Eagle football remains in playoff chase despite loss

Coach Caleb Sperry’s team (2-5, 0-2) lost, 14-13, at Canby on Friday in a game that wasn’t decided until the final minute. Canby’s stingy defense slowed Hood River Valley’s running game and the host Cougars won the nail-biting Special District 1 contest. The game’s outcome remained in doubt until a Canby interception on a fourth-down play sealed the Cougar win with less than a half minute on the clock.

Canby (5-2 overall, 2-0 district, West Division) came into the contest ninth in the OSAA’s rankings. The Cougars overcame 11 penalties and an improving Eagle passing game. Canby, which dropped down from the 6A classification this season, never trailed in the game, which was tied 7-7 at halftime.

The Cougars took a 14-7 lead early in the fourth quarter, when Ethan Ensrud scored on an eight-yard run up the middle on a fourth-and-goal play. Seth Squire’s point-after kick later proved the difference.

Hood River (2-5, 0-2) answered on its next possession, as sophomore quarterback Davis Parr connected with sophomore Markeith Harris on a 29-yard catch and run which pulled the Eagles within a point. Coach Sperry elected to go for the lead vs. the potential tie (point-after kick) and Parr’s pass to Grady Williams on a fade route was overthrown in the right corner of the end zone. The two had connected earlier in the drive on a nifty outside-shoulder sideline throw for a 23-yard gain on a fourth-and-3 play.

“Oh, yes,” Sperry said when asked if he had second thoughts about going for the two-point conversion vs. try a point-after kick. “But we were on the road, had the momentum.”

In addition, the HRV coach had a close-up look of three more quarters of an improving Eagle passing game. Parr threw a season-high 30 passes, completing 16 of them for 197 yards, one TD and two interceptions. Canby often stacked eight and sometimes nine defenders at the line of scrimmage — depending on the number of HRV receivers — with the intent of stopping the Eagles’ talented backfield duo of Shaw Burns and Ethan Rivera. Burns finished with a season-low 46 yards on 16 carries, as Canby rarely gave the sturdy 175-pounder open lanes to run.

Hood River answered Canby’s 7-0 lead on a Parr 1-yard sneak 7:25 before halftime. The short TD run was set up by Rivera’s 68-yard reception which moved the ball to the Cougar 5. Frosh kicker Jerry Serrano added the point-after kick leaving the contest tied 7-7 at the half.

Canby quarterback Kellen Oliver finished 12-for-23 passing for 123 yards and an interception. Running back Tyler Konold led the Cougar ground game with nine carries for 76 yards in about a quarter of play. He left the game for good late in the first half after re-injuring his ankle; the previous injury had kept him out of the past three Canby games. The Cougars were visibly a better team with him on the field.

Hood River, already thin on roster numbers, was dealing with injuries of its own. Two-way player Toby Stintzi sat out because of concussion protocols. Burns, a linebacker on defense, was banged up and missed a couple of series. Harris, who had an interception to go along with his TD catch, had to eventually leave the game for good after he was injured.

Sperry, who has had to juggle his lineup most of the season, said his young team’s resiliency will be tested this week at Centennial (0-7, 0-2 district) and the following week when the Eagles play a cross-over game with potential state playoff ramifications.

The district playoff scenario calls for the top three teams in each District 1 division playing each other for state playoff spots. The winner of the Hood River-Centennial game will finish as the No. 3 seed on the East and will play at the No. 2 seed on the West (the loser of Thursday’s Wilsonville at Forest Grove contest). The cross-over games are scheduled for Oct. 28.

Canby plays at top-seeded Putnam on Friday for the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in the District 1 East division. Four District 1 teams automatically qualify for the Class 5A state playoffs which begin Nov. 4. A fifth team could qualify for the playoffs as an at-large team, based on final OSAA rankings.