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Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Injury-depleted Tigers host No. 1 Amity in season’s toughest test yet

Taft might need more trickery, such as this pass from senior receiver Kam Kessler last week, tonight against Amity (File photo by Lon French)

Tune in tonight for Homepage’s live, breaking, play-by-play coverage of the Tigers’ league-opening game

Just when you thought things couldn’t get much tougher for the Taft High football team, enter the No. 1 team in the state for a league opener against an injury-depleted lineup looking to turn its fortunes around.

The 1-3 Tigers, who have already played two perennial State playoff powers and a couple who competed in bigger conferences until recently, are well aware of the mighty Warriors, having shared conference affiliation with them throughout the years in all sports and both genders.

“We know a lot about Amity,” said Taft Coach Jake Tolan, whose Tigers host the Warriors at 7 p.m. at Voris Field. “We know what they will run both offensively and defensively.”

So what is it that has allowed the Warriors to amass a 206-34 (51.5 to 8.5 points per game) scoring advantage over four outclassed opponents this season?

“What they do is actually very simple, but they do it very well,” Tolan said. “They are No. 1 for a reason and haven’t really been tested yet this year. We hope to go out and just compete.”

“Unlike last year where we gave up a bunch of rushing yards to them, this week we’ve worked a lot on assignment football — making sure all 11 guys are focused on individual assignments on each play in hope to be able to at least slow them down,” Tolan said.

Amity has rolled past St. Mary’s Medford, 51-7; Neah-Kah-Nie, 60-20; Salem Academy, 47-7; and Coquille, 48-0, with three of the games on the road. Playing its fourth game of the year away from home, Coach Joel Magill’s squad has just three games scheduled this season in its friendly confines – until the playoffs, that is.

As if the presence of the state’s top-ranked Class 3A team wasn’t enough, the Tigers will be missing four starters due to injuries incurred in previous games. Missing in the Special District 1 West Conference opener will be defensive lineman Tyrese Hellman and defensive back Darius Smith, who are out on concussion protocol; lineman Jace Fostveit with a wrist sprain; and defensive end Micah Davis, who has been lost for the season with a leg injury.

“So a lot of this week has also been focused on getting replacement players in the right spots so they can be successful,” Tolan said.

Things don’t get any easier foe the Tigers after Friday either. Taft hits the road for two league games (Clatskanie and Willamina) before returning home to close out the regular season with two more (Dayton and Rainier), including matchups against the second- and third-ranked teams in the state.

Class 3A Special District 1 West Standings

League

Overall Points Scored Allowed

OSAA Rank

 Amity

0-0

4-0 206 34

1

 Rainier

0-0

4-0 173 12

2

 Willamina

0-0

3-1 108 55

3

 Clatskanie

0-0

3-1 179 20

10

 Dayton

0-0

2-2 111 89

14

 Taft

0-0

1-3 100 153

15

Taft Roster

Coach: Jake Tolan

No. Name Position Grade Height
2 Logan McLendon WR/DB Sr. 5-8
3 Kaden Hindman WR/S Fr. 5-9
4 Devon Lindquist WR/S Sr. 5-10
6 Zane Rowley WR/DB So. 5-4
7 Chris Lopez WR/DB Sr. 5-9
8 David Jin QB/DB Sr. 5-10
9 Kameron Kessler WR/S Sr. 6-1
11 Fco Ramos WR/DB So. 5-7
14 Tristan Beach WR/DB Jr. 5-10
15 Connor Bailey WR/DB Jr. 5-10
16 Darius Smith WR/DB So. 5-9
19 Antonio Suarez QB/LB So. 5-10
20 JJ French RB/LB So. 5-10
22 Tyee Fisher WR/S Sr. 6-5
23 Clay Nelson WR/LB Sr. 6-0
24 Trenton Hall WR/LB Jr. 5-9
25 Kaden White WR/DB Fr. 5-7
28 Logan Gilleo RB/LB Jr. 6-0
50 Dylan Rodriguez OL/DL Fr. 5-8
53 Micah Davis OL/DE Jr. 5-10
54 Eriq Aquino OL/DL Sr. 6-1
55 Elin Fitch OL/DE Jr. 6-3
56 Malachi LaFrenz OL/DL Sr. 6-2
57 Jace Phippen OL/DL Jr. 5-10
60 Chris Byrum OL/DL Sr. 5-8
61 Victor Carrasco C/DE Sr. 6-2
62 Brendan Welch OL/DL So. 5-9
66 Tyrese Hellman OL/DL Jr. 6-1
70 Josiah LaFrenz OL/DL So. 6-3
74 Sebastian Welch OL/DL So. 5-9
75 Dakota Steen OL/DL Fr. 6-0

Amity Roster

Coach: Joel Magill

No. Name Position Grade Height Weight
1 Payton Richardson WR/CB 11 6-4 170
4 Tyler Parr QB/LB 12 6-1 200
7 Eli Jackson WR/CB 12 6-4 170
8 Harvey Hoff RB/LB 12 5-6 155
10 Noah Groom QB/DB 9 5-7 130
11 Dylan Nyseth TE/LB 11 5-9 155
12 Keenan Graham QB/DB 10 6-1 150
14 Michael Duncan WR/K 12 5-9 150
16 Roberto Olague RB/LB 10 5-8 150
17 Cody Dyche RB/LB 11 6-1 191
18 Alrik Moore WR/DB 9 5-8 140
20 West Streeter RB/LB 12 5-7 200
21 Braxton Morgan RB/LB 9 5-8 155
22 Wyatt Hatch RB/LB 9 5-9 155
23 Cameron Weigart WR/CB 11 5-9 145
24 Brian Hatch RB/LB 12 5-7 150
25 Seth Valencia RB/NG 12 5-6 155
30 Nas Abzakh RB/LB 11 5-9 150
32 Enrique Martinez RB/LB 9 5-10 168
33 Jonathan Mather RB/LB 12 6-0 190
36 George Hatch QB/DB 10 5-11 146
40 Logan Grove RB/LB 9 5-9 155
42 Sergio Alba TE/LB 9 5-7 160
44 Russel Brown RB/LB 11 5-11 175
50 Nick McMullen OG/DL 10 5-10 230
51 Hunter Barber C/DL 9 5-6 170
52 Jordan Dyche OT/NG 12 5-6 250
54 Kyle Rice OT/DT 9 6-0 185
55 Jeffrey Coleman OG/DT 12 6-0 255
56 Christian Wald OG/LB 12 5-9 190
57 Blake Wilson OG/LB 10 5-11 165
58 Wyett Yocum OL/DL 9 5-10 200
60 Robby Scharf OG/DT 12 6-0 260
62 Phillip West OL/LB 10 6-1 195
64 Ashton Pappas OL/RB 10 5-7 175
65 Khaled Aydallad OG/LB 11 5-10 165
73 Justin Vido C/DT 12 5-9 295
75 Jacob Bernards OT/DE 11 6-3 273
76 Lucas May OL/DL 11 6-3 289
77 Federico Donati K 11 5-9 165
78 Andrew Paine OL/DL 12 6-2 300
80 Hayden Reeves WR/DB 10 5-9 135
81 Trevor Smith WR/LB 12 6-1 195
85 Brady Hall WR/DE 9 5-8 165
87 Josh Wart TE/LB 10 6-5 200
88 Diego Briones TE/LB 9 5-9 185

 

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Jim Fossum
Jim Fossumhttp://SilverandBlackToday.com
Homepage Executive Editor and former longtime Sports Editor of the near-200,000 circulation Las Vegas Review-Journal, Fossum brings 40 years of award-winning experience covering virtually every facet of print and digital journalism to Lincoln City Homepage. The former longtime reporter for the Newport News-Times and Lincoln City News Guard is also Editor-in-Chief and Senior Columnist for SilverandBlackToday.com, which covers the NFL's Oakland (Las Vegas) Raiders.

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