Dayton 10/31/25

It was the final Friday of the regular season.  Rivalry night.  And how better to spend it than watching one of the biggest rivalries in the state:  Dayton vs. Amity.

Both of these teams have impressive football histories by any standard, even if I have reason to think they’re not quite as impressive as they’d like everyone to believe.  The Pirates from Dayton have been playing football since 1928 and won a state B Division title in 1948.  In 1965 Dewey Sullivan took over as coach and for his first 19 seasons in charge he was unable to win another championship with the Pirates.  He didn’t quit, though, and won five championships over the next 22 years, and had a 352-84-2 record at the time of his death after the 2006 season. 

The Pirates were led to their title in 2002 by future Duck and NFL tight end Dante Rosario, who was drafted by the Panthers but played for several teams in an 8-year pro career.  Dayton has added one other championship since then, in 2012, and came in to this game undefeated this season, so maybe they’re about to add another one.  I do have to mention, however, that the sign on the back of their grandstand claims a championship in 1942.  The Pirates did finish 11-0 that season, but there were no OSAA championships played in 1941 or 1942, so I’m not sure what that claim refers to.  Anyway, they have a bunch of them.

The Warriors from Amity have won just as many championships though, including that 1941 championship that wasn’t even played.  They’ve met Dayton in the championship game twice, with each team winning one of them, and though they won’t be headed to the playoffs this season they are one of the few teams that can match the Pirates’ past success, and in a rivalry game at the end of the regular season, who knows what could happen?  Both teams have played in several different classifications over the years, but now they both play in Special District 2 of the 3A classification along with other perennial playoff contender Santiam Christian.

It was a grey, overcast day, but the trees in valley were at the height of their different shades of yellow, orange, or red as The Bucket took us a few miles northeast of McMinnville to the town of Dayton.  Dayton, in Yamhill County, was founded in 1850 by two guys named Andrew Smith and  Joel Palmer.  Smith was originally from Dayton, Ohio, so he decided to give his new town the same name, minus the Ohio part.  The most conspicuous sight as we drove through the small town of a few thousand people was the Courthouse Square Park right in the middle.  In the corner of the park is the reconstruction of Fort Yamhill, which originally stood several miles away near Willamina, but was taken down and moved to Dayton in 1911.  It was an active outpost of the U.S. Army from 1856 to 1866, and Phillip Sheridan served as Commander there for a while.  The architecture is interesting, but I don’t know if I’d want my life to depend on it protecting me from much of anything.

We continued our tour of the little downtown and came across what looked to be a perfect place for a pregame snack.  I was just hoping the By-Pass Bar & Grill didn’t get its name from the number of its patrons who had succumbed to coronary artery disease.  We wandered in and my first impression of the people of Dayton was that they are the most extremely unattractive residents of any town I’ve ever been in.  They were just revolting.  Then I noticed all of the Halloween decor and remembered what night it was.  It all started to make sense, and my new BFF on the stool next to me suddenly didn’t look quite as bad.  That’s a lie.  She still looked positively hideous, but at least she had an excuse.

We ate our snacks, we drank our drinks, we took in the early Halloween evening ambience of what was obviously a very popular local bar, and then we were ready to drive the short distance to the high school for some Halloween football.  The school building was remodeled in 2000, but it was originally built in 1937 and has a beautiful art deco façade that I’m glad they retained.  We took a turn onto 8^th Street, drove a block or two behind the school and found a parking lot right next to the football field.  Naturally, the very moment I opened The Bucket’s door, the first sprinkles started falling from the dark clouds overhead, and I was grateful to see a big covered grandstand on the opposite side of the field.

Mrs. Ednold and I snagged a pair of choice seats right on the 50 yard line, and the crowd slowly filled in the empty spaces around us.  It’s a big wooden grandstand with comfortable wood seats, but could use an upgrade from the few 20w light bulbs working hard to illuminate the whole thing.  Long before the game started, while the two teams were still warming up on the artificial turf field, Dayton began their Senior Night activity.  Someone had realized that a pregame ceremony would work better than trying to squeeze it in at halftime, so the senior cheerleaders and football players were introduced with their families and when it was all over we were ready for a well-sung national anthem. 

As the visiting fans arrived they began by filling the small uncovered bleachers on their side of the field, but as the rain continued to fall and actually picked up as game time approached, almost all of them made the walk over to the grandstand and filled in the north end with their small contingent and their cheerleaders relocated to the rubber track in front of them.  I almost had to restrain Mrs. Ednold when she saw the visitors invading our dry bleachers, but the rest of the Dayton fans graciously shared their space with the wet folks from Amity, and as large as the grandstand is, it was close to standing room only by the opening kickoff.  The Warriors had far fewer fans, but about twice as many cheerleaders as Dayton, and we got to hear the two crews and their dueling cheers thoughout the game.  It’s funny that all the squads know the exact same 10 or 12 cheers, but they each have their own slightly different choreography for each one.  Does each team have their own choreographer?  That’s rhetorical, but it’s a question that popped into my mind for a second.

It took us a while to figure out which team the band belonged to, as they were set up near the visiting fans in the grandstand, on the far end from where their cheerleaders and most of their fans were sitting, but eventually it became apparent that the little six-person horn section was playing for the home team.  Considering the size of the group, they weren’t bad at all, except for the fact that their fight song is the Notre Dame song, which makes me physically ill whenever I hear it, and I had to hear it a lot.  I can’t blame the band for that though; few schools seem to have original songs like my old school does.

After the Pirates entered the field through a giant inflatable pirate head, the game was on.  The Warriors made a valiant effort on defense, forcing a punt on Dayton’s opening drive, but their offense was the opposite of high-powered.  My thesaurus suggests “feeble”, so lets go with that. They didn’t lack any effort, but they were undersized compared to the Pirates and had no passing game whatsoever.  The Warrior defense continued to play tough but couldn’t hold out forever, and by the end of the first quarter Dayton had scored and had themselves a 6-0 lead.

As the two teams were swapping ends of the field, I made my way downstairs to check out the concession facilities beneath the stands.  It’s a small booth tucked away in a corner where members of the FBLA club were manning the order window.  There was no line at all, and when I walked up the girl asked if I would like to try a quesadilla.  I knew I wasn’t hungry enough to eat a whole case of them, but I let her know I would try just a single dilla, if that was ok.  She said I could but I’d still have to pay for the whole case.  I don’t know how they get away with that, but I paid it and had no regrets.  It was hot and tasty, but I was still glad I hadn’t gotten the entire case.  Also, they have the best coffee I’ve ever had.  I don’t know what kind it was but it would be worth the price of admission just to be able to get a cup of it.

Back on the football field, the Pirate offense continued to overpower their Warrior counterparts, running and passing all over the place and scoring three more times in the second quarter for a 28-0 halftime lead.  The band played throughout the halftime, but with the Senior Night ceremonies already complete there was nothing to do but watch the clock tick down to the second half. 

As the second half began, what had been a constant heavy drizzle began to let up, but otherwise it was more of the same on the field.  The Warrior offense never could sustain a drive, and the Pirate offense just had too many big bodies to slow down for long.  They only managed one touchdown in the third quarter, but that score prompted the clock to keep ticking continuously, and time had almost literally run out for Amity.  I wish the Dayton coach had had enough class to take out his starters at that point, but he kept them out there until they scored again with just a few minutes left in the game, at which point the second-string defense went in to finish it.  With the score 42-0, the Warrior offense easily tore through the back-up defenders and were able to get on the board as time ran out, ending a disappointing 3-6 season on a positive note.

The Dayton Pirates have managed to trick everyone except me into believing Pirates are a good mascot for a team from the heart of Oregon wine country.  But on this night they treated themselves to an undefeated league season, a league championship, and a date with the Douglas Trojans in the first round of the playoffs.  I suppose if you’re going to be tricking and treating they chose a good night for it.