High School Football: The N2/BZM Power Rankings IV
Pound for Pound – Unscrambling local leagues, and what in the world is going on in Oregon Country?
Nick Sisson (N2 Media) and Jordan Nailon (Blast Zone Media) / blastzonenews@gmail.com
Ahh, another glorious week of 2025 high school football in the books, and you can also say goodbye to the month of September. Good riddance, we say.
Now, we may get called an “old head” with this take, but we’re not really a huge fan of all these non-league matchups overall. Sure, we might occasionally get to see some good teams battling out in the early parts of the season, but overall, the games just don’t matter as much without something on the line other than pride. Of course, the exception would be if we are dealing with non-league / geographical rivals that want to keep the tradition going (see: 8-mile War, Lewis River Cup, etc.) But we loved those matchups even more when they league standings were at stake. Each result is another piece to the playoff puzzle, and chances are the teams involved have long standing history with one another.
You know what was cool, though? The 12-team Southwest Washington League of yesteryear that included Kelso, (R.A.) Long, (Mark) Morris, Battle Ground, Aberdeen, Olympia, (Fort) Vancouver, Hudson’s Bay, Hoquiam, Camas, Columbia River and Evergreen! It was a much more civilized time.
But more on that later.
Week 4 saw league rivals in the C2BL Toledo and Toutle Lake battle it out last Saturday and Blast Zone Media was way out in East Cowlitz County to bear witness. The result was another win for the AquaHawks of Toledo 52-20 in what is being officially dubbed as “Gateway to the Blast Zone Bowl” by the masses.
Now, obviously it’s expected the audience reading at home to have some questions. Is there a trophy involved? Does the winner at least get delicious gas station food following the game? Did the resident deer make it on the field, and if not, how come?
The “trophy” is one year’s bragging rights as the official “Gateway” town to Mount Saint Helens.
We are waiting on official sponsorship from Drew’s Grocery and Gee Cee’s Truck Stop (as well as NIL approval) before any hot case food can be awarded.
Enough deer were within rock throwing distance of the gridiron in Toutle to field a full team. But with Toledo violently “thrusting” its way over the Fighting Ducks, the home town deer played it safe and stuck to the shadows.
The Gateway Game may have a new name but it already has a long history. And the best part is — they still play it (RIP — Battle of the Cowlitz). But rumor has it most people don’t even care about rivalries anymore.
To that we say — hogwash! You’ve clearly never fantasized about a pair of winless teams play out their own personal Civil War.
Just as the Toledo Express continues to roll down the tracks, our good friends over in Longview at Long and Morris (new/old abbreviations!) both suffered losses again last Friday, and are now on the wrong side of the mirror at 0-4. Our researchers are scouring the records to find out the last time both the Lumberjacks and Monarchs were both searching for their first win entering Week 5, but we do know the answer is going to be the year 1900-and-something.
Long continued the theme of the season thus far with a 41-0 shutout loss to Hockinson. The Hawks appeared eager to return the favor to the Jacks after suffering a similar beating at the hands of the Jacks last year in L-Town. R.A. Long is now 0-4 for the first time since 2022.
Mark Morris on the other hand looked much improved despite losing 17-14 at home against Washougal. Blast Zone Media has been sure to report several times that it was widely believed by preseason sources that Washougal was a solid team and could very well be league champions at season’s end, and now the Panthers are 2-0. The Monarchs should be pleased with how they competed, but the opportunity to win outright was there a few different times in the fourth quarter, including a possession inside the five-yard line that didn’t that failed to net the desired result.
You can tell the loss hurt after the game on the field. The Monarchs played one of the cleanest games they have put together in the Mike Peck era and didn’t turn the ball over once against a quality defense. There are a lot of positives, but there are no points for second place on Friday nights and Mark Morris is now 0-4 for the first time since 2017.
It’s time to wrap up last week’s results in turbo mode and get on with the rankings.
Kelso did exactly what Kelso loves to do at home. Win — and do it dramatically. With heavy hearts and expectations on their shoulders the Hilanders came back to beat Bremerton 36-29 and improved to 3-1.
Woodland picked up a big win on the road against Columbia River 17-14 to put themselves right in position to win the league title again (can you say three-peat?) with the impending chaos that looms ahead.
Kalama nearly covered the spread against Fort Vancouver but did not complete the shutout. We think we’ll learn more about the ‘Nooks going forward than we did last week. And Castle Rock doubled up Stevenson in a promising two-step in the right direction.
Wahkiakum crushed Oakville 62-6 and is making everything look too easy. The team on the other side of Km Mountain won big as well when Naselle defeated last year’s undefeated/unofficial 6-man champs from Northwest Christian, 60-8.
Now, before we rank there is one more storyline that needs your attention. Things are getting weird over in Oregon Country.
First of all, Rainier set several all-time state records with a 101-90 (!!!) win at home over Corbett on homecoming. Yes. That’s the real score. And Clatskanie blanked Vernonia 64-0 to remain undefeated.
But somehow, that’s just the start of the news from Oregon that’s been catching our attention at the N2/BZM Headquarters.
In case you haven’t noticed — and judging by all the feedback, you haven’t — the state of Washington is getting absolutely handled by their neighbors of the south (and sometimes west). The State of Oregon continued to flex all over the gridiron last weekend with lopsided results in interstate competition.
West Linn beat 4A Camas 41-0, while the Banks Braves of the 3A ranks beat Seton Catholic 44-21. Mountainside (Ore.) beat Mountain View (Wash.) 63-2, and Skyview lost to Oregon City 33-7. Sources say Oregon absolutely owns
Washington right now and by a large margin. But hey, it’s non-league, right?
Several teams also picked up some huge Blast Zone extra credit this week by reporting full stats immediately following the game. We won’t name names (yet), but it was the usual suspects. Not to make a big deal about it, but our experience shows a direct correlation between the quality of stats available and overall program success.
P.S. Defensive stats matter, too!
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