[quote style=”2″]Hermiston Turns Back Marist, 30-13, in Semi-Final[/quote]
The Hermiston Bulldogs made the most of their first-ever appearance in the 5A state semi-finals by dominating the Marist Spartans, 30-13, in Hillsboro Saturday night to advance to the state championship game next week against Silverton.
It was an offensive struggle throughout the first quarter for both teams. It wasn’t until late in the first quarter before Marist notched the initial first down of the game on a long run by senior running back Seth Thoreson. Moments later, Thoreson had the Spartans knocking on the door following a 54-yard run to the Hermiston 4 yard line.
The Bulldogs, however, shut down the scoring threat when Cory Adams intercepted a pass in the end zone to give Hermiston the ball on their own 20. Hermiston then began an 80-yard drive that stalled before getting new life when Marist fumbled a punt by Hermiston’s Michael Gossler and the Bulldogs recovered the ball to continue their march toward the end zone. A 21-yard run by Sam Colbray gave the Bulldogs the ball inside the Marist 10, and a couple plays later, Colbray scored the game’s first points on a 1-yard blast with a little more than 8 minute left in the first half.
A sack on third down forced Marist to punt and Hermiston increased its lead to 10-0 on 30-yard field goal by Luis Medina. A pair of sacks – one by Medina and another by Hayden Simon – forced the Spartans to punt the ball back to the Bulldogs late in the first half. A couple of Chase Knutz passes – to Keegan Crafton and Carson Morter – put the ball on the Marist 1 yard line. Two plays later, Colbray scored his second touchdown of the game to give Hermiston a 17-0 halftime lead.
The Bulldogs opened the third quarter with a bang, scoring on the third play of the series on a 62-yard touchdown pass from Knutz to Morter to increase the Hermiston lead to 24-0. A 36-yard field goal by Medina pushed the lead to 27-0 late in the third quarter.
Marist finally broke through later in the quarter, thanks to a pair of huge plays – a 41-yard run by Thoreson and a 39-yard touchdown run by Justin Ensekie-Frank.
Medina added another 35-yard field goal with just over 5 minutes left in the game to increase Hermiston’s lead to 30-7. Marist tacked on some pride points on a 14-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Quinn Cota to Dustin Jones-Phillips as the game clock wound down.
Colbray had a huge game for Hermiston with 158 yards on 34 carries and a pair of touchdowns. Morter had 6 receptions for 155 yards and a touchdown. Knutz was 16-for-26 for 202 yards. Medina had 4 tackles, 4 assists and 2 and a half sacks to go with his 3 field goals. The Hermiston defense sacked Cota six times.
So the 5A state championship game is set and will pit fifth-seeded Hermiston against second-seeded Silverton after the undefeated Foxes turned back Springfield on Saturday, 31-14. Kickoff is scheduled 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 29 at Hillsboro Stadium.
