PORTLAND -- Chalk up another first for the Mountainside Mavericks football team — its first Metro League win over the mighty Jesuit Crusaders.
Mountainside running backs Reece Ballew and Jordan Hicks finished with a combined 310 yards rushing and four touchdowns, helping ignite a big-play offense that carried the Mavericks to a resounding 58-35 Metro League road win Friday over the Crusaders at Jesuit High School’s Cronin Field.
Josiah Agnimel, Sean Gerigk, and Sam Vyhlidal also found the end zone for the Mavericks (5-2, 3-0 Metro), who extended their winning streak to four games and took sole possession of first place in the league standings with two games remaining in the regular season.
“That felt awesome,” Mountainside junior quarterback Cade Mitchell said. “We all walked into this knowing this was probably the biggest game of our high school career and our career in football, so far.
“All week was a grind. We put our heads down and knew we had a job to do. I’ve said all along that we’re not a team that anybody can sleep on. Yes, we’re underdogs, but we knew we were going to come out here and play like big dogs.”
Mountainside certainly showed up ready to spoil Jesuit’s Homecoming festivities. The Mavericks scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and raced out to a 34-7 lead midway through the second quarter.
Trailing 37-14 at halftime, the Crusaders (5-2, 2-1) never cut the deficit to fewer than 16 points in the second half as they suffered only their second Metro League loss in the last 11 seasons and first since a 42-41 loss at home to Aloha on Sept. 27, 2019.
“We didn’t stop them from running the ball,” Jesuit coach Ken Potter said. “Mountainside played a very good game and had a really good game plan. The ball takes funny bounces once in a while and you have to learn to live with that.”
Funny bounces? Yes, there were a few, and most of them went Mountainside’s way, including a fumble that set up the Mavericks’ second touchdown, an onside kick that set up their third TD, and an interception that preceded the score that made it 34-7 with 6:14 to play in the second quarter.
Mountainside also had the lion’s share of big plays. Ballew scored on touchdown runs of 60 and 32 yards. Hicks’ two scores were on runs of 51 and 30 yards. And Mitchell completed 6 of 8 passes for 186 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown to Agnimel.
“Looking at Jesuit’s defense, I thought we could put up some numbers tonight,” Mountainside coach Keanon Lowe said. “That takes a lot because you’ve got to execute, you’ve got to coach it well, you’ve got to call it at the right times, and call it against the right defense. So, I think everything just kind of went right for us.”
The Mavericks did the bulk of their damage on the ground with Ballew, Hicks, and Vyhlidal running behind an offensive line anchored by center James Hartshorn, guards Brayden Beasley and Julian Villastrigo, and tackles Reed Hicks and Aiden Jakubauskas.
“I think the difference in the football game — and they might not get a whole lot of love — was our entire offensive line,” Lowe said. “That offensive line outplayed Jesuit’s front seven. They had their minds right, they came to play, they fired off the football, and they got it done.
“It’s nice when you have some good backs to run behind them, but none of that gets done without the offensive line.”
Jesuit still had hope late in the third quarter when Joe Stimpson scored on a two-yard run that made it 51-35 and Jacob Gorman recovered an onside kick for the Crusaders.
On the ensuing drive, Jesuit quarterback Trey Cleeland guided the Crusaders inside the Mountainside 10-yard line, but his fourth-down pass intended for a diving Jack Tuenge in the left corner of the end zone touched the ground before the junior wide receiver could complete the catch with 8:42 remaining.
“I think that last pass in the end zone that was called incomplete was a touchdown, which might have made it an eight-point game if we’d gone for two,” Potter said. “It would have got us closer and maybe changed the momentum even a little bit more.
“We came out of halftime and played a lot better, but we still gave up a lot of big plays. Those things happen in life. You’ve got to learn to live with them and you’ve got to learn to adjust. There are a lot of different ways to get lessons. Sometimes lessons when you fail are not the ones you want to have, but they’re sometimes the best in life.”
Cleeland finished with solid numbers, completing 23 of 27 passes for 252 yards with three touchdowns — two to Grant Valley (34 and 7 yards) and one to Tuenge (53 yards). Luke Ortner led the Crusaders’ ground game with 17 carries for 96 yards and one touchdown.
But this night belonged to the Mavericks, who in only their seventh year fielding a varsity football program took a major step toward becoming the first team other than Jesuit to win a Metro League championship since Southridge in the 2012-13 season.
“Everyone knows we made history tonight,” said Vyhlidal, the Mavericks’ junior tight end/linebacker. “The team wanted this all year — from our Linfield camp getting ready for fall practice, getting ready for the season. This was the game we were looking forward to. This was the game we knew we needed to get. And we did that tonight. We made history. So that’s big. It’s huge.
“The whole week was great. We were locked in, every single practice, every single day. And this is what the result is.”
Lowe agreed.
“That was awesome,” said Lowe, the former Jesuit standout. “This is as good as it gets as a high school football coach, right? You get to come back and play against your former coach, who I love and respect, on the field that I played on and learned so much as a young man. And I got to do it next to my brother, Trey, who also starred on this football field … so it was a special, special moment for me.
“For our program, we had an opportunity to make history and I’m just really proud of our guys. We talked all week about this night and how we have an opportunity to not only play for ourselves and our program right now, but an opportunity to honor and play for every coach who has coached at Mountainside, every player who has ever put on a Mountainside helmet, and every person that has supported this school in the last eight years.”
The Mavericks still have some work to do in their bid to secure a berth into the OSAA’s 6A Open 12-team playoff bracket. They return home next Friday to take on Westview and then close out the regular season on Nov. 1 at Beaverton.
“Our job this year is to go and win a Metro League title, and that’s what we’re set to do,” Mitchell said. “Mountainside had never beaten Jesuit in school history and that’s why this was a big game for us. Coming out here and beating them on their field on Homecoming night was probably the best feeling I’ve ever experienced playing football.”
Jesuit returns to action Friday at Southridge and then closes the regular season at home on Nov. 1 against Sunset.
