Baker tops Astoria to advance to 4A semifinals

There will be a new Class 4A football champion in Oregon this season.

That’s because last year’s champion, Astoria, fell 21-14 to Baker Saturday in the 4A quarterfinals at Bulldog Memorial Stadium.

The win sends Baker (10-1) into the 4A semifinals Saturday at 4 p.m.

against Phoenix at Liberty High School in Hillsboro. Ontario and Marist

meet in the other semifinal at noon Saturday at the same site.

“Hot dang. We’re playing somebody in the semis we’ve never played before,” Baker coach Dave Johnson said of Phoenix.

“Well done. Nice job. I’m extremely proud of the finish,” Johnson told his team in the locker room following Saturday’s win.

“We live to play another day,” the Baker coach yelled, drawing applause from everyone in the room.

“I’m not ready to be done, and I know you’re not,” Johnson said. “I’m liking December a lot.”

Johnson then asked the Bulldogs “how many teams are still practicing Monday afternoon?”

“Four,” was the resounding number that echoed around the room.

Astoria’s offense entered the game averaging almost 37 points a game. Saturday, the Baker defense slowed the Fishermen to just a pair of touchdowns. Astoria did run up 410 yards but also had five turnovers.

“This is one I’m going to talk about for a long time. It was a great effort,” said Baker defensive coordinator Jason Ramos.

“I told our guys they had to be in the right position to do their jobs, as they have all season. Just like all year they stiffened and made the plays.

“I’m proud of them for that,” Ramos said. “When we had to we made the big plays.”

The Baker players gave Astoria credit for being a good team.

“It was tough out there. They played hard,” said senior tackle Kevin Fraser.

“I think they stopped our running game pretty well all day, but our passing game made the difference.”

Fraser and his line mates were battling the likes of Jake Hatcher (6-foot-3, 230 pounds) and Garrett Puckett (6-5, 235) all afternoon.

“Those guys were big. I haven’t been hit like that in a long time,” Fraser said.

“It’s just awesome to be practicing in December. We haven’t got past the second round in a couple of years.”

Bryce Brose, another senior lineman, echoed Fraser’s words.

“It was a very good game,” he said. “The team played very good together. Astoria was a good matchup.”

Baker quarterback Jesse Brown, who also runs Baker’s boys basketball offense from his point guard position, smiled when asked about delaying his return to the hardcourt.

“Yeah!” he said when asked whether he’d like to run the football offense another two weeks (for the 4A title) before joining the basketball team.

“That’s exactly what I’d like to be doing,” he said, laughing.

To a man, the Baker players and coaches also gave credit to the Bulldogs’ “12th man,” the Baker fans.

“I thought our crowd was wonderful today,” said Baker assistant coach Joel Richardson.

Many times when Astoria was forced into a long-yardage situation Richardson and assistant coach Wayne Dyke would wave their arms like the youngsters in the Disney movie “Angels in the Outfield,” to get the crowd going.

“The fans did a great job as our 12th man today,” Richardson said.

“I thought our crowd was a great factor today – boisterous, loud, and a lot of them.

“We ought to play on Thanksgiving weekend more often so more people can bring their families out to enjoy the game and cheer us on,” the coaches said.

Baker needed just one offensive play to get on the scoreboard against the Fishermen.

After forcing Astoria to punt, Stephen Talbot returned the kick 25 yards to the Baker 45.

Then Brown found Trace Richardson open over the middle for a 55-yard touchdown. On the play, Brown faked a handoff to Talbot, dropped back and hit Richardson in stride.

“It was a play action, and a post route for me,” Richardson said of the TD play.

“All I was thinking was ‘please don’t let me drop this’,” the senior receiver said.

Astoria lost two fumbles and had a pass intercepted in the first quarter.

The second fumble came when Alex Eterno muffed a Talbot punt on the Astoria 38 with Baker’s Colton Flynn recovering.

Brown then hit Justin Durflinger for a 15-yard gain, and ran another 15 yards to give Baker a first down at the Astoria 8.

After the Bulldogs lost five yards on a running play, Brown found Ty Everson in the back of the end zone for another touchdown. Everson had to dive to make the catch, the officials waited until they were sure he had the ball before signaling the TD.

Astoria cut Baker’s lead in half five minutes into the second period when quarterback Jacob Davis scored on a 13-yard run. Davis faked the handoff to Dane Lund and rambled up the middle untouched.

Baker led 14-7 at halftime.

Astoria intercepted a Brown pass early in the third period and marched 51 yards for the tying score, a 2-yard run by Davis with 9:07 left in the period.

The teams then traded turnovers with Baker regaining possession on the Astoria 40 when Richardson recovered a Fisherman fumble.

Four plays later Talbot scooted around the left end, using a Will Barr block, and into the end zone for a 21-14 Baker lead with 4:06 left in the quarter.

Baker’s defense then rose up and shut the Fishermen down. Baker limited Astoria to just 53 yards in the fourth quarter.

Astoria drove to the Baker 32 with 41.8 seconds left. Then, with Baker fans chanting “Defense” the Bulldogs forced Davis to throw four straight incomplete passes.

Brown then only had to take a knee with 16.8 seconds left – Astoria had no more timeouts – before letting the rest of the time tick off the clock.

Then, after the teams exchanged handshakes, the Bulldogs bolted from the stadium, down the street to the home of Jack and Dixie Ferguson where they paid their respects to Dixie in honor of her late husband. Jack Ferguson, Baker’s No. 1 fan, died Nov. 15 just before the Bulldogs opened the playoffs.

“The players and coaches wanted to pay tribute to Jack, our No. 1 fan for a long time,” Johnson said. “The players spoke to Dixie and gave her a ‘BHS, BHS’ to honor Jack.”

Astoria 0 7 7 0 – 14

Baker 14 0 7 0 – 21

B – Trace Richardson 55 pass from Jesse Brown (Dekker Smith kick)

B – Ty Everson 13 pass from Brown (Smith kick)

A – Jacob Davis 13 run (Max Johnson kick)

A – Davis 2 run (Johnson kick)

B – Stephen Talbot 15 run (Smith kick)

Individual statistics

Rushing – Astoria: Lund 20-197, Davis 20-128, Erickson 1-4, Torres 1-(-5). Baker: Talbot 25-80, Brown 11-52, Austin 2-8.

Passing – Astoria: Davis 6-21-2-86. Baker: Brown 11-19-2-162.

Receiving – Astoria: Lund 5-63, Erickson 1-23. Baker: Barr 4-52, Richardson 3-69, Everson 2-21, Durflinger 1-15, Talbot 1-5.

Interceptions – Astoria: Harber, Johnson. Baker: Dolby, Everson.