Host Wilsonville beats Hood River football, 52-6

Hood River (2-3, 1-2) put together its best drive of the night after stopping the Wildcats on downs on the final play of the first quarter. The Eagles covered 52 yards in 10 plays, capped by quarterback Davis Parr’s three-yard touchdown pass to Toby Stintzi for HRV’s lone score midway through the second period. Parr lofted the ball toward the front corner of the right end zone and Stintzi caught the pass over the outstretched hand of a defender and tumbled backward over the goal line.

Wilsonville, which entered the game ninth in the OSAA rankings, responded with touchdowns on its subsequent two offensive possessions to pull in front 31-6 at halftime. The game moved to a running clock situation early in the third quarter after two more Wilsonville scores.

Wilsonville junior quarterback Kallen Gutridge was 6-for-6 passing in the second quarter, including connecting on all five of his attempts during the Wildcats’ response to HRV’s scoring drive. The 71-yard drive was capped by a Gutridge-to-Cooper Hiday 13-yard TD pass. Gutridge was 8-for-12 for 120 yards and three touchdowns in the deciding first half. He finished with four on the night. Running back Jacob Ogden ran for two scores.

Hood River’s leading rusher, Shaw Burns, left the game during the Eagles’ scoring drive after carrying the ball for a one-yard loss. Burns slowly walked to the sideline along with Eagle Coach Caleb Sperry and the senior linebacker did not return to action the remainder of the contest.

Hood River had trouble blocking Wilsonville’s slanting linemen and aggressive linebackers, who seemed to plug most of the running lanes. The Eagles did have success with counter plays and screens, which somewhat negated Wilsonville’s quickness.

Eagles seek rebound win against Putnam

Homecoming football games sometimes tend to be fickle affairs, with attention spans ebbing and flowing right along with the highs and lows of the various spirit week activities.

Hood River Valley can ill-afford to lose focus this week as it prepares for unbeaten Putnam in a key 5A Special District 1 game Friday at Henderson Stadium. Homecoming or not, the Kingsmen’s 5-0 record and No. 6 ranking should be enough to keep the Eagles on task as they prepare for the 7 p.m. kickoff. On the other hand, this is a young HRV team – an improving one, at that – but a young one, nevertheless.

That showed last week, when Hood River was outplayed on both sides of the ball at Wilsonville, where the Wildcats capitalized on most of the Eagles’ mistakes in a 52-6 (homecoming) win. Putnam is coming off a 34-28 league victory over Hillsboro (3-2), where the Kingsmen took a 28-7 lead before suffering two third-quarter turnovers that enabled the Spartans to eventually tie the game.

Putnam is seeking its first state playoff berth since 2012. The Kingsmen have an interior line, featuring three players weighing 300 pounds or more. The biggest of the bunch is 6-foot-7, 315-pound sophomore Jace Eveland. Junior running back Jaxson Doyle (nine rushing TDs) and senior quarterback Konnor Bickford (67 percent completion rate, six TDs) are the main beneficiaries of Putnam’s bulk up front.

Not to be overlooked, Putnam has been aided by a favorable schedule, as the Kingsmen’s opponents have a combined 7-18 record, and all but Hillsboro are playing at the Class 4A level this fall.