North Coast highlights qualifiers

With just two weeks left in the regular football season, Friday night was now or never for Astoria and Seaside. Warrenton looked to survive an upset bid for homecoming week and Knappa is in the driver’s seat going into a rivalry game.Big night for Tillamook, not so much for AstoriaTillamook senior running back Aden Camacho Garcia was a one-man wrecking ball on Friday night. Behind great blocks from his offensive line and quick cuts, Garcia ran for five total touchdowns to help Tillamook eliminate Astoria from playoff contention with a 48-28 victory on Friday night.The environment at CMH Field on Friday night was one of anticipation. With Astoria boys football playing host to Tillamook High School the stadium and surrounding parking lot was jam packed. Many spectators had to park outside the stadium in order to get a view of the upcoming playoff qualifier.With Tillamook entering the stadium in the third and final league qualifying spot, the Astoria Fishermen would have had to pull an upset to keep their season alive. It wasn’t an impossibility — after all, the Fishermen had come back from 14 points behind the week before against Taft to win 21-20 in overtime.But a repeat comeback was not in the cards. After Astoria won the kickoff and deferred, Tillamook ran right down the field with Camacho Garcia. The running back scored his first of four first-half touchdowns. Astoria responded right back as quarterback Sam Schacher hit two nice passes on the opening drive to give Astoria a 7-6 early lead. This brought CMH Field and the Astoria crowd to life, but not for long.Camacho Garcia continued his demolition as he finished the first half with 22 carries, 208 yards and four touchdowns. Cheesemakers quarterback Kevin Hurliman converted two big fourth downs to keep drives alive. Though the Fishermen gave Tillamook their best punch, they fell behind 34-14 at halftime, and ended up losing 48-28. The loss eliminated Astoria from playoff contention and dropped the team’s record to 2-6 overall.Though the Fishermen defense gave up 48 points, they had a number of opportunities to get off the field on third and fourth down. The Cheesemakers converted a fourth and 10 early in the first quarter leading to a touchdown. Camacho Garcia had a couple of big runs on thirrd and short to really break the back of Astoria. Despite the Cheesemakers starting the season slow, Friday night saw them start to resemble the team that Cowapa league fans look for.Tillamook has made the final quarterfinals in the 4A playoffs the last two seasons, losing to Scappoose both times. Back in 2023, the Cheesemakers, along with Seaside and Scappoose, made the final four before falling short.For Astoria, this is another season of not making the 4A playoffs. With an improved classification due to the inclusion of Cascade Christian, Banks, Central and Sweet Home, the road back to the postseason will not get easier. For Astoria, the final game of the season will be the Clatsop Clash against Seaside. That game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30.The senior trio of Schacher, Hudson Hill and Izacc Crawford finished up their final home game at CMH Field with solid performances. Schacher threw for 265 yards and two touchdowns, Hill had eight catches for 139 yards and two touchdowns, while Crawford contributed eight catches for 65 yards.Horizon Christian shakes up Warrenton’s standingsPerhaps the craziest game in the entire state of Oregon happened in Warrenton.The hometown Warrenton Warriors were hosts to Horizon Christian, Tualatin. Due to the offense employed by Horizon Christian, this game had the makings of a potential upset — and that’s exactly what happened. Trailing by two points, the Warriors saw a potential game tying two-point attempt fall incomplete. This led to Horizon Christian storming the field as the team pulled off the 44-42 upset and kept its season alive. The loss was Warrenton’s first in league and puts them in a must-win situation against North Marion next week. Due to having a tiebreaker against Santiam Christian, a victory would still give the Warriors a league title.Old-school football fans would have loved to be a part of this game in Warrenton. Not only was the fall weather moving in with fog and a chill in the air, but the Hawks used an offense that first originated back in the 1950s.The Wing-T offense was first created by Glen Pop Warner as a single wing formation. It was then later adapted to a wing T by former Delaware coach Dave Nelson in 1951. Nelson’s successor at Delaware, Tubby Raymond, would rack up more than 300 wins with this offense and it would soon become something that coaches of all levels would take note of.Related to the Wishbone and Flexbone, the Wing-T is a run-heavy offense featuring three running backs that is designed to create confusion and misdirection at the line of scrimmage. Due to the evolution of football, the offense no longer is a staple in game plans. But the Hawks use it as their primary offense, with a twist.Usually the quarterback lines up under center, but Horizon Christian started each play with three running backs and the quarterback lined up in a tight end position. He would then run in motion, under center and hand the ball off to one of his three running backs. Though both the North Marion and Santiam Christian teams were able to solve it, the Warriors were not. The Hawks marched up and down the field all night en route to their victory. The win improved Horizon Christian to 6-2 on the season and moved them up to No. 15 in the 3A rankings.“I’m proud of the effort of the boys today,” Head Coach Travis Freeman said. “There’s some things we did that didn’t help our situation. There were times when we let the game control us instead of us controlling it. Hats off to Horizon, they came out and had a great plan to just chew clock and not let us get on the field.… We were still able to make some things on offense happen when we had opportunities, but a few too many mistakes on our part. Some miscues on defense that we need to get fixed as we move on into the playoffs.”Freeman said this game will give the coaching staff a chance to evaluate defensive film and figure out what adjustments to make moving forward.“There’s things we can take a look at with our linebackers and line to see if some positions need to be moved around,” Freeman said. “We’ve still got some time and opportunity to win league, so we will sort life out and try and come up with a plan in case we see an offense similar to this one.”Though he hurt his shoulder in the fourth quarter, quarterback Dylan Ballard still led the Warriors back from 10 points behind in the final frame to force overtime. This was highlighted by a long catch and run from wide receiver Sam Smith. The junior caught a fourth-down pass and ran it into the end zone to tie things up at 36.In total, Ballard passed for 228 yards, three touchdowns and ran 10 times for 60 yards and a touchdown. Emery Torres ran 10 times for 70 yards and Rayce Sturgell had three carries for 24 yards and two touchdowns. Receiving wise, Smith had five catches for 160 yards and two touchdowns, Jackson Simonsen had three catches for 40 yards and a touchdown. Aaron Neahring led the defense with 14 tackles, Ballard had 8.5 tackles and a forced fumble, Rhett Cokely had 5.5 tackles and Simonsen had 3.5.The final game of the regular season for Warrenton is 7 p.m. next Friday, Oct. 30 against North Marion.Seaside shutout by BanksSeaside’s football season is also looking to end without a playoff berth as the Seagulls were blanked 48-0 by Banks.Coming off a bye week, the Seagulls were not able to get off the ground as they were outplayed from start to finish by 4A no. 7. The Braves had given up just 53 total points all season coming into Friday and Seaside struggled to get anything going.With the loss, Seaside fell to 3-5 on the season and 2-4 in league. Currently, the Seagulls are No. 17 in 4A and the third-ranked fourth-place team. With just one fourth-place team qualifying for the playoffs, the Seagulls are currently ranked behind No. 15 Marist Catholic and No. 16 North Valley. The chances are low for the Seagulls as they need to win the Clatsop Clash this coming week and hope that both Marist and North Valley get upset. This would maybe allow the Seagulls to sneak into the final playoff spot.The Seagulls will play host to Astoria in the upcoming Clatsop Clash. Seaside will look to continue their win streak in the series and the game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30.Knappa is on the cuspAll that’s standing in the way of Knappa being league champions in a home playoff game is a rivalry showdown with Clatskanie this Friday.The Loggers took care of Nestucca by a score of 31-6 to improve their league record to 5-0 and overall record to 5-3. Knappa is now ranked No. 11 in 2A, while Clatskanie is ranked No. 16. Knappa will be looking for revenge as the Tigers knocked off the Loggers in their game last season. Knappa entered that game undefeated before falling to the Tigers. The Loggers will look to use home field advantage as a springboard. A victory will clinch both a home playoff game and a league title for this Logger squad.The game against Clatskanie is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30.