This season was one to remember for the Wildcats. Entering the season, a lot of people saw Wilsonville as one of, if not the, favorites to win the 5A State Championship. However, the high expectations didn’t seem to phase them.
With many returning starters from last year’s state finalist team, there were very few question marks. The most prominent of those question marks was the question of how the team would handle losing their leading receiver from last year, Cooper Hiday, and who would step up to fill his role as a deep threat in the passing game.
The schedule, as always, would begin with non-league play, featuring several 6A opponents. Headlining them was an away game at Tualatin, a team that made it to the 6A playoff semifinals. There was also a state championship rematch game against Summit, who unlike Wilsonville, had to replace many of starters.
The season started off with a bang, beating fellow 5A powerhouse Thurston 44-15, with Gutridge finishing the game with 348 yards and 3 touchdowns passing on high efficiency. One game into the year and the receivers showed they were ready to step up, with juniors Mark Wiepert and Nick Crowley combining for 264 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Then, after an away game win vs 6A Westview, Wilsonville had Tualatin away, their biggest test of the regular season. The Wildcats played them last year, and lost in a blowout, only scoring 3 points. This year wouldn’t be as easy for the Timberwolves.
The Wildcats went toe to toe with the 6A giants, trailing just 6 in the 4th quarter. The defense was looking great, however struggling to contain Tualatin’s Quarterback to the pocket, while the offense was looking spotty, with a few crucial errors and turnovers.
Tualatin, leading 19-13, has the ball with minutes left. If Wilsonville gets the ball back, they give the offense a chance to win the game. 3rd down near the midfield logo, if Tualatin converts they likely win the game. Tualatin drops back to pass, and nothing’s there, but their QB finds a gap and scrambles forward for the first down.
Tualatin went on to win, scoring a field goal and making the final score 22-13, but the loss didn’t mess with Wilsonville’s mindset. “I think we should have beat Tualatin, but we had too many turnovers on offense. We had so many opportunities that we just didn’t ever take advantage of. That was a game we had short-memory of,” Gutridge stated.
Wilsonville would then beat Summit 35-20 to end non-league play in a game that looked closer on the scoreboard than it truly was, with Summit scoring a touchdown with 2 minutes left in the game to reach 20.
The Wildcats cruised out the regular season, going undefeated in league play, led offensively by a deadly passing game helping the team average 45 points a game. “The offense is clicking a lot, we only play the first half usually before back ups come in to close the game so that everyone can get on the field which is pretty cool,” said junior Nick Crowley on the offense’s run of 3 58+ point games in a row to close the regular season.
After the dominant regular season, the Wildcats would have a Conference Championship to play against Canby. Canby was having a great year with a team playing an incredible defense, not allowing their opponents to reach double digits in 5 straight games, and an offense that could score 40+ points any given game.
Canby came out looking to cause an upset, stuffing the Wildcats running game, slowly moving up the field offensively and getting points while being able to, for the most part, keep the Wilsonville passing game in check. At halftime Wilsonville led just 14-8. “At half I vividly remember being worried about Canby’s time of possession being a factor. They had a 10 minute drive in the first quarter against us that was brutal,” said Gutridge.
Wilsonville then came out of the half firing on all cylinders as Canby looked tired and could no longer compete. Gutridge finished throwing 6 passing touchdowns, with Junior receiver Mark Wiepert catching 4 of them. The Wildcats won 49-22, and earned the number one seed going into the playoffs.
Wilsonville opened their run with an easy 42-7 win vs Crater, and a 49-21 win in a rematch vs Thurston, before getting a rematch with Summit, and an opportunity to get revenge for last year’s state championship.
Summit improved over the year, and the expectation was that it would be a back and forth battle. That was far from the case, as Wilsonville won 34-2 at a neutral site at Willamette University, far different from their 35-20 final earlier in the year. “I think the results were different due to our discipline penalty wise the second time around. In the first game we killed ourselves on offense in the second half because of penalties,” said Gutridge.
Wilsonville had returned to the State Championship for the second year in a row, their opponent being Mountainview, a team led by an explosive offense that had scored 40 or more in all 3 playoff games leading up to the title game.
Mountain View started out the game firing, holding a 20-7 lead at halftime after some questionable calls against Wilsonville, with Wilsonville having double digit penalties at halftime. The Wildcats didn’t give up, though.
The pass rush started getting going, Gutridge got in a rhythm in the 4th quarter leading the passing game, and Wiepert was picking up big yardage while the defense held strong. Gutridge found Crowley in the back of the end zone to give them the 29-23 lead with just minutes left.
Mountain View had one last opportunity to win the state championship, with possession of the ball near the 20 with under a minute left, they had 3 plays left to find the endzone. But after moving forward, junior Linebacker Will Ingle got a sack, and after a deflection from senior Luke Larson, the Wildcats had won their first State title since 2004!
Wilsonville is losing a lot of starters to graduation, but have some key players returning, like Mark Wiepert who will likely play QB next year, wide receiver Nick Crowley, linebacker Carter Christiansen, and running back Roman Kealoha.