SCAPPOOSE -- Five minutes into Friday night’s game at No. 7 Scappoose, it looked like a disaster in the making for No. 1 Wilsonville.
As a steady rain turned the Indians’ grass field into a soupy mess, the Wildcats committed a flurry of penalties, made a careless turnover and lost their composure in falling behind by two touchdowns.
“We had them kind of where we wanted them,” Scappoose coach Sean McNabb said.
But Wilsonville (5-0, 3-0) took a deep breath and settled down behind the play of senior quarterback Nathan Overholt, reeling off 41 consecutive points on its way to a 41-20 win to take over first place in the West division of 5A Special District 1.
Overholt completed 16 of 23 passes for 186 yards and four touchdowns with one interception against the Indians (4-2, 3-2), giving him 28 touchdowns and two interceptions for the season.
“We just let the emotions get the best of us,” Overholt said of the shaky start. “We’ve been saying that the only team that’s going to get in our way is us. Coach huddled us all together, we took a deep breath, and he said, ‘You guys can get fed up with whatever’s going on with the game, or you can focus right now.’ It just took us a second to regroup.”
It wasn’t unchartered territory for Wilsonville. In their second game this season, the Wildcats overcame a 14-0 deficit to beat Churchill 57-50.
“We always say, ‘When adversity hits, what do you do?’ We just stayed calm, powered through it,” said Wilsonville senior Trevor Antonson, who had two interceptions, returning one 51 yards for a touchdown.
Senior Jonah Gomez caught seven passes for 89 yards and two touchdowns and senior Cooper Mootz rushed for 79 yards and one score for Wilsonville. But the sloppy track and wet ball clearly affected the Wildcats, who were limited to 286 yards, well below their 448.2 average.
“I had to slow down my chops just so I could get traction,” Gomez said. “I was slipping a lot. It was tough.
“I think it was really good for our team because, first of all, we saw a good team, and the conditions weren’t like the turf conditions that we’re always used to. It was good to see something different, see some adversity and react to that.”
Penalties plagued Wilsonville all game. In the opening five minutes, the Wildcats were flagged for roughing the passer, a horse-collar tackle, unsportsmanlike conduct, roughing the kicker, holding and offsides. The defense repeatedly got called for encroachment the rest of the way.
“We’ll be running a lot Monday, that’s for sure,” Antonson said of the penalties.
Overholt called the game “a wake-up call.”
“That’s something we’ve got to work on, get a little more discipline going and make sure we’re not making mistakes,” Overholt said. “We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot. We got away with it tonight, but going down the road, that is something we need to clean up. It’s good to see it now, during the season.”
Penalties aside, Wilsonville’s defense was outstanding. Getting big games from Antonson and senior defensive linemen David Fukofuka and Kalei Kauhi, the Wildcats held Scappoose to 169 yards.
Indians senior running back Connor McNabb, who ran for 764 yards through five games, scored on two short runs in the first quarter but managed only 11 yards on 16 carries for the game. Scappoose junior quarterback Jakobi Kessi rushed for 73 yards but completed only 6 of 14 passes for 31 yards with two interceptions.
“We just wanted to stop their run game because we knew that they didn’t want to pass,” Antonson said.
Overholt found Gomez for touchdown passes of 28 and 17 yards to give Wilsonville a 14-13 lead after one quarter, then hooked up with senior Isaiah Haqq for a 26-yard score to make it 21-13 on the first play of the second quarter.
When Overholt found his brother, sophomore Chad Overholt, with a six-yard touchdown pass on the first series of the third quarter, it was 28-13. Antonson’s pick-six came on the next possession, pushing the lead to 35-13.
Scappoose battled but couldn’t generate any momentum with its running game as its big line and burly backs were unable to push back the Wildcats.
“Second half, we struggled to run the football,” McNabb said. “I really felt like we were going to be able to hang our hat on that and come out and run the ball in the second half, and it didn’t happen for us. I think they wore us down a little bit.”
McNabb tipped his cap to the Wildcats.
“That’s a good football team. We haven’t played a team like that in years,” McNabb said. “I thought our kids responded pretty well, but they’re a good team, and we made too many costly mistakes at wrong times.”
jerryu@osaa.org
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