No. 3 West Linn and No. 8 Tualatin got encouraging news over the weekend about their starting quarterbacks, who were injured during 6A football nonleague games Friday night.
West Linn senior Ethan Long, who left a 42-27 loss to No. 7 Sheldon with an ankle injury, underwent an X-ray Saturday that did not reveal a fracture, according to coach Chris Miller.
“It’s just an ankle sprain, right around the bone,” Miller said of Long, an Arizona State commit. “He actually jogged around a little bit this weekend. So he’ll be limited this week, and we’ll just kind of take it one day at a time, and see how he recovers. We’ll make sure he gets it right before we put him back in there.”
Tualatin coach Dan Lever said that a knee injury to senior Kyle Dernedde, who exited his team’s 50-6 win over McNary, does not appear to be anything more than a sprain. It will be further evaluated this week.
“Things look really positive,” Lever said. “He’s walking around fine, moving pretty good. He could be back next week, it could be the week after. We’re just playing it safe. He’s an Oregon State baseball commit, and we don’t want to mess that up.”
Miller didn’t rule out the possibility of Long playing Friday when the Lions (2-1) play host to Lakeridge (2-1) in their Three Rivers League opener. He said Long felt “pretty good” Saturday and “a lot better” Sunday.
“We’ll see,” Miller said. “It’s his left foot, it’s not his push-off foot, not his drop foot that he plants on. We’ll see if we can get him some reps, maybe by Wednesday or Thursday see how he’s doing."
If Long doesn’t play, the Lions are likely to go with junior Ethan Coleman, who came off the bench against Sheldon and completed 21 of 39 passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. He is the brother of former Lake Oswego and University of Oregon linebacker Tyson Coleman.
“He’s a talented young man,” Miller said of Coleman. “He’s got a live, whippy arm, a kind of Randall Cunningham-type arm. He’s got a good frame on him.
“I was proud of him. The moment wasn’t too big for him. He probably gets 20 percent of the reps during the week. He did a pretty good job running our stuff and kept us in the game. I was very encouraged.”
Dernedde was relieved by junior Blake Jackson against McNary. Last season, Jackson started two games when Dernedde was sidelined after suffering a concussion.
“We’ve been in this situation before. Jackson has won us ballgames before,” Lever said.
Tualatin (3-0) plays at Sunset (2-1) in a nonleague game Friday.
jerryu@osaa.org
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