By James Day
The Silverton High football team has picked up just where it left off last season. The Foxes are 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the Mid-Willamette Conference heading into Friday night’s showdown at West Albany after Our Town’s presstime. And Silverton is once again doing it with defense. The Foxes have only allowed four touchdowns in the four games and have outscored their opponents 170-27.
Our Town was on hand for Silverton’s 38-7 win Sept. 13 against Dallas at McGinnis Field. The game was tied 7-7 at halftime, but Foxes senior Cort Martin returned the second-half kickoff 81 yards for a touchdowns and Silverton rolled from there via a barrage of big plays. Max Wilson ripped off an 82-yard touchdown run and Wyatt Arrington ran an interception 52 yards to the Dragons’
3-yard line to set up another score. The Foxes led 31-7 at the end of the third quarter and cruised from there.
The key to the victory, though, was the kickoff return by Martin, who called off a teammate to grab the low, bouncing kick, cut to his right and outran the Dragons to the end zone.
“That was just good blocking, I couldn’t have asked for better blocking,” said Martin. “As coach said, that was a dagger.”
“That was a great individual effort,” said Silverton Coach John Mannion. “It gave us the lead, it energized us and gave us the momentum.”
“We got tons of energy from that (kickoff return) and then we just hammered ‘em,” said two-way lineman Matthew Willis. “Things worked out just fine.”
The Foxes took down host Corvallis 56-13 on Sept. 20, rushing for 450 yards and scoring 14 points in each of the four quarters. Wilson, Mathis Kuenzi and Sam Kuschnick each scored two touchdowns and quarterback Cole Chandler passed for two scores.
The West Albany game might determine the Mid-Willamette title. The two teams met twice last season, both times in Silverton. The Foxes won the regular-season game 28-21 and took a 35-6 win against the Bulldogs in the OSAA Class 5A quarterfinals. The Bulldogs are 3-1 this year, with the lone loss to defending state champion Sherwood. Our Town will be on hand at the game. Look for game highlights, stats and quotes after the game on Twitter @jameshday plus more in the Oct. 15 Our Town.
Cross country: Silverton and Kennedy both turned in fine performances at the Sept. 11 Silver Falls/Oktoberfest Invitational on the “Monster” course at Silver Falls State Park. Maddie Fuhrman of the Foxes was the overall girls winner, running the 5.2K in 24:09.4, 81 seconds ahead of the runner-up. Our Town was stationed at the top of the punishing “Monster” hill and when Fuhrman ran by … it just took a long time for any other runners to show up. Lauren Stokley of Kennedy won the small-school girls race in 26:30.9. Silverton won team titles in boys varsity, boys junior varsity and girls junior varsity, while finishing third in girls varsity. Silverton’s Jonathan Sisley took second among large-school runners and third overall in 20:41.1. Dalton Susee (21:48.2) and Noe Jines (22:52.2) took sixth and ninth in the small-school boys for Kennedy.
OSU football: Oregon State quarterback Sean Mannion has helped lead the Beavers to a 3-1 start. The 6-5, 220-pound junior was selected Pac-12 Conference player of the week and also won the weekly Manning award for his performance in OSU’s 51-48 overtime win Sept. 14 at Utah. Mannion has completed 71.5 percent of his passes for 1,604 yards and 15 touchdowns. The Beavers hosted Colorado on Saturday after Our Town’s presstime. Sean Mannion is the son of Foxes coach John Mannion.
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