Jake Roy's interception makes Spartans winners

By Steve Gress

Mid-Valley Sports

Whenever the Corvallis High defense has needed a big play this season, Jake Roy has been the one to make it.

Two plays after Roy was whistled for a pass interference call, the Valley League Defensive Player of the Year intercepted a Justin Valley pass to secure the Spartans' 20-17 victory over Summit on Friday in the first round of the OSAA 4A football playoffs at Spartan Stadium.

Corvallis (9-1) will travel to Beaverton next Friday to face the Beavers, who defeated Lincoln 36-6.

The Spartans got all they could have wanted and then some from a Summit team that was making its first playoff appearance after just three years in existence. The Storm jumped out to a 10-0 lead, the largest deficit for Corvallis all season, and was driving to the upset before Roy made his interception.

While Summit was executing early, the Spartans were bumbling their way to four offsides penalties, a blown coverage for a score and three first-half turnovers.

Summit scored on its opening possession on a 42-yard pass from Valley to Chris Ward on third-and-21. After forcing the Spartans to punt after three plays, the Storm moved the ball again, and Mark Zlatek booted a 27-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead.

"It was a little frustrating at the beginning because it seemed like we were lethargic and too into that they are Summit and they are from the Intermountain Conference," Roy said. "Those guys came out and played hard."

Down 10-0, the Spartans turned to Nick Hubel at quarterback, replacing Billy Clontz who got the start after starter Max Chaney was suspended on Wednesday. Clontz, a second-team all-league receiver, returned to his normal position and caught a 21-yard pass that gave the Spartans momentum.

Jarren Simmons capped a six-play drive with a four-yard run to make it 10-7 early in the second quarter. Simmons carried five times for 33 yards on the drive.

The Spartans went to the locker room trailing 10-7 when second-year coach Chris McGowan had some words for his team.

"I think at halftime I felt like they needed to be shook up," McGowan said. "At that point, I didn't really care if we won or lost. I didn't want to end the season by those guys playing that way after playing so well all year.

"So it spurred a little emotion in me and I kind of got after them a little bit. I know in their hearts, they didn't want to end that way. At least play with some spirit and pride and hold your head up, play with confidence and go back and play the way you can instead of getting caught up in the negative part of the game."

The Spartans received the second-half kickoff and took the lead. Ralen Jones had a 40-yard burst up the middle and Kurtis Magee capped the drive with a 12-yard run and an 8-yard run for the score that put CHS up 14-10.

"We really felt like we could (run), even in the first half," McGowan. "We had (three) turnovers in the first half and we were getting offsides penalties. We just never got a chance to get into that kind of a groove, but we did establish that in the second half."

Summit responded as Valley's 28-yard run on second-and-15 set up Justin Reyes' 14-yard run to give the Storm the lead 17-14.

Magee broke loose from 32 yards out to put Corvallis back on top, but Magee's extra-point was blocked leaving the Spartans with a slim 20-17 lead with 11:10 left.

Chris Aman had a key fumble recovery to end one Summit drive and back-to-back pass interference calls kept the final drive alive before Roy's interception.

"The frustrating part was we didn't have that fire on defense that we usually do," junior linebacker J.J.Manning said. "We really thought we had that because we had a great practice all week. That is something we are going to work on this week. We've got to get that swagger back."

Corvallis 20, Summit 17

SUMMIT 10 0 7 0 — 17

CORVALLIS 0 7 7 6 — 20

First quarter

S — Ward 42 pass from Valley (Zlatek kick), 7:19

S — FG Zlatek 27, 2:19

Second quarter

CHS — Simmons 4 run (Magee kick), 9:32

Third quarter

CHS — Magee 8 run (Magee kick), 9:36

S — Reyes 14 run (Zlatek kick), 4:11

Fourth quarter

CHS — Magee 32 run (kick blocked), 11:50

Rushing: S — Haynes 8-16, Reyes 8-33, Torsey 1-1, Valley 13-65. CHS — Magee 15-120, Jones 5-57, Simmons 9-48, Clontz 3-17, Manning 1-14, Hubel 5-0

Passing: S — Valley 12-31-2 186, Reyes 0-1-0 0, Ward 0-1-0 0. CHS — Hubel 3-8-1 48, Clontz 0-1-0 0

Receiving: S — Wiens 5-59, Ward 2-47, Haynes 3-44, Joanis 1-22, Elshire 1-14. CHS — Dickson 2-27, Clontz 1-21