Warriors close in on historic playoff berth

But the Warriors need one more win or a Southridge loss next week to make it

By Miles Vance

The Beaverton Valley Times, Oct 31, 2009

Miles Vance / Beaverton Valley Times

GAME WINNER — Aloha junior running back John Schaffer celebrates after scoring his team's game-winning touchdown in the fourht quarter of the Warriors' 20-16 home win over Westview on Friday night.

ALOHA – Big wins have been few and far between for the Aloha football teams over the past two decades.

The Warriors, who are hoping to break a 21-year playoff drought this year, got one of those big wins on Friday when they knocked off Westview 20-16 at Aloha High School. Aloha led 13-0 at halftime thanks to two touchdowns from freshman running back Thomas Tyner (14 carries for 102 yards), saw Westview rally with 16 unanswered points in the second half, then sealed its win with a 6-yard John Schaffer touchdown with 2 minutes, 51 seconds left in the game.

"This win was tremendous. This win means everything to us," said Aloha senior lineman James Euscher. "We’re going to be in the playoffs this year, hopefully. We just need to beat Beaverton after this and it’s all on after that."

"It was our homecoming," Tyner said. "We were pumped. We were ready to go. We had a good feeling. We need to go to the playoffs so we just came to play."

The victory lifted Aloha's 2009 Metro League record to 2-2 (5-3 overall), put the Warriors into a four-way tie for second place with Beaverton, Southridge and Westview (5-3 overall), and meant that next week's Metro finale at Beaverton could not be bigger.

With one week left, the Metro playoff scenario looks like this: first, Jesuit (5-0, 7-1 overall) will win the league and make the playoffs; second, Sunset (0-4, 2-6 overall) has been eliminated; and third, for Aloha to reach the postseason, the Warriors need to beat Beaverton or have Southridge lose to Westview in the last round.

Conversely, Westview will reach the playoffs if it either beats Southridge on Friday or if Aloha loses to Beaverton.

"This is over and done," said Westview quarterback Phil Belding, who went 13-of-27 for 153 yards and two interceptions on Friday. "We just have to worry about Southridge now."

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