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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 2019)
4B | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2019 | SIUSLAW NEWS Viks from 1B One year later, as Siuslaw hosted the Eagles, Vikings coach Sam Johnson was surveying the field with just under five minutes left in the fourth. “Come on baby, you got this!” Johnson yelled from the sidelines as the score read 57-8, Viking ad- vantage. Freshman Odin Smith made a 4-yard run to bump the score up to 63, then sophomore Camp Lacouture made the kick for the extra point. Despite their best efforts, the Ea- gles were unable to make a push as the clock ran down, losing the game 64-8. It was as close to a mir- ror image as one can get in football, yet Johnson had no idea. “I had no clue. All the kids remember the score from last year,” he said. “Since I wasn’t on the coaching staff, I have no clue what the scores were last year. To me, I know they were 0-8, and that’s all that matters.” The Viking’s are on a roll, picking off each school one-by-one that took them down last year — Newport, Philomath. Some have dubbed this the year the “Gold Helmet Re- venge Tour.” That’s not how Johnson sees it. “It wasn’t any revenge or any malice,” he said. “Har- risburg’s coaching staff is awesome, and I love their head coach. And they said, ‘We got you guys last year and we’re glad you guys are up and rising this year.’ There were no ill feelings, and I don’t feel like we ran up the score. I just feel like we executed and played re- ally well.” That’s not to say that the Viks aren’t out to prove something. “For us, we’re playing together as a family play- ing football,” Johnson said. “We’re hoping all the scores are very lopsided and we’re on top. For the kids, it’s got to feel real good. When you get embarrassed like that in front of the entire state, it feels good to get a win 64-8 and let everybody know, that’s not who we are. And that’s definitely not who we are this year.” And who the Viks are this year is a diverse team with offense and defensive standouts that Johnson is more than happy to talk Fishing from 1B be found throughout the lake in a variety of habi- tats. Warmwater fishing will continue to be good through the summer and into the fall. Siltcoos also gets stocked rainbow trout, check the stocking sched- ule for numbers and dates of stockings. Coho fishing in Siltcoos and Tahkenitch opened Oct. 1. up. “Offensively, you could say all 11 and add in our substitutes, but we couldn’t do what we do if it wasn’t for the man behind the center, quarterback Elijah Blankenship,” he said. “His will power to just show up and do the right thing, whether it’s at school, in the classroom, on the prac- tice field, in the game field, outside of school, at church — he just consistently does the right thing.” But Blankenship knows he’s not alone on the field. After throwing a pass to wide receiver Braydon Thornton, he told Johnson, “Holy smokes, it’s really fun throwing to a kid like that.” “I’ve never seen a receiv- er as a sophomore that has such raw talent. For me it’s fun because the receiver is the position that I played and coached, specifically. And to get to coach a kid like that is really special.” As of Friday, Thornton had 10 touchdown recep- tions in just five games — including four against Harrisburg, tying the sin- gle-game record set by Collin Cram-Watkins in 2003. Johnson gave gave start- ing receiver Issac Garza high marks, stating that he would be a go-to receiver for any team in the state. “You can see how good he is when we throw him the ball two or three times, and every catch he makes is diving or he’s jumping over the guy or he’s making a catch when he’s getting hit,” Johnson said. There’s Rhys Fleming and Avery Hart, the tight ends, along with Camp La- couture. “To be able to throw it to Camp in the backfield and shove it down people’s throat with him and Hec- tor Garcia, if I was an op- posing coach to these guys, I wouldn’t know what to do. I know a lot of teams will say they have a ton of skill guys. But when you look across the board at our guys, and have them all love each other and want each other to succeed way more than they want them- selves to succeed, it’s really cool and really special.” Johnson said defensive- ly, Henry Rankin and Matt Horillo can hold down the middle like no others. “And then you got Dayson Foglio and Avery Hart with the in,” he said. ALSEA RIVER: Fall Chinook, cutthroat trout Fall Chinook fishing on the Alsea River continues to be fair to good. It has not been red hot but anglers are consistently catching fish every day and fish are now spread throughout the estuary. A few fish moved into the river with the last rain events but the low water should hold everything in the estuary until the next significant rain. The first few weeks in September is typically when the fishing In 2019 we will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of our business in Florence. It is time to express the appreciation and gratitude we feel, and have always felt, for the friendship, trust and loyalty of those who live in this community. It is your confi dence in us and your continued patronage that has made these 80 years such a pleasurable experience. Th ank you. Johnston Motor Company Since 1939 2150 Hwy. 101 • Florence (541) 997-3475 • 1-800-348-3475 “And then you have fresh- men that sub in there all the time.” But Johnson pointed out that the defense would not be anything close to special if it wasn’t for Brady Libby. “Every day in practice, he sets the tone with the kids — ‘This is how we’re going to go about things, this is how hard we’re go- ing to hit, this is who we are as a defense,’” said Johnson. “He’s got a bunch of turnovers early. He leads our team by a million in tackles. We wouldn’t be anywhere near the football team we are if it wasn’t for his character and attitude every day.” Despite the strong team, the plays aren’t always per- fect, as Johnson pointed out. “We had to fumbles,” he said, referring to Harris- burg. “Five incompletions. We had a dropped ball. Missed a bunch of block- ing assignments, defen- sively. We missed a bunch of tackles.” That’s not to say that the game was bad, “I’d be in- sane to say that we played bad or that we have tons of room to grow,” Johnson said. “That was pretty ex- cellent on all sides of the ball and all facets of the game.” But with issues to work on, the Viks have no reached their peak perfor- mance, in Johnson’s view. “You’re not supposed to peak at week five,” he said. “A lot of teams peak at week three or four. Some always try and peak when the playoffs are starting. You want to peak in De- cember, and that’s when the state championship is. If we’re not peaking in December, then what are you preparing for? If you’re peaking in week six or sev- en, you’re doing everything wrong. We’re still slowly installing stuff and we’re slowly learning new stuff. We’re going to continue to install stuff to get better as a team and look forward to the future.” And the future is any- thing but easy for the Viks. This week, they travel to Santiam Christian, who are looking to continue their five-win streak. “I mean, man, you say you don’t circle any games on the calendar, but San- tiam Christian, shoot, ev- erybody circles them.” The perennial power- house is always ranked improves and it will con- tinue to get better as the season progresses. Due to low forecasted fall Chinook returns, this year’s daily bag limit has been reduced to 1 wild Chinook per day and 5 per year for the mid-coast aggregate (Siletz River to Siuslaw River). No wild coho retention for the 2019 season. Trout fishing in streams is open until Oct. 31. in the top five in the state yearly, and as a private school, they get more lat- itude in picking their own kids. “If we make stupid mis- takes like we’ve done all year, they’ll blow us out,” Johnson said. “For us, we need to shore up those holes in our ship real quick. And we need to do it this week.” But the Viks are accept- ing the challenge. “We can sit back and complain, or we can just buckle up with the guys we’ve got. We’re going to go right after them, just like they’re going to come right after us. I don’t think we’re going to shy away in any way. To me, this is the bat- tle that we want, because it will say a lot about who we are as a team.” Kick-off for Friday’s game is set for 7 p.m. The first step to better hearing? I WILL HEAR Getting your hearing tested by the ONLY doctors of audiology in Florence. Call today to start your year off right! BETTER HEARING THIS YEAR of Florence ASSOCIATES 541.991.4475 1901 Hwy 101, Ste A Florence HearingAssociatesOfFlorence.com | Doctors of Audiology Stocks. Bonds. CDs. IRAs. Mutual funds. Andy Baber, AAMS® Financial Advisor . 1010 Highway 101 Florence, OR 97439 541-997-8755 www.edwardjones.com Member SIPC DENTURE SERVICES INC. LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED Open 4 days a week! 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