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Blanchet quarterback R.J. Veliz gets off a pass under heavy pressure in a 32-12 win against Clatskanie in the first round of the OSAA Class 3A state playoffs on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015.
How a team finishes is supposed to be more important than how a team starts.
But the Blanchet Catholic High football team sure would have liked to start a lot better Saturday night.
After a disastrous first half, the No. 2-seed Cavaliers were fortunate to go to halftime trailing No. 15 seed Clatskanie by a 12-0 deficit in their first round of the OSAA Class 3A state playoffs at McCulloch Stadium.
“I think that the boys just kind of overlooked,” Blanchet coach Justin Hubbard said. “They got to the semis last year. They’re looking at matchups and they thought that we were going to semis just automatically.
“You can never take that mindset into a game. Everybody’s undefeated once the playoffs start until you lose and then you’re out.”
Blanchet was a different team in the second half.
The Cavaliers scored on their first four possessions of the second half – and ran out the clock on their last possession – and came up with two turnovers on defense to defeat the Rams 24-12.
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Clatskanie’s Dawson Howard comes down with an interceptions while being dragged down by Nicholas Orlandini in a 24-12 loss to Blanchet in the first round of the OSAA Class 3A state playoffs on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015.
“It’s just Hubbard is inspiring us,” said Blanchet junior running back Kevin McCarthy. “We had this before. We had Horizon Christian first game of the season, we were down 12-0.
“We’ve had a couple games this year where we just haven’t come out the whole game. Hubbard keeps on saying we want a complete full game and we just haven’t really had that yet, especially not even tonight.”
Blanchet (9-1) advances to Friday’s second round and will host No. 6 seed Coquille (10-0).
Against a better team than 3-7 Clatskanie, a first half like Saturday’s would spell doom.
Blanchet made a lot of bad plays – including a punt for negative yards – committed a lot of penalties and turned the football over when quarterback R.J. Veliz was intercepted by Dawson Howard to end the half.
Add in to that Clatskanie quarterback Cooper Starkel breaking free outside for big gains and running back Wyatt McKay running for touchdowns of 12 and 10 yards in the second quarter and the Rams led 12-0.
“We made a lot of amateur mistakes with penalties,” Hubbard said. “We’ve been a pretty good team with that all year with limiting our mistakes and turnovers. It really cost us every drive we had the first half were a turnover or a big penalty that just cost us the drive.”
The second half was the complete opposite.
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Blanchet running back Kevin McCarthy (22) runs past a bunch of Clatskanie defenders in a 24-12 win in the first round of the OSAA Class 3A state playoffs on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015.
Veliz bailed Blanchet out on third-and-15 on its first drive by scrambling for 24 yards and two plays later ran for a 1-yard touchdown.
After Jared Meyers forced a fumble two plays into Clatskanie’s next drive, Veliz would hit Nicholas Orlandini, and Orlandini scrambled for a 20-yard touchdown to tie the game at 12 with 2:56 left in the third quarter.
McCarthy broke for a 20-yard touchdown for an 18-12 lead with 8:59 left then broke up the middle for a 53-yard touchdown with 3:31 to put the game out of reach.
In the second half, Blanchet’s defense came up with two turnovers and limited Clatskanie’s running game on the edges.
“That kind of killed us in the first half and that quarterback, we just said we got to contain him and we’ll be able to do what we want with him,” McCarthy said. “He kind of got outside and that kind of gave us some trouble so we tried to tighten those things up and that helped us out in the second half.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpoehler
Blanchet 24, Clatskanie 12
|
CLA |
0 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
— |
12 |
|
BLA |
0 |
0 |
12 |
12 |
— |
24 |
-Second quarter
CLA- Wyatt McKay 12 run (kick fail) 9:25.
CLA- McKay 10 run (run fail) 5:59.
-Third quarter
BLA- Veliz 1 run (kick fail) 6:12.
BLA- Nicholas Orlandini 20 pass from Veliz (kick fail) 2:56.
-Fourth quarter
BLA- Kevin McCarthy 20 run (pass fail) 8:59.
BLA- McCarthy 53 run (kick fail) 3:31.
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Clatskanie’s Wyatt McKay runs for a touchdown in a 24-12 loss to Blanchet in the first round of the OSAA Class 3A state playoffs on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015.