By Jeremy McDonald

TUALATIN, Ore.— Both Tualatin and Canby football teams were looking to reverse the losing trends they were on entering Friday’s 6A match-up.

But mental mistakes by the Cougars (2-4, 1-3 Three Rivers League) were taken advantage of by the eighth-ranked Timberwolves (5-1, 4-1 TRL) resulting in a 25-7 victory for Tualatin Friday night.

“We didn’t play good enough,” said Canby’s Tanner Monen.  “We practiced well all week and we didn’t come out and execute.  It’s just all making mental mistakes, not getting the count right, jumping offside’s .  Stupid stuff.”

It was scoreless entering the second quarter, but the running game of the T’Wolves broke that as Dominic Rocha scored and with a two-point conversation had Tualatin up 8-0 8:32 left in the opening half.

A Dantė Reid connection to Ben Ferguson for 58 yards along the sideline put the Timberwolves up 15-0 entering halftime.

“I think once we started getting the runs going in the first quarter, it all kind of kept going and kept going; building momentum and we couldn’t stop after that,” described Reid on his offense.

The Wing-T offense of Tualatin struck to start the fourth following a slugfest third quarter as Reid connected for touchdown number two.  This time to Chase Anderson for the 22-0 lead.

The T’Wolves looked to put the dagger into the Cougars with a strong defensive stand following the score.

Faced with a third and long however, Canby’s Nico Tellache scrambled for 15 yards on that third down and Tanner Monen followed with 32 yards on the very next play that eventually resulted in a score from six yards out.

“We put in back-ups and sometimes that happens,” said Timberwolves head coach Bill Zernickow with a smile.

“With their offense, they (can) score pretty quickly,” added Reid on the Cougars offense.

But Tualatin would respond on the ensuing drive however, and with a 64-yard hustle play by Cody Brown on the ground; had all but seal the win for the T’Wolves as they kicked a field goal with under three minutes to play in the game.

The man that everyone calls ‘Coach Z’, liked how his team answer the call of adversity.

“It’s nice getting back on the winning track,” said Zernickow.  “That’s what the kid’s need, they need to be able to respond and the answer the bell.”

Next week, Tualatin has Lakeridge, but Reid is looking to see how they can improve between now and next Friday.

“We’ll come back tomorrow and watch some film, see what we did wrong so we can capitalize and fix all the errors that we made tonight so that we’re more efficient,” he said.

As for Canby, they play Newberg at home next Friday night, and all focus is fixing those mental errors said Monen.

“Just mentally come prepared for practice every day, just work harder everyday,” Monen said.  “It’s all about working hard at practice and it shows on the field.  Making mental mistakes shows.”

SCORE                    1    2   3   4    —  T

COUGARS                 0  0     0   7     —   7

TIMBERWOLVES   0  15    0  10    —  25

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81!