The West Linn Lions have been waiting six years to return to the 6A football championship game, and they made sure they didn’t squander the opportunity.
Decked out in black jerseys on Black Friday, the Lions avenged their only loss of the season, scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions and holding on from there to beat the Sheldon Irish 23-14 at Hillsboro Stadium to capture their second state football title.
The Irish beat the Lions 35-31 on Sept. 9 in West Linn, a result the Lions have cited as a turning point in getting their season on track. West Linn ended the season on an 11-game winning streak, scoring 530 points in that span.
“When you get beat, you gotta own it,” said West Linn coach Jon Eagle of his team’s September setback. “We owned the loss and we kept getting better and better each week. It was an amazing run.”
West Linn previously reached title games in 2015 and 2016, losing the first 21-14 to Jesuit then beating Central Catholic 62-7 the following season.
Senior quarterback Sam Leavitt led the way for West Linn (12-1) more with his legs than his arm as curtains of rain came down steadily throughout the game. Leavitt rushed for 171 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries, while completing 13 of 21 passes for 131 yards.
“It’s just pure joy, and there’s no words to describe it,” Leavitt said of capturing the title. “I’m soaking it all in and understanding what a great accomplishment it is.”
Eagle, who replaced former West Linn head coach Chris Miller this season after winning two state championships in the top class in Washington at Camas, noted that while his team was primarily a passing team most of the season, he knew that Leavitt had elite running skills. But the possibility of injury prevented Eagle from allowing Leavitt to run wild, until Friday.
“We told him ‘you have the green light tonight,’” Eagle said of a pregame conversation with Leavitt. “We wanted to get him running the ball whenever we could because we knew he could run. So we designed some plays for him.”
The rain made the choice even easier to put the ball in Leavitt’s hands as a runner, and he showcased speed and the ability to change direction that Sheldon struggled to contain.
“(Eagle) told me he was going to let me run the ball, so I came out knowing that they were going to give me a lot of read options and I was able to be successful,” said Leavitt.
Sheldon coach Josh Line conceded that the Irish weren’t necessarily expecting Leavitt to run the ball so often, but were well aware of his abilities.
“We knew he could run,” Line said. “There’s no doubt about it, and we had a hard time tackling him and tackling anybody at the beginning of the game.”
When Leavitt did throw, his main target was junior Gus Donnerberg, who had a team-leading eight catches for 68 yards. Usual top receiver Mark Hamper caught four balls for 54 yards.
“We had a few guys who were feeling a little hurt or a little under the weather and that gave some of the other guys a chance to step up,” Donnerberg said. “It’s awesome, you don’t really think about it being only the second time (for a West Linn championship), so it’s really special.”
West Linn hadn’t played a competitive game since early October, and Friday looked like it would be another blowout.
Sheldon (12-1) trailed 20-0 at halftime, but scored two touchdowns to pull within six points with just more than eight minutes remaining in regulation. The Lions then put together their best drive of the second half to scratch out their a 35-yard field goal by Gage Hurych at the 3:44 mark to reclaim a two-score lead.
Hurych was roughed by a Sheldon defender, but the Lions chose to keep the points on the board rather than accept the penalty for a first down.
“We wanted to make sure we kept it a two-score game,” Eagle said. “We weren’t running it as well. And I think the rain, it affected their quarterback and our quarterback. I thought with the conditions they did pretty well.”
Last-gasp efforts by Sheldon ended with a fourth-down incompletion and an interception, and the Lions were able to run out the clock and celebrate.
The Lions set the tone on the opening drive of the game, driving 77 yards in eight plays thanks to 53 rushing yards by Leavitt and 24 through the air. Leavitt’s 16-yard scoring run put West Linn up 7-0.
Sheldon advanced to the West Linn 12-yard line on its opening drive, but a holding penalty set the Irish back 20 yards and they ended up punting.
The Lions kept their foot on the gas, covering 80 yards in just more than a minute to push the lead to 14-0. Leavitt’s 23-yard scamper led to a 2-yard Koffi Kouame touchdown. Kouame rushed for 62 yards on 15 carries on the day.
West Linn made it three touchdowns in three possessions when Ben Winjum scored from two yards out 52 seconds into the second quarter. A missed extra point left the Lions with a 20-0 advantage.
Sheldon again drove into West Linn territory, but failed to convert a fourth-down play at the Lions 29-yard line. The Irish finally got two stops on defense, though, and held the deficit to 20 at halftime.
The Irish came out of the break and engineered their first scoring drive, going 80 yards on 11 plays to pull within 20-7. Sheldon quarterback Brock Thomas ran for 42 yards on the drive, then Teitum Tuioti cashed in with a 1-yard touchdown run.
Thomas, who ran for 113 yards for the game, got loose for a 50-yard touchdown run with 8:02 left in the fourth quarter, energizing the Sheldon crowd that made the trip north from Eugene.
“We tackled better and did the little things better,” Line said of his team’s rally. “We didn’t respond very well in the first half but in the second half we got our bearings and got our feet undereneath us. To hold them to three points in the second half, I don’t think anybody in the stadium would’ve thought we would do that.”
But the complete comeback wasn’t to be for the Irish. Sheldon had 272 yards of total offense for the game compared to West Linn’s 400. The Lions committed 12 penalties to Sheldon’s six, and the only turnover came on a deep heave by Thomas in the final two minutes that was picked off by West Linn’s Hudson Staats.
“We just didn’t get the job done,” said Line. “And that doesn’t diminish one bit the quality of the season we had. It’s going to sting for a while and then we’ll bounce back. I couldn’t be prouder of this group of kids.”
Sheldon fell to 4-4 all-time in state championship games. Line led the Irish to the final in 2018 but lost to Lake Oswego. Sheldon’s last title came in 2012.
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