Posted: Saturday, September 1, 2007 12:00 am
Gazette-Times
STAYTON - Philomath High rallied from a 14-0 deficit but came up just short in a 14-13 nonleague game against Stayton on Friday night.
CJ Roach returned a fumble 60 yards for a touchdown to pull PHS to within one in the fourth quarter. The Warriors, however, weren't able to convert the conversion for the win.
"We competed, especially defensively," PHS coach Troy Muir said. "The defense set the tone for us and CJ's fumble return was huge for us."
On offense, things didn't go quite as smoothly for the Warriors. Quarterback John Koeppe was 1 of 4 passing, his lone completion being an 18-yarder to Matt Hill.
"There were some first-game jitters," Muir said. "We kind of struggled out of the gate and then we started putting things together. It would have been nice to put it in the end zone more."
Koeppe, however, got PHS on the board in the third quarter with a 2-yard bootleg run. Hill was the Warriors leading rusher with 63 yards on 12 carries.
Philomath hosts Cascade next Friday.
Stayton 14, Philomath 13
PHILOMATH 0 0 7 6 - 13
STAYTON 6 0 8 0 - 14
First quarter
S - 30 run (Kick failed)
Second quarter
S - 18 run (conversion good)
Third quarter
P - Koeppe 2 run (Motter kick)
Fourth Quarter
P - Roach 60 fumble return (conversion failed)
RUSHING - Philomath: Calder 3-0, Fakhoury 12-53, Hill 12-63, Koeppe 2- 7
PASSING - Philomath: Koeppe 1-4 -0 18
RECEIVING - Philomath: Hill 1 -18