Preston Kirk, who used a great cutback move to elude the Bulldogs’ defenders.
The Foxes took over at midfield with 18.7 seconds after an interception and nifty return by Cort Martin. First, Chandler connected with Kirk on a 27-yard pass to the Bulldogs’ 23. It was Chandler to Kirk on the next play as well, with the 6-1, 175-pound Kirk hauling in a TD pass in the back of the end zone with 3.7 seconds left.
“Preston is fast and the fade pattern was working well,” said Chandler, who passed for 166 yards and rushed for 56 more.
The Foxes needed every bit of that 21-7 halftime cushion as the Bulldogs rallied behind LaCoste. Silverton’s defense contained him pretty well as 27 of his carries went for 5 yards or less.
“Our defense was awesome,” said Silverton assistant coach Grant Piros. “They did just what we asked them to do. It’s so easy to coach them.”
West Albany cut the lead to 21-14 with 10:27 left in the third quarter on a 23-yard scoring pass from Cody Lahoda to Brendan Breslin. But the Foxes built the lead back to 14 on a quick-hitting 57-yard run up the middle by Chris Garcia. Garcia was a tower of strength for Silverton, rushing for 153 yards on 31 carries and helping keep LaCoste in check from his right-side linebacker position.
“I’m so happy right now,” said Chandler amid the boisterous post-game celebration on the field. “All week we’ve been working hard for this one. The defense held LaCoste and did a great job. I’m really impressed with them.”
Kennedy football opened its Tri-River Conference with a 48-0 win vs. Santiam. Kennedy was 2-3 and 1-0 in the Tri-River heading into Friday’s game at Regis.
Kennedy volleyball team is continuing its impressive run. Kennedy was 11-0 heading in to their Oct. 10 showdown match at 10-1 Culver. The Trojans scored a 3-0 win against the Bulldogs when the teams met Sept. 18.
Kennedy cross country: The girls team took fourth and the boys fifth at the Regis Invitational. Junior Dalton Susee finished fourth in 16:53.5 for the boys and sophomore Lauren Stokley was 11th for the girls in 21:26.0.
