As we entered the month of December there was just one final game to be played in all of Oregon high school football. The Central Catholic Rams of Portland were playing the Tualatin Timberwolves in the 6A championship game at Hillsboro Stadium. It would be the sixth state championship for the Rams, if they could win it, and it would be a first for Tualatin after losing in their first two appearances in 2007 and 2010.
Central Catholic would again be conveniently playing on their home field, and that wasn’t the only thing they had going for them. The last time this championship was played they were also ranked #3 in the state and were also matched up against the #4 team. It worked well for them then, as they came out on top against Lake Oswego, and it boded well for success this year. Also, you may remember that I placed a rather large wager that the Rams would repeat as champions this season. After winning back-to-back championships in 1952 and 1953 and again in 2013 and 2014 I figured they were a sure bet to go back-to-back again after their win in 2019.
I’ll come clean right up front and admit that I didn’t watch this game. I was busy. It may seem like I don’t have anything to do other than watch football games and throw together something to post on CPHC but, even for me, sometimes life gets in the way. I didn’t even listen to the game or follow it on the OSAA website. But I did read about it the next day and perused the box score, so I almost feel like I was there. And I wish I would have been. It sounds like it would have been exciting.
For starters, Central Catholic returned two fumbles for touchdowns in the first half, but Tualatin ran for one score and threw for another just before halftime and the teams went to the break with the Rams up just 21-14. That was the high point for the Timberwolves though, as they were shut down in the second half while allowing the Rams another 23 points to make the final 44-14. I was happy to see that, since I had lost big betting on Heppner earlier, and this brought me back to even. And now I’m going to bet that the Rams don’t win next season: They never win three in a row.
Since I wasn’t actually following the game there wasn’t the same sense of finality that I experienced the first time, but now it’s starting to sink in that we’re done now for another nine months. With both the Weinerpus and Platygator seasons this year it was an eventful one, but I really hope that when we attend the season opener next year things will be back to normal. Part of the fun of each trip is interacting with the crowd, and that’s really difficult with a mask on and trying to stay away from the people around you. I’m hoping all of that will be a distant memory next season.
But we still had lots of memorable games, and on the whole I’d say 2021 was pretty neato for high school football. I used that word “neato” in a scrabble game recently, and Mrs. Ednold said it wasn’t a real word. We looked it up, and it is. Then she said “but it’s not a word you ever really use”. At the time, I lied and claimed that I used it all the time, so now I’m trying to work it into conversations so I don’t feel like a liar. I plan to use it a lot in the future so if I sound like a dork it’s totally on purpose. Anyway, we saw a lot this year. We saw some really impressive big schools and some ridiculously beautiful settings for some of the smaller ones, and some in between that led us to places we’d never been before. We went to three different road houses! We went digging for fossils. We attended games at each of my parents’ alma maters. I ate a Pot-O-Gold. We were banished from Perrydale. Over 10% of the people in Wheeler County read one of my stories, which broke the previous record by about 99.999%. We saw several homecoming ceremonies, and senior nights, and little cheerleader nights. Totally neato.
Thanks again to those of you who made the trips with me and to everyone who spent any time reading or listening to any of it. Again, I might have a few ideas for stories between now and September so after you have a wonderful holiday season check back in once in a while.
Ednold, you are an amazing writer and Podcaster. Thank you for a glimpse into subjects close to you, your viewpoint is fun, interesting, and educational. I look forward to what is in the queue next.