McKenzie Sports Repor – November 20

McKenzie Varsity Sports Schedule This Week

The McKenzie Varsity 2025 Fall sports season has concluded. There are no scheduled contests this week.

Crow Upsets Top-Ranked Triangle Lake, 32-20

Cougars Advance To Semifinals Versus Elkton

There was a cougar sighting last Friday night, November 15, over on the football field at Triangle Lake High School. And for the most part, the host team Lakers isn’t celebrating the visit. You see, the Lakers were the top-ranked, undefeated six-man football team at the start of the OSAA State Quarterfinal game that evening and they were hosting on their home field.

Triangle Lake had earned their Quarterfinal home field advantage by wrapping up their Special District 2 Regular Season unbeaten, one of just two teams statewide. Harper Charter of the High Desert Special District 1 is the other. The Lakers’ neighbors and Quarterfinal opponent, the Crow Cougars, stepped off the team bus Friday night touting an impressive resume of their own, however, a 7-2 overall record and a State ninth place ranking. Plus, rather than enjoying a bye week (League Champs earned a Round 1 bye) like the Lakers, the Cougars traveled to Central Oregon the week prior, Friday, November 8, to tangle with the eighth ranked Dayville/Monument/Lost Creek Tigers in a Round 1 playoff game.

The Cat Fight at Dayville that night ended in a 52-12 Cougar rout over their east-side hosts and certainly made for a better ride on the long trek back home. So, one could make a reasonable argument that the bye week worked more advantageously for the active Cougars than the idle Lakers. And the evidence falls in line with the theory; Crow upset their second team in a couple of weeks, defeating Triangle Lake 32-20.

The Cougars now advance to the Semifinals where they will turn their bus 180 degrees and head South, just down the road to fourth ranked Elkton. Elkton is the Special District 3 Champion and 34-26 winners of their own Quarterfinal game versus Joseph.

There will be no surprises when the Elks and the Cougars face off next Saturday, November 22, at neutral Cottage Grove High School. The two teams introduced themselves to each other right off the bat this Fall in a non-counting jamboree at Crow. Then, during Regular Season play, Crow traveled to Elkton and the Cougars were soundly thrashed 34-0.

Fast forward to this Post Season Semifinal game, with all the marbles in the ring, it sounds like the makings of a one-sided grudge match by a Crow team that doesn’t hold much credence in rankings. On the other hand, elk season is over, and Elkton isn’t coming off a bye week. Add in the fact that the last time Elkton qualified for the State Semifinals, the Elks, ranked third at the time were upset by tenth ranked Echo, 34-19. That was the 2023 season and you can bet Elkton still feels the sting.

The upstart Cougars are enjoying their first Championship playoff opportunity since the re-enactment of six-man football in Oregon and haven’t experienced post-season playoff action since 2012, back then a first round loss. So, the stage is set and the pump is primed. The prowling, hungry Cougars versus the upset mindful Elks kicking off on the Lions of Cottage Grove field. Will it turn out to be a purrrfect day for the Cats or a “set the record straight” day for the Elks? You can find out for yourself next Saturday, 1:00 pm, at Cottage Grove.

Meanwhile, over in sunny Baker City, the second ranked Harper Charter Hornets will host sixth ranked Sherman in the other Class 1A six-man Semifinal game. The Hornets are 10-0, and the Huskies sit on 9-2. These two teams met earlier on October 17 at Sherman, and the Hornets stung the Huskies with a 59-26 rout. This time out will the Dogs shake off the Wasp attack? Stay tuned next week for the latest buzz.

Other Area Football Team’s In Post-Season Action

In Class 1A eight-man football post-season games, the seventh ranked North Douglas Warriors (Drain) found themselves situated along the Idaho border between the confluence of the Snake and Owyhee rivers last Saturday, November 15. The Warriors traveled to Adrian, the State’s second ranked eight-man football team and one of two, the other being the Dufur Rangers, undefeated teams at this level. Adrian is this season’s Special District 4 (High Desert) League Champ and North Douglas, 8-3, finished second to the Perrydale Pirates in Special District 2.

The Antelopes’, that is Adrian’s offense, ran circles around the North Douglas defense and the ‘lopes defense threw the hammer down, all resulting in a 49-0 rout, in Mt. Time, of the Douglas County visitors.

Some lessons are hard to take at the moment, but one might reflect for a minute on a positive take-a-way the Warriors gained in Malheur County. North Douglas graduates one senior player this season and you can bet this game will be foremost on their minds when they take to the 2026 gridiron. Adrian advances to face third ranked Union, 36-24 victors over Imbler in that Quarterfinal game.

On the other side of the bracket, top-ranked and still undefeated Dufur, 10-0, throttled Perrydale 36-6 and advances to face fourth ranked Crosspoint Christian, 8-2, which narrowly slipped by Elgin, 22-20, in their Quarterfinal game. It would seem appropriate to tip the hat to the folks determining the rankings in that in this eight-man post-season, #1 plays #4 and #2 meets #3. That’s according to the book, just saying!

Class 2A, eleven-man football, had the Lowell Red Devils, Champions of the Special District 3 League, 9-2 and ranked eighth, traveling last Saturday to the top ranked and undefeated Heppner Mustangs. The Red Devils must have stopped somewhere along the way and took a long drink of water from the same spring as the aforementioned Warriors. For at the end of the day, Lowell would succumb to a 46-0 rout courtesy of their Heppner hosts. Only difference in this game was the time zone (PT).

Heppner moves on to face #4 St. Paul, 36-16 victors over Clatskanie, and on the other side of the 2A bracket, #2 ranked Lost River, 10-1, hosts #3 Bandon, 10-0. Hmm, those rankings folks are bragging here too! But for the sake of a ponder, could the 2A Championship feature a couple of undefeated teams (Bandon and Heppner)? That would rankle those rankers.

That’s about it for local teams, unless, oh yeah, you consider the Churchille Lancers of the Class 5A Championship brackets. The thirteenth ranked Lancers might have pulled off the biggest upset of the Fall post-season by upsetting the Special District 4 Champion and fifth ranked Thurston Colts. Churchill, also of the Spec. Dist. 4, upended Thurston, 33-23, at Thurston, last Friday night. It was revenge night for the Lancers, who lost in League play to the Colts, 16-27, on October 17. For the Colts, well at least they didn’t have to travel out of another time zone clear across the State while reliving the game. Maybe different folks were compiling the rankings in the Class 5A.