Columbia River must refocus after 36-13 loss to W.F. West

For two weeks, the Columbia River football team basked in the national spotlight of the viral video from their last-second victory over Skyview.

On Friday night, W.F. West splashed some cold water on the Chieftains, slapping them around their home field in a 36-13 Homecoming defeat.

“We were more focused on the media, on ESPN, everything else going on off the field,” said senior linebacker Nathan Jaskiemy, who had a team-high seven tackles, including 11/2 sacks. “We need to clear our minds and get back to focusing on what goes on the field.”

Columbia River (3-1) opens defense of its Greater St. Helens 3A League title next week against Fort Vancouver, and Chieftains coach John O’Rourke stressed resiliency to his team in the postgame huddle.

“This presents an opportunity for us to work much harder in practice, work on some of the things that were missing from tonight’s game,” O’Rourke said. “We can’t mope around. I hope this helps our kids to seek to improve.”

There will be plenty for O’Rourke to hammer on his team at practice this week. River committed nine penalties for 83 yards, managed only three first downs and 59 yards of total offense over the game’s first 31/2 quarters, and shoddy tackling allowed W.F. West quarterback Tanner Gueller to make several big first-half plays as the Bearcats (4-0) built a quick 21-0 lead.

On the game’s opening drive, Gueller eluded a sack and bought enough time for Rogelio Sevilla to beat double coverage on a 57-yard touchdown pass.

On the next drive, Gueller bowled over two would-be tacklers and broke through two arm tackles on a 32-yard run that set up a 3-yard TD run by Dylan Verderico.

Then after River took a third-down stop off the board to set up a third-and-27 situation following a holding penalty, Gueller again shrugged off a couple of would-be sackers to hit Sevilla on a 45-yard pass to end the first quarter.

Sevilla then ran for a 22-yard score on the opening play of the second quarter, and it was evident there would be no repeat of River’s last-second heroics of the previous two weeks.

“We played them last year, so we knew they were capable of doing this,” O’Rourke said. “We didn’t respond to their level of play.”

Gueller finished 9-for-15 for 189 yards and two touchdowns, and also ran for a score. Sevilla had three catches for 114 yards, and also ran for 53 yards and a TD.

Gabe Evenson came on in the fourth quarter for River and tossed two TD passes in mop-up duty, finishing 6-of-9 for 84 yards.

W.F. WEST 36, COLUMBIA RIVER 13

W.F. West 14 7 7 8–36

Columbia River 0 0 0 13–13

First Quarter

WFW — Rogelio Sevilla 57 pass from Tanner Gueller (Nate Sherfey kick)

WFW — Dylan Verderico 3 run (Sherfey kick)

Second Quarter

WFW — Sevilla 22 run (Sherfey kick)

Third Quarter

WFW — Toby Johnson 20 pass from Gueller (Sherfey kick)

Fourth Quarter

WFW — Gueller 1 run (Zach Braun pass from Alex Cox)

CR — Andrew Haley 20 pass from Gabe Evenson (kick failed)

CR — Carson Bassett 19 pass from Evenson (Nathan Pyles kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — WFW: Gueller 13-21, Verderico 8-18, Sevilla 7-53, Giovanni Corona 3-15, Braun 2-4, Cox 2-11, Jason Yarter 2-4, team 1-(minus 1). CR: Jayson Branson 10-11, Jonathan Branson 9-(minus 8), Evenson 2-46, Vincent Daniels 2-2, Nathan Hawthorne 1-0.

PASSING — WFW: Gueller 9-15-0-189. CR: Jo.Branson 10-15-0-56, Evenson 6-9-0-84.

RECEIVING — WFW: Sevilla 3-114, Verderico 2-23, Bryan Moon 2-28, Johnson 1-20, Cox 1-4. CR: Hawthorne 4-22, Holden Fielding 3-17, Dante Coleman 2-7, Haley 1-20, Bassett 1-19, Marcus Gaylor 1-10, Jacob Ringold 1-5, Jack Skantel 1-23, Codie Schoene 1-10, Mat Philibert 1-7.