Rose City Roundup: State volleyball and soccer action, plus state football brackets set
Halloween is over and the calendar has flipped to November, meaning no more time for tricks and teams competing for the ultimate treat.
Football's regular season came to an end and we saw three local squads make it into the brackets. Meanwhile girls volleyball, girls soccer and boys soccer had a busy Saturday of action where 20 teams in the Rose City were fighting for their playoff lives.
And we can't forget that cross country district races took place with teams finalizing their state qualifiers for the final meet of the year set for Saturday, Nov. 8 at Lane Community College in Eugene.
We've got all the local results down below, plus a look at three football teams in the postseason and where they're heading next.
It's all down below in this week's Rose City Roundup!
Last week's stories
Portland Adventist girls volleyball continues climb with first playoff win since 2009
Lincoln cross country sweeps PIL team titles, Kai Jensen, Ellery Lincoln individual champions
Playoff football is here
The Oregon high school football Class 6A rankings froze Friday night (technically Saturday morning).
What's left was the 16-team state tournament bracket, along with the eight-team Columbia Cup bracket.
Central Catholic (7-2, 4-1 MHC) earned an automatic bid to the postseason by taking second place in the Mt. Hood Conference, meanwhile Roosevelt (6-3, 6-0 PIL) secured its spot with its first big-school PIL title since 1995, and Lincoln (7-2, 5-1 PIL) finished second to earn the other PIL autobid.
The Rams earned the No. 5 seed and will host No. 12 Newberg to open up their title run. The game is expected to be played Friday, Nov. 7, but time and location are still TBD.
The Roughriders finished at No. 19 in the OSAA rankings, meaning their league title gets them into the state tournament, but they aren't given a home game and are seeded No. 16. They'll be on the road to play defending champion No. 1 West Linn at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7.
The Cardinals check in at No. 24 and will play in the Columbia Cup for the third consecutive year. They'll be on the road against No. 17 Sandy looking for their first win in the cup playoffs. The game is slated for Friday, Nov. 7, time TBD.
Ida B. Wells (5-4, 4-2 PIL) unfortunately just missed the playoffs, the Guardians are the first team out, ranked at No. 25.
Girls volleyball
Five local teams came into Saturday still in the hunt for a state title with No. 8 Central Catholic, No. 14 Grant and No. 17 St. Mary’s Academy competing in the second round of 6A, No. 16 Portland Adventist alive in 3A, and No. 7 Portland Christian playing in the first round of 2A.
Unfortunately for the big schools, the road ended for all of them, meanwhile the Royals won to be the lone Portland school still playing on the final week of the season.
No. 17 SMA had to go down south to play No. 1 Sprague, and the Blues gave a strong first effort, dropping the first set only 25-23.
However, the Olympians took over from there, taking the next two sets 25-16 and 25-14 for the sweep and a spot at Forest Grove High School on Friday, Nov. 7.
No. 14 Grant suffered a similar demise being swept by defending champion No. 3 Jesuit. The Crusaders made quick work of the match, winning 25-7, 25-10, 25-12.
The toughest loss of them all was No. 8 Central Catholic, playing at home against No. 9 South Medford, a team the Rams have played three times in the past four postseasons, winning in the first round in 2023 after losing on the road in the second round in 2022.
The 2025 version started out strong for the Panthers as they took the first two sets 25-20 and 25-18. However, the Rams came roaring back to take the next two sets 25-23 and 25-17.
The fifth set went extra points, but the Panthers prevailed 18-16 for the five-set win a spot at state.
No. 16 Portland Adventist, fresh off its first postseason win since 2009, fell to a familiar foe in league rival No. 1 Valley Catholic. The Cougars put up a decent fight, but fell in straight sets 25-21, 25-15, 25-17.
In 2A, No. 7 Portland Christian cruised in its match against visiting No. 10 East Linn Christian. The Royals swept the Eagles 25-8, 25-21, 25-14.
It’s the third consecutive state appearance for the Royals after winning the state title in 2023 and taking third place in 2024.
The next match won’t be easy with PC drawing No. 2 Trinity Lutheran, who’s 18-4 on the season. The game is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7 at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.
Girls soccer
Seven girls soccer teams in Portland made the 6A tournament, we’ll run through each match.
After being tied at zero at halftime, No. 17 St. Mary’s Academy couldn’t stop No. 16 West Salem in the second half and fell 3-1. The Blues end their season with an 8-5-2 record.
We had a Portland showdown between No. 20 Ida B. Wells at No. 13 David Douglas. The Guardians came away with the big victory, downing the Scots 3-0 to advance to the second round. Wells will play at No. 4 Beaverton on Tuesday, Nov. 4 with the time TBD.
Speaking of Beaverton, the No. 4 Beavers survived a strong push from No. 29 McDaniel. The two sides went into halftime scoreless, and the Mountain Lions actually scored first in the 55th minute to go up 1-0.
Beaverton responded quickly with a goal a minute later and then added on a couple more later in the second half.
No. 3 Lincoln did not receive a similar push in its matchup against No. 30 Sunset. The Cardinals dominated at home to the tune of a 6-0 victory. Up next is another home match against No. 14 South Eugene slated for Tuesday, Nov. 4 with the time TBD.
No. 6 Grant also breezed by its first-round opponent, taking down No. 27 Tigard 4-0. The Generals are back in action against No. 11 Tualatin with kickoff slated for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4 at Marshall Campus.
Last but not least, No. 10 Central Catholic survived a big first punch thrown by No. 23 Sherwood to advance 3-2 in overtime. The Bowmen and Rams scored three times in the first 15 minutes, giving Sherwood a 2-1 lead.
CC tied the game up at two before halftime, but no one scored again until the second half of overtime when Elizabeth Briscoe connected from way downtown on what proved to be the game-winning goal.
The Rams advance to take on No. 7 Lake Oswego on Tuesday, Nov. 4. The time is still TBD.
Boys soccer
Eight more local teams competed on the boys side.
No. 32 Franklin put up a strong fight against No. 1 Lakeridge, only falling 2-0 to end the Lightning’s season at 4-10-2.
No. 24 Roosevelt didn’t have the same experience going against defending champion No. 9 Jesuit. The Crusaders dominated 6-0, putting the Roughriders out at 5-8-3 on the year.
No. 4 Grant liked the score it saw from the girls game right before it, so the Generals copied the score in a 4-0 win over No. 28 South Medford. Up next is another match against No. 12 South Salem slated for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5 at Marshall Campus.
No. 4 Central Catholic scored a couple early goals and coasted to the finish line in a 3-1 win over No. 29 Sheldon. The Rams will host once more, this time against No. 13 Sherwood on Wednesday, Nov. 5 with the time and location TBD.
No. 30 McDaniel was eyeing another big-time upset, but couldn’t quite come up with a goal in 1-0 loss to No. 3 Beaverton. The Mountain Lions end the season 4-6-6.
No. 11 Ida B. Wells was at home and took care of business in a 3-0 victory over No. 22 Gresham. The Guardians head to PIL-killer No. 6 McMinnville next. The Grizzlies took out three PIL teams en route to their runnerup finish at state last season. The match will be Wednesday, Nov. 5, time still TBD.
And finally, we’ll be getting a PIL rematch after No. 7 Lincoln and No. 10 Cleveland both won their first round matches. The Cardinals took out No. 26 Lake Oswego 3-1 and the Warriors downed No. 23 Glencoe 4-0.
The two teams met up at Warriors Stadium on Sept. 30 with Lincoln emerging as 1-0 winners. Cleveland hopes to change that result Wednesday, Nov. 4, time TBD.
Cross country
You can read all about the PIL qualifiers by heading to this link here.
As for the rest of Portland, we'll start with Central Catholic who once again swept the two team title at the Mt. Hood Conference district finals on Wednesday, Oct. 29 at Blue Lake Regional Park.
The boys won the race with a total of 36 points, besting Nelson in second with 58, and will send their whole team to state.
On the girls side, it was wider gap with the Rams scoring 29 points and Clackamas in second with 58.
Senior Marli Phelps led the way for CC by winning the individual race in a time of 18 minutes, 39.57 seconds, nearly a full minute ahead of the second place finisher from Clackamas.
Junior Emma Wazny was next in third with a time of 19:39.42, followed by sophomore Samantha Carlston in fifth (19:42.42 PR), Kayley Sumner in seventh (20:19.08 PR) and senior Lauren Baranski in 13th (20:48.38) to round out the scoring.
The boys individual race was won by a runner from a different local school however. David Douglas sophomore Faysal Ibrahim ran a PR time of 15:25.6 to win the race and earn a spot at state this week.
The top Rams finisher was junior Kaiji Alleman in fourth in a time of 15:54.73. He was followed by senior Greer Shorr in fifth (16:08.11), sophomore Pascal Dirks in seventh (16:12.98), senior Conal Devine in ninth (16:23.23) and final scorer junior Miles Wheeler in 11th (16:26.79).
St. Mary's competed in the Three Rivers League finals, taking sixth place with 137 points. West Linn won with 51. No Blues were able to crack the top 14 individually to end their season.
In 5A, Parkrose had only one girls runner compete in the Northwest Oregon Conference meet, but she made it worth it.
Junior Diana Dobre crossed the line in 20:42.99, taking seventh place and the final individual qualifying spot.
Espn Portwood was the lone Broncos runner on the boys side, he took 51st in a time of 19:24.49.
