You would sure like to point to a true league rival when it comes to The 2A Tri-River but the truth is, it seems to be a rival game every Friday night in this tough 2A Conference.
In 2016, all five teams from this conference made the playoffs, and all but one of them, moved into the second round and claimed the state title when Regis brought home the hardware last year. Now here in 2017, here we are with 4/5 of them ranked in the top 10 of The OSAA Rankings before kick-off tonight, with three weeks left in the regular season.
St. Paul(6-0/2-0), came into tonight, as the top rated team in the state also boasting the number one ranking in The OSAA RPI, BCS, Colley, Power, and the number four ranking in Strength Of Schedule. How have they done it? Well besides an impressive unblemished win streak, The Bucks are the top scoring team in the state at 234 points, and they back that up with the number three ranked defense according to points against at only 44. The Bucks were looking to avenge the 14-6 loss from 2017 at the hands of The Trojans in front of their always supportive home crowd on Senior/Hall Of Fame Night.
Kennedy(1-5/1-1), is off to a rough start in 2017 especially considering the history of the program and their lofty status year to year. That being said, they got that all important first win of the season last week against Central Linn which as far as The Trojans are concerned, set up this showdown at The Rodeo Grounds for the right to sole possession of the driver’s seat here in The Tri-River Conference.
The game opened with St Paul taking the kick, and Kennedy held tough forcing The Bucks into a turn over on downs on their opening drive. Kennedy then fed The Bucks a heavy dose of Sophomore RB Emorej Lynk until the converted QB, took a carry 10 yards on a second and 7 for the games initial score. Sophomore kicker Bruce Beyer converted the PAT with 6:50 left in the opening quarter.
The top ranked Bucks, did not panic and simply went back to work until they were able to tie it up with a Justin Herberger TD on a third and goal four minutes later. Junior Zach Brentano would finish with The PAT.
