AUGUST 31, 2018, KEIZERTIMES FOOTBALL PREVIEW, PAGE C11
NORTH SALEM VIKINGS
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
The North Salem Vikings return starters at quarterback and both the offensive and defensive line this season.
North Salem moves down to 5A
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
North Salem isn’t guaranteed
to fi nd life playing football in 5A
any easier than 6A.
But the Vikings will at least face
teams closer to their own size.
While North Salem has nearly
2,000 students enrolled in its
school, only 75-80 students play
football, compared to around 120
at nearby 6A schools McNary and
South Salem.
Those numbers make it
diffi cult for the Vikings to fi eld
three teams—varsity, JV and
freshman.
“That’s always been an issue
for us is the amount of kids we’re
able to get out,” said head coach
Jeff Flood, entering his 11 th year
at North Salem. “I think a lot of
people just look at the amount of
kids that walk through your front
door everyday but that doesn’t
really impact how many athletes
you have or how many kids are
actually participating in sports. I
think our numbers are more equal
to the teams we’ll be joining.”
The Vikings, which haven’t
won more than three games in
any season over the last fi ve years,
weren’t given any favors in the
league they were placed in, which
includes two other teams moving
down from 6A, McKay and West
Albany, as well as four squads that
reached the 5A state quarterfi nals
last season—Lebanon, South
Albany, Crescent Valley and
Silverton.
“It’s a tough league so football-
wise I don’t really think we catch
a break,” Flood said. “The last
couple of years there’s a lot of
teams that have had success and
teams that are used to going out
and winning. It’s going to be
competitive every week. It’s going
to be important for us to just look
at who we’re playing next and not
worry about what level they are.
It’s new teams for these kids. The
biggest thing is we don’t know
any of the kids we’re playing.”
North Salem returns the pieces
Flood’s Wing T offense needs
to have a successful season—
experience at quarterback and the
offensive line.
“That gives us a solid
foundation to build on since last
season,” Flood said.
Quarterback Zac Sullivan, a
senior, will lead the offense for
the second year in a row.
“He’s really capable of running
everything,” Flood said. “That’s
comforting as a coach to know
you have that.”
Senior Andre Beall leads a line
that also includes Zach Goodwin
and Obbi Garcia.
“I really like
the kids we have up front and
that’s part of the strength of this
program is to be able to rely on
them to do the job for us and then
the pieces around them will grow
as the season goes on,” Flood said.
While North Salem will miss
fullback Rigo Padilla, the Vikings
have at least half a dozen players
who can carry the football—Zach
Graham, Travis Hardy, Teyden
Ysasage, Ian Carlos, Clint Pfeifer
and Jason Carter-Varay.
“We had a pretty focused
attack last year with the running
back (Padilla) we had,” Flood said.
“It’s going to take a lot of kids to
replace the yards that he had but
that’s kind of the beauty of our
system.”
North Salem opens the 2018
season at Crescent Valley on
Friday, Aug. 31.
SPEED,
continued from Page 9
The Titans return only
two full-time starters on
offense—Pugh at tight end
and Gould at receiver.
Both will play at the next
level as Pugh has committed
to Air Force and Gould to
Oregon State.
“Obviously people are
SCHEDULE
Aug. 31 at Crescent Valley
Sept. 7 vs Corvallis
Sept. 14 vs Dallas
Sept. 21 vs Silverton
Sept. 28 at McKay
Oct. 5 vs West Albany
Oct. 12 at Central
Oct. 19 vs South Albany
Oct. 26 at Lebanon
going to try to take him
away,” Stanley said of Gould.
“We’re lucky enough we
have some other guys and
we’ve just got to be creative
with where we put him.”
West Salem has one of
the toughest schedules in
the state, opening the season
at Lake Oswego on Aug. 31
and then hosting Sheldon on
Sept. 21.
“It’s not going to be a
slow buildup,” Stanley said.
“It’s going to be one of the
best teams in the state week
one, which I look forward
to. We’re going to fi nd out
a lot about ourselves, win
or lose. I think they see it
as an opportunity to play
the toughest schedule we’ve
ever played and we want to
compete with the best and
we defi nitely have two of
them on our schedule.”
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