The Rogue River Jr. Sr. High football team’s game on Friday, Oct. 2, seemed to be a complete reversal of the Chieftains’ 2025 game against St. Mary’s.
While the Chieftains piled up 65 points in a high-scoring but fairly easy win against the Crusaders, on Homecoming Night in 2025, it was St. Mary’s that had the 40-19 lead when the Homecoming King and Queen were announced in a 60-19 win at Chieftain Stadium.
The Chieftains were looking to claim a third straight win, for the first time since the 2017 season, in opening their Class 2A District 5 campaign, but instead the loss leaves the Chieftains (2-3) hoping for a few upsets in their quest to qualify for a state playoff berth.
With already a district loss, with only five District 5 games available, without yet playing either Culver (5-0) or defending 2A champion Lost River (2-3, but No. 8 based on its schedule), with LaPine winning four of its first five games and rising to No. 6 in the state, and, now, with St. Mary’s win at Chieftain Stadium, it puts the Chieftains (2-3, No. 19) in a tough position.
The Chieftains may have to win each of their final four games, starting on Friday, Oct. 9, against Lost River, the Chiefs’ final home contest, ending the season with three straight bus rides into Central Oregon, at Lakeview, LaPine, and Culver, to achieve their goal of reaching the state playoffs for the first time since 2002.
While St. Mary’s, two years removed from a 0-9 season in 2024, scored an average of 14 points a game in starting its 2025 season 0-4 when it visited Rogue River last year, this year, they had turned heads by scoring 35 in beating Illinois Valley and then scoring 49 in beating Bandon the previous week.
Led by junior quarterback Mason James and sophomore receiver Destyn James, who both played for the Crusaders last year through the Crusaders’ 2-7 season, the Chieftains faced a different team on Homecoming 2026, and they didn’t appear ready for it.
It also didn’t help that quarterback Trevor Dirks temporarily left the game in pain trying to stiff-arm on a run in the second quarter, not long after Mason Scott, their senior receiver, injured a knee on a run through the middle in the same quarter.
Dirks came back and, with grit, led the Chiefs to a touchdown with seconds before the half with just his legs. At the time, his touchdown on an 11-yard run with 37 seconds before he would stand on the Chieftain Stadium track for the Homecoming Court seemed important, cutting St. Mary’s’ lead to 34-19. But that was before Mason James found junior running back James Beitler wide open over the middle, taking the ball to the Chieftains’ 2-yard line, James taking it in himself with a fake and a sweep that befuddled the Chieftain defense most of the game, making it 40-19.
On a third-down-and-12 play, the Crusaders moved 81 yards in four plays, ending with Beitler’s second of three touchdowns, an eight-yard run that made it 47-19. On the Chieftains’ first play of the half, Dirks looked downfield for Zack Anderson. Still, St. Mary’s’ Isaiah McFarlane picked it off, sprinting down the right sideline for a pick-six, and then, just over three minutes later, and after a four-and-out for Rogue River, Beitler went 42 yards in four plays, the last a one-yard drive, making it 60-19 and triggering a running clock with 6:29 left in the third.
“They’ve gotten better. The boys were complacent today. I just noticed it right when I went into that locker room when they were out of school, that something was different,” Chieftains coach Mike Braxton said. “Something was just different. The vibe was just off. I just went out there and preached to them about being complacent. I think that’s what it was.”
The Chieftains had 140 yards rushing, with Dirks leading the way with 64 yards, 45 coming on the second-quarter scoring drive when the Crusaders, knowing Dirks was probably running the ball with Scott on the sideline, could neither find him nor tackle him until he’d gained a chunk of yardage.
Dirks also threw for two touchdowns to Scott, one for 38 yards, the other for 30, both in the opening quarter. Matthew Smith ran for 52 yards on 13 carries.
Mason James rushed for 124 yards on his own for the Crusaders, scoring a pair of touchdowns and throwing for two others, to Destyn James and McFarlane. Mason James’s biggest play, though, was the 75-yard kickoff return for a touchdown after the Chieftains scored their first touchdown. He completed 7-for-10 passing for 144 yards.
Beitler ran for 146 yards on 13 carries.
Lost River, which won last year’s state 2A title after going unbeaten in District 5, comes in at 2-3, the same record as Rogue River, but having played No. 1 Heppner, No. 2 St. Paul, No. 12 Oakland, and, last week, No. 5 Culver, the Raiders losing their District 5 opener 40-14 at home to the Bulldogs.
Reach reporter Brian Mortensen at [email protected] or 541-582-1707.