11/29/2025
Silverton football: Foxes end dream season with win in state title game
By James Day
HILLSBOR – “We’ve got a lot of guys who can make a play,” said Silverton High junior Luke Horner. “We’re a full team. We’ve got 40 or 50 guys who can make a play. Anyone can step up.”
A swarm of white-shirted Foxes took over the turf at Hillsboro Stadium on Friday night. And in a performance that included almost more heroes than we have the space to list them, Silverton downed Summit of Bend 24-14 to take home the Class 5A state football championship.
The win enabled the 12-1 Foxes to end a magical season with their third state title, following a Class 3A title in 1991 and a 5A title in 2021 that occurred on the same Hillsboro Stadium turf.
“I’m so proud of you kids,.” said fourth-year coach Lever while holding up the team trophy. “I am so proud to be a Fox in this unbelievable community. Are you guys kidding me? It was a crazy game, but they didn’t quit. Ever.”
Lever and a couple of players also gave credit to Lebanon for the state championship run. The Warriors spoiled the Foxes’ Homecoming on Oct. 17 with a 34-28 victory at McGinnis Field in which the winning score came with 2 seconds left. After that Silverton ran the table with six consecutive wins, including the four in the playoffs.
How much did the Foxes rule in Class 5A? Check out this breakdown of the rankings which the OSAA used to build the tournament bracket:
Summit (Foxes won 24-14 in final)
The Foxes
Mountain View (Foxes won 35-21 on Nov. 21 in semis)
Lebanon (Foxes lost 34-28 on Oct. 17)
Thurston (Foxes won 35-6 on Sept. 5)
Dallas (Foxes won 30-23 on Oct. 24)
Wilsonville (Foxes won 35-32 on Nov. 14 in quarters)
West Albany (Foxes won 29-0 on Oct. 3)
My calculator comes up with a 6-1 record for the Foxes against the best in the state. That’s insane.
So how did all of this occur on Friday? It all starts with the defense. That’s where championships are won. Summit came into the game averaging 39.6 points per game. The Foxes yielded just 14 and only 7 until there were four minutes left in the game. Summit punted six times. The Storm were 1 for 11 on third and fourth down.
“The defense played amazing, you couldn’t ask for better,” said two-way senior standout Nolan Horner. “The D-line, the linebackers, the DBs. We just kept on fighting. That’s our team.”
Defensive back Gavin Aguero: “We’ve been working in practice and we knew pretty much everything they were going to do. Our defense really held up. It was amazing.”
Defensive back Logan Uitto, who was named Silverton’s most outstanding player by the OSAA: “We watched a lot of film of them. Once we got to the game we already had a good idea of what to do.”
Defensive lineman Mark Bailey: “We just kept pushing on. Our defense played great. And we just kept going.”
Levi Schurter had 6 tackles on defense, including a sack. Uitto had five solo tackles. Ryder VanDeweghe had 4 solo tackles and two QB hurries. Kellen Kuenzi had 4 solo tackles and two pass breakups. Zach Purdy continued his fine recent play with four tackles. And on and on.
Offensively the Foxes sputtered at times. Twice they got inside the 20 in the first quarter and came away empty. But that’s also a credit to the Summit defense, which allowed just 163 points in 13 games. Silverton QB Chase Dominguez, who was hounded by the Summit pass rush all night, still completed 21 of 27 passes for 239 yards and a pair of TDs. Since returning to the lineup from injury for the Dallas game on Oct. 24, Dominguez hit more than 75% of his passes, 89 of 118. Nolan Horner worked the edges for 65 yards on the fly sweep and one inspiring bit of improvisation that saved the bacon in the fourth quarter. Nash Moser rumbled up the middle for 54 yards and also caught a TD pass from Dominguez. Six different Foxes caught passes, with Uitto nabbing 6 for 52 yards, Luke Horner 5 for 49 and Moser 4 for 25. Aguero, who transferred with Dominguez from McKay, caught just two but they were big ones, a 37-yarder for the Foxes’ first score and a 40-yarder that set up the TD pass to Moser.
Here is how things went down chronologically:
Summit struck first on a 49-yard burst up the middle by Jude Anderson, a 5-7, 180-pound barrel of dynamite who led all ballcarriers with 158 yards on 18 carries. He was named Summit’s most outstanding player. The score came one play after the storm had stopped
Schurter on 4th-and-1 at the Foxes’ 49.
Silverton answered with a 5-play, 80-yard drive in which Dominguez was 4 for 4, Moser crunched up the middle for 16, and Chase found Aguero on a deep right sideline route for the touchdown from 37 yards out.
Summit picked up three first downs on its next possession but kicked the ball away, with Max Shepherd’s 43-yard punt rolling dead at the 8.
No matter. The Foxes went 92 yards on eight plays. The drive was keyed by a 40-yard pass down the left sideline to Aguero. Moser took a swing pass in the right flat and ran over Storm defenders on his way to the end zone from 11 yards out with 39 seconds left in the half.
The 14-7 score remained unchanged throughout the third period, but tons of fireworks erupted in the fourth. First, the Foxes methodically drove 64 yards in 13 plays to take a 21-7 lead. The drive took 6:17 off the clock, with Uitto getting the TD on a 4-yard scamper to the left out of the wildcat formation. The snap was bobbled, but Uitto was able to use the blocks of Bailey and Ryan Kuenzi to slip into the end zone.
“That was a busted play and somehow we still managed to score,” Uitto said. “That really says it all about this team.”
Down 21-7 with 4:40 left the Storm showed admirable composure by driving 74 yards in 5 plays in just 33 seconds. The key play was a 40-yard pass from Andrew Guthrie to Conrad Dodge. Anderson found a huge opening around the left end and ran 17 yards for the TD. Shepherd’s PAT made it 21-14 with still 3:59 left.
The Foxes, however, then put the game away with a bit of special teams wizardry and pluck. Shepherd’s onside kick went directly to Foxes up man Michael Orton on two hops. Orton fielded it cleanly and rambled 27 yards to the Summit 21. Moments later Caden Druliner was sent on to try a 34-yard field goal on 4th-and-6. But the snap went awry. No matter. Holder Nolan Horner picked up the ball and found a hole on the left side.
Instead of turning the ball over on downs, Horner picked up the first down and the Foxes were able to drain more clock before Druliner came on and crushed a 26-yard field goal for a 24-14 lead with 2:02 left.
Druliner, a 6-3, 150-pound junior who made 20 of 20 PAT kicks during the playoffs, just grinned when he was asked about the kick.
“It felt great,” he said. “I’ve been practicing all year and I just did what I was coached to do. And it gave our defense a chance to get one last stop.”
Kellen Kuenzi was there to defend on two deep balls by Guthrie and the last Summit push ended at their own 46. Dominguez then took a knee three times to end it and a howling, raucous celebration began on the Hillsboro stadium turf as a sea of orange-clad people descended. There were tears. Hoarse voices. Players being hoisted off the ground by their mothers. Endless photos and the forever memory of a team of high school football players with medals around their necks. Beaming. Just beaming. State champs!
Notes: Can’t go without more props to the Foxes for their special teams. As noted above Druliner was perfect on PATs in the playoffs and drilled the game-clinching field goal. His kickoffs were great, too.
The combination of his kickoffs and the punting of sophomore Eli Little (2 for 70 yards) left the Storm with an average starting field position of their own 21. For the Foxes it was their own 42. … The OSAA did not release a crowd count for the game, but I am guessing that there were about 5,000 or so people in the stadium. Silverton fans dominated and if my quick estimate of 2,500 Silvertonians, 2,000 Summit fans and 500 neutral football fans, well, that means close to 25% of the Silverton population was on hand. One town, one team.
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Photo captions (celebration): Foxes Damian Rael (54), Kane Mack (behind Rael), Keysean Davis (in street clothes), Chase Dominguez (11), Luke Horner (21) and assistant coach Mike Fessler (gray hoodie) celebrate Silverton’s 24-14 win in the Class 5A state football championship game
Credit: Becki Little
Photo caption (Schurter): Silverton linebacker Levi Schurter flattens a Summit ball carrier as Zach Purdy moves in to help. Schurter had 6 tackles and Purdy 4 for the stingy Foxes’ defense.
Credit: Becki Little
Photo caption (Druliner): Foxes place-kicker Caden Druliner launches the game-clinching 26-yard field goal in Silverton’s 24-14 win against Summit.
Credit: Becki Little
Photo caption (Uitto): Logan Uitto heads toward the end zone for the TD that gave the Foxes a 21-7 lead in the fourth period. Leading the way were blockers Mark Bailey (left) and Ryan Kuenzi (67).
Credit: Becki Little
Photo caption (Moser): Silverton RB Nash Moser tumbles into the end zone for the Foxes’ first score against Summit.
Credit: Becki Little
Photo caption (Chase): QB Chase Dominguez looks for a receiver against Summit. Dominguez hit 21 of 27 passes for 239 yards and 2 TDs in the 24-14 victory.
Credit: Becki Little
Scoring summary
Silverton 0 14 0 10 – 24
Summit 0 7 0 7 – 14
First quarter
No scoring
Second quarter
Summ: Anderson 49 run (Shepherd kick), 9:09
Silv: Aguero 37 pass from Dominguez (Druliner kick), 7:10
Silv: Moser 11 pass from Dominguez (Druliner kick), 0:39
Third quarter
No scoring
Fourth quarter
Silv: Uitto 4 run (Druliner kick), 4:40
Summ: Anderson 17 run (Shepherd kick), 3:59
Silv: Druliner 26 field goal, 2:02
Individual rushing
Silverton: N. Horner 7-65, Moser 11-54, Dominguez 12-16, L. Horner 5-16, Uitto 2-3, Schurter 5-3, Team 3-(-13). Summit: Anderson 18-158, Conneely 1 (-3); Guthrie 1-(-6).
Individual passing
Silverton: Dominguez 21-27 239, 2 TDs. Horner 1-2-5. Summit: Guthrie 11-24-134.
Individual receiving
Silverton: Uitto 6-52, L. Horner 5-49, Moser 4-25, S. Kuenzi 3-18, Aguero 2-77, N. Horner 2-23. Summit: Conneely 4-47, Dodger 3-65, Scott 1-9, Nitschke 1-8, Mackeson 1-4, Anderson 1-1.
Records: Silverton 12-1, Summit 12-1.
