Smith connected with senior wideout Taylor Walcott, who finished with eight catches for 157 yards, on four of his scoring strikes. This included an electrifying 68-yard catch-and-run combination to end the first half.
On that play, which put Marist up 49-0, Walcott showed why colleges across the West are heavily recruiting him to play wide receiver. After taking a quick screen pass in the flat, he ran past Wildcat defenders on his way down the sideline, showing off the speed that won him last year's class 5A 100-meter dash championship in track and field.
“That guy has a great future,” Cooper said. “Not a lot of people outrun me, and that guy made me look like dirt. Three guys touched him and couldn’t bring him down and we couldn’t keep up with him; he went right down the sideline.”
The touchdown with three-tenths of a second left in the half put an exclamation point on a very strong Marist statement that they should be considered the team to beat for the state title this year.
“They’re everything they were on film,” Wilsonville head coach Adam Guenther said afterward amidst a quiet group of players and coaches. "Our kids finished the year the way they started it, with a lot of pride and character and a lot of heart. They never stopped playing and they represented the name on the front of that jersey real well; they're a team to be proud of. It’s ending a little prematurely, but you know what? Only one team can finish the season with a W.”
The Spartans advance to the semifinals, where they will take on a Mountain View squad that worked over Lebanon 42-21 in another quarterfinal matchup. In other class 5A quarterfinal action, Sherwood edged Ashland 14-3 while West Albany topped Bend 28-21. The Bowmen will play West Albany next Friday.
Wilsonville finishes the season, its second under Guenther, with nine wins and three losses. But all three of those losses came to fellow state quarterfinalists, including the top two ranked 5A teams in the state in Sherwood and Marist, along with Lebanon.
Smith and the Spartans left Guenther and the Wildcats impressed with their team speed and the precision with which they executed their no-huddle passing attack.
“They’re speedy,” Guenther said. “He (Smith) is the best we’ve seen, he’s one-two-three-throw, and we put pressure on him once or twice and that’s when something happened, but other than that...”
Marist was red-hot from the opening snap. The Spartans took the opening kickoff, with Smith completing his first three passes of the game to reach the red zone quickly. Greg Park ran it in for the score from four yards out with 10:16 left in the first quarter and the tone was set for the rest of the night.
James Banks, who also had a huge night on defense for the Spartans, scored next on a two yard run with 5:15 left in the period.
Marist then held Wilsonville on offense and extended their lead with 1:55 left in the quarter on a 12-yard scoring pass from Smith to Josh Paiement to make it 21-0. A Tanner Shipley halfback pass then was intercepted, leading to the first of four touchdown catches for Walcott, this one a three-yard strike to the left corner of the end zone with 37 seconds remaining in the first.
That made it 28-0, and by then Wilsonville knew they were in for a long night.
It just got worse in the second quarter, as Walcott scored three more times, including twice in the last two minutes of the half.
“They kept throwing the ball,” Cooper said. “That’s the top team right there. To be the best you’ve got to beat the best, and we thought that in pregame they thought they were going to come out and roll us and we weren’t too happy about that. We tried to come out fired up and we tried to do everything we could, but at the end of the day they just beat us.”
Senior Danny Leece, who along with junior Nick Highberger led the team with six tackles, wrapped up an outstanding career at Wilsonville on a sour note with the loss. But Leece and his teammates could not help but be impressed with the precision and speed of Marist on both sides of the ball.
“They have very few plays, and they execute them 100 percent well,” Leece said. “Their quarterback, he’s a good quarterback and I hope more than anything that they meet Sherwood and they take it. In practice, that was our main goal, to put pressure on the quarterback. And we were trying, but their line executed and overall they played well.
What’s the saying? If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
Cooper scored on a three-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and Highberger scored from four-yards out in the fourth to provide the final margin after the teams played the second half with a running clock under OSAA rules.
In total, Wilsonville finished with 233 yards of offense, 175 of that on the ground. Shipley recorded 136 yards on 19 carries, but much of that came in the second half against the Marist reserves.
“Nothing,” Guenther said when asked if there was any single aspect that led to the lopsided result on the scoreboad. “They’ve got good athletes and they can play and they executed and they did what they wanted to do, so you tip your hat to them for that.”
Both the Marist-Mountain View and Sherwood-West Albany games will be held Friday afternoon at Willamette University in Salem. The winners will play for the 5A state title on Saturday, Dec. 3, at Hillsboro Stadium.
Like Leece, Cooper knows who he would like to see come out on top in the end.
“The best team is right there,” Cooper said, pointing to the Marist sideline. “For sure. Lebanon’s up there, they smacked us in the mouth, but I’ll be right there in the stands watching the game and everyone knows who I’m going to go for, and this Wildcat family. Good luck to both teams and hopefully Marist comes out with the championship.”
NOTEBOOK: Wilsonville finishes the season, its second under Guenther, with a 9-3 record overall. The teams only losses came to fellow quarterfinalists Sherwood, Marist and Lebanon, with the former two prohibitive favorites to meet for the second year in a row in the state championship game on Dec. 3 at Hillsboro Stadium. Sherwood did not score an offensive touchdown Friday, but managed to squeeze out a 14-3 win over visiting Ashland in a much closer contest than anticipated. Next Friday Marist will take on Mountain View, which dropped Lebanon last Friday in a freezing contest in Bend 42-21. Both semi-final games will be hosted at Willamette University in Salem….Tanner Shipley finishes the season with 1,287 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns for the Wildcats, who will return numerous offensive skill players in 2012, including Shipley, quarterback Nick Highberger, running backs Johnny Ragin, Ryan Walsh and Adam Buck and tight end Mat Merrick, among others. Walsh finished the season with 709 yards and four touchdowns on the ground in a year cut short by a high ankle sprain. He returned late, but saw only limited duty after being supplanted by Shipley….The Northwest Oregon Conference All-League teams were announced last week, and Wilsonville had seven players named to the first team: linemen Jeff Lulay and Jake Dickson, tight end Sione Kauhi and kicker Derik Sawyer made the offensive squad while linebacker Danny Leece and defensive backs Jayden Cooper and Nick Highberger were named to the first team defense. A complete list can be found here.
Box Score
1 2 3 4 F
Marist 28 21 0 0 49
Wilsonville 0 0 7 7 14
First Quarter:
Marist – 10:16, Park 4 yd TD run, Holaday kick
Marist – 5:15, Banks 2 yd TD run, Holaday kick
Marist – 1:55, Paiement, 17 yd TD catch from Smith, Holaday kick
Marist – 0:37, Walcott 4 yd TD catch from Smith, Holaday kick
Second Quarter:
Marist – 8:01, Walcott 12 yd TD catch from Smith, Holaday kick
Marist – 1:18, Walcott 6 yd TD catch from Smith, Holaday kick
Marist - :00.3, Walcott 68 yd TD catch from Smith, Holaday kick
Third Quarter:
Wilsonville - :03, Cooper 5 yd TD run, Sawyer kick
Fourth Quarter:
Wilsonville – 2:34, Highberger 4 yd TD run, Sawyer kick
GAME STATS
Passing:
Marist: Smith 18-22, 344 yds, 5 TD
Wilsonville: Haqq 6-11, 58 yds, INT
Receiving:
Marist: Walcott 8-157 4TD; Paiement, 4-91; Banks 5-76; Baird 1-20;
Wilsonville: Kauhi 2-30; Cooper 3-26; Shipley 1-2;
Rushing:
Marist: G. Park 10-95, A. Park, 3-20, Banks 2-8, Enseki-Frank 2-9, Smith 3- minus 1, Yarborough 4- minus 1;
Wilsonville: Shipley 19-136; Buck 5-30; Cooper 4-10; Highberger 2-7; Etcheberry 2-7; Haqq 7- minus 15;
Tackles:
Marist: Bowden 8, Harper 7, Team 77;
Wilsonville: Leece, Highberger 6 each, Team 45;
Below is a photo gallery from the game taken by Spokesman photographer Josh Kulla.