Category: 4A Sports
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Week One Football Notebook
Week one is always rough for predictions and preseason top-10 lists, and this year was no exception. However, some of the performances, both individual and team, were truly noteworthy. Here is what the film shows:
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4A Football Preview
Last fall, after being flush with a level of talent not seen in the modern era, 4A has an uncertain pecking order going into the 2022 season. Virtually the entire all-state team from last fall graduated, but do not take that to mean 4A is in a slump–there is plenty of talent to go around,…
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Westside Walk-Off: West Takes Down East in First-Ever Overtime Shrine Game
The game lived up to the hype, and then some. You can ask us for a game MVP, but we are not sure we could give you one. The game plan that we thought could give the West a chance worked wonders. Gunner Yates was allowed no significant lanes to run through, and as a…
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2022 East-West Shrine Game Preview
It’s Shrine Time. It’s East vs. West, all for the Shriners Hospital. It’s Gladstone vs. La Grande, Rainier vs. Vale, and Coquille vs. Heppner. A conglomeration of all the most high-profile matchups of the last four years culminating in this one charity event. Each year, the Shrine game takes shape as the closing act, the…
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Looking Ahead: Future Football Championship Matchups
Predictions of week-to-week matchups can be pretty easy. Once information is widely available and head-to-head matchups have reached a certain point, a week’s worth of triangulation and predictions can be made in as short as a half an hour. Even making predictions at the start of a season about who will play in the championship…
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Hits and Misses: Boys Basketball
Our process for projecting how things will shake out in various sports is complex and varies by season and year, and it is ultimately scrutinized internally and refined to produce better results next time around. This process churns out, on balance, more accurate predictions than faulty ones. Usually, we keep this hand wringing in-house, but…
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Hits and Misses: Football
Our process for projecting how things will shake out in various sports is complex and varies by season and year, and it is scrutinized internally and refined to produce better results next time around. This process churns out, on balance, more accurate predictions than faulty ones. Usually, we keep this hand wringing in-house, but in…
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Philomath–Finally–Reaches the Mountaintop, Wins First State Title since 2000
Two years to the day that Philomath’s best shot at an official state title in girls basketball was stripped away by COVID-19 and the cancellation of the 2020 4A state tournament, they finally did it. Sage Kramer and Abigail Brown, then sophomores, led the way in a Philomath effort tonight that had the energy and…
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Cascade Routs Junction City in Second Half, Wins First State Title Since 1974
Junction City came out as the stronger, more confident, more energized team. They scrapped their way into an early lead, and they even dominated in spurts. The Tigers were taking better shots, playing better defense, and were more organized in the first quarter. They were doing what they had to: being physical in the paint…
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Coos Bay Cliff Notes: Day Two
#1 Junction City 43 #4 Seaside 35 This was quintessential Junction City basketball. Seaside did what they could to speed up the SkyEm champions, but without a significant turnover differential in their favor, and losing the rebound battle straight up, this effort was not going to be fruitful. Trying to beat Junction City at their…
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Coos Bay Cliff Notes: Day One
Junction City 58 Baker 47 Baker started hot, even at one point being up 13-3 on the top-seeded Tigers, but once the Bulldogs jumped out of their 1-3-1 zone in favor of a man-to-man look, Junction City found a rhythm. Junction City smothered the boards and never gave into the Baker pressure. The efficiency of…
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Rapid Reaction: Montiel and Company Contain Corbett, Clinch Tournament Berth
We thought it would be close going into the 4th, then Marshfield would pull away; it only took until the middle of the 3rd. Here is what we saw: The margin does not represent how much of a lopsided affair this was. Marshfield dominated from the tip, even if the scoreboard did not show it…
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Rapid Reaction: Montiel Shines as Pirates Silence Tiger Dome, Win SkyEm Title
This game had far and away the best atmosphere we have experienced since COVID hit. The energy in the crowd lived up to the hype, as did the game on the floor. Here’s what we saw: First and foremost, Junction City is the leader in the clubhouse for the “student section of the year” award.…
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Rapid Reaction: Braves beat Warriors at their own game, win on the road 57-45
It’s been a while since we put an article out. Hopefully not too rusty. The biggest question coming into the night was: can Philomath contain Cooper Gobel? The answer turned out to be yes (generally), but that ended up being an afterthought. Here’s what we saw: There are two ways to attack Philomath: speed them…
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4A Football Preview
What did you miss most about a ‘normal’ football season? A full playoff? Non-sub-50-degree kickoffs in week two? For us, it was the crisp sunset of an early September evening giving way to the overhead lights of a freshly-prepared football field; it’s the scenery that goes into and the product that comes out of those…
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Rapid Reaction: East Rolls West, Peiffer Puts On a Beatdown
The East rolled, and it was never in question. Here’s the breakdown: Sweet Jesus, Sebastian Peiffer. Way to go out, young man. A one-man wrecking ball in the middle, he breathed life into an East offense that was off to a sluggish start in the first half. The persona of the Gladstone community and football…
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2021 East-West Shrine Game Preview
Finally, it’s Shrine time. It’s East vs. West, all for the Shriners Hospital. It’s Mazama vs. Marist, Heppner vs. Kennedy, Cascade Christian and Santiam Christian vs. Amity and Rainier. A conglomeration of all the most high profile matchups the last four years culminating in this one charity event. Each year, the Shrine game takes shape…
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Hits and Misses: Looking Back on Our Boys Basketball Previews
Our process for projecting how things will shake out in various sports is complex and varies by season and year, and it is ultimately scrutinized internally and refined to produce better results next time around. This process churns out, on balance, more accurate predictions than faulty ones. Usually, we keep this hand wringing in-house, but…
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Hits and Misses: Looking Back on Our Football Previews
Our process for projecting how things will shake out in various sports is complex and varies by season and year, and it is ultimately scrutinized internally and refined to produce better results next time around. This process churns out, on balance, more accurate predictions than faulty ones. Usually, we keep this hand wringing in-house, but…
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Coos Bay Cliff-Notes: Day Two
We were focused entirely on the games at Marshfield High School today, so we were too short-handed to cover both gyms. Hidden Valley 44 Philomath 39 Valley Catholic threw a lot at Philomath: speed, pressure, quickness, and perimeter shooting. There was one thing they couldn’t do, however, and it cost them in the semis: they…