Adrian defeated North Douglas 66-12 to clinch the OSAA 1A 8-man football state championship on Saturday in Bend.

The Adrian Antelopes ran away with the 1A-8 football championship Saturday night.

Adrian’s Colten Bayes rushed for a game-high 211 yards and four touchdowns, Rance Jordan added 209 yards rushing and three touchdowns, and the top-ranked Antelopes cruised to a 66-12 blowout win over the No. 3 North Douglas Warriors in the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 1A-8 final at Summit High School in Bend.

The Antelopes scored on each of their first six possessions — four times in the first quarter and twice in the second quarter — and never looked back, capping a perfect 12-0 season with their fourth state championship and first since 2019.

Brooks Martin and Kash Morford also scored touchdowns for Adrian in a game that featured a running clock in the Antelopes had opened a 42-6 halftime lead.

The Antelopes finished with 509 yards total offense — 481 yards rushing and 28 passing — to North Douglas’ 161 yards. Their 66 points also were the most scored by the winning team in an 8-man final since 2013 when Imbler defeated Lowell 88-76.

“Just a tremendous team performance all the way around,” Adrian coach Bill Wortman said. “We were grateful that we had an opportunity to play in the game and grateful for coming out with a win.

“We’re just thankful for everything that came into place this year. We have great athletes and great coaches. That’s a good combination to have.”

North Douglas finished with an 11-1 record.

“Adrian is a very good football team across the board,” Warriors coach J.J. Mast said. “I think their strength is probably that front. They really dominated the line of scrimmage from the first play to the last play and hats off to them. They’re a heck of a football team.”

Wortman agreed that one key to the game was the play of Adrian’s starting offensive linemen — center Tyler Mundin, guards Brayden Jordan and Juan Rico, and ends Chase Franklin and Martin — who consistently opened holes that allowed Bayes and Jordan to reach the second level and beyond.

In the first half, Jordan scored on touchdown runs of 70, 24, and 50 yards, and Bayes added TD runs of 8 and 24 yards as Adrian raced out to a 42-6 lead.

Sophomore quarterback Trey Bayes also got in on the first-half scoring with a one-yard touchdown pass to Martin, but the numbers that jumped off the statistics sheets at halftime were Jordan’s 191 yards on eight carries and Colten Bayes’ 121 yards on 15 carries.

That was a combined 312 yards rushing on 23 carries — an average of 13.6 yards per carry — with five touchdowns.

“Colten and Rance followed their blocks really well and we just played our game,” Wortman said. “Our backs went straight up and down the field, getting as much as they couldn’t. They ran patient and finished it off when they had the opportunity.

“Anytime you play in a championship game, it’s all about who wants it more. And our boys came out fired up, ready to play.”

North Douglas threatened to score just before the half, but when the drive stalled at the Adrian 15-yard line as the half ended, the Warriors limped to the break knowing that the second half would be played with a running clock.

Adrain piled on in the second half with Morford’s one-yard touchdown run and Colten Bayes scoring on runs of 14 and 46 yards.

North Douglas junior Hunter Vaughn provided the Warriors’ two lone highlights in the game — a 68-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jayden Montgomery in the first half and an 88-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the second half.

Other than those two plays, there wasn’t much for the Warriors to cheer about.

J.J. Mast lamented that North Douglas was missing two senior linemen — Kye Bilyeu and Corbin Schoonover — and leaned on three freshmen (Easton Mast, Blake Reed, and Anthony Vaughn) and two sophomores (Brody Clark and Levin McHaffie) to start and take significant snaps at several key positions.

“Our kids played hard and I’m pretty proud of them, especially the ones getting thrown into the fire in a state championship game against a team like that,” J.J. Mast said. “We really liked our match-ups and our kids fought, but it didn’t go our way tonight. Not a lot went our way tonight, but that’s what happens.

“Adrian is good. They’ve got good linebackers, they’re very physical, very aggressive. We knew what we were up against when we saw them on film and they were every bit of that tonight.”

Adrian’s defense also earned praise as the Antelopes limited Vaughn to 19 yards rushing on 16 carries a week after the North Douglas junior running back broke loose for 287 yards on 13 carries in the Warrirors’ 50-6 semifinal win over Crosspoint Christian.

“We knew we had to keep No. 4 (Hunter Vaughn) inside the box,” Wortman said. “Our defensive ends executed well, turning the running back into our linebackers and defensive linemen. And, yeah, we just played a great defensive game.

“I’m just super proud of our boys. We have hard-working young men and they make tremendous football players.”

Sophomore linebacker Mannie Mulrony led Adrian’s defense with a team-high 11 tackles, including six solo tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss. Zeke Bayes, one of four seniors on the Antelopes’ roster, added nine tackles, including seven solo tackles and four tackles for loss.

Vaughn finished with a team-high 269 all-purpose yards — 19 yards rushing, 111 yards receiving, and 139 yards in kick returns. Montgomery completed 7 of 19 passes for 120 yards with one touchdown.

“Hunter had no room tonight and he got beat up pretty good,” J.J. Mast said. “He’s as explosive a football player as there is out there. He kept fighting and took a lot of shots, but he never gave up and … sometimes that’s the way it goes.

“Our boys should be really proud. They put together a great season. It just didn’t happen for us tonight. We’ll try our best to get back and see if we can come up with one in the future here.”