TOLEDO — On a late October night in 2025, the Onalaska Loggers walked into Toledo and were beaten.
Soundly.
On Friday night, another late October night, the Loggers returned to Ted Hippi Field with that result from last fall sitting in the forefront of their minds.
“All week, we were just thinking about last year and how much it sucked to lose how we did,” Onalaska’s senior quarterback Lane Gordon said. “It was just terrible all around.”
The Loggers flipped the script in the rematch on Friday night, shutting out Toledo 34-0 to get their revenge and clinch the C2BL East title.
“Everybody picked it up in practice and in the game,” Gordon said. “Everyone just played awesome.”
The Loggers looked poised to run away with things early, as a pair of Toledo fumbles led to two Ethan Thayer touchdown runs to put the Loggers up 12-0.
After a Toledo punt, the Loggers took over with the chance to go up three scores.
From that point on, though, both defenses took over. The next eight drives came and went without points, and the 12-0 scoreline held until the fourth quarter.
Onalaska pulled away in that fourth quarter, as touchdown runs from Carson Albertson, Lane Gordon, and Haze Hamrick put the game out of reach.
After running for just 17 yards on 13 carries last fall, Thayer ran for 191 yards and two touchdowns on 30 attempts. Gordon finished with 78 yards and his touchdown.
On both his touchdown and Thayer’s two scores, Gordon checked to a different play at the line of scrimmage.
“They overloaded to our play side, so I counted numbers backside, and it was good numbers for us to run,” Gordon said. “I’m super glad (the coaches) can trust me with that.”
“Lane Gordon led us tonight,” Saade said. “That kid called a game.”
Hamrick finished with 82 yards, including his 67-yard touchdown, on four carries. As a team, the Loggers finished with 419 rushing yards.
“Our offensive line has improved over the year,” Saade said. “This was a real good test for our offensive line. There’s a couple times they could have easily tucked their tails and hid, and they didn’t. I thought they played well, and that was good to see.”
Defensively, the Loggers held the Riverhawks to just 128 total yards, including just 33 on the ground.
“Coach (Wayne) Nelson’s defensive plan was masterful tonight,” Saade said. “Our kids executed it well. I thought they played lights out. Morgan Allen, Carson Albertson, Haze Hamrick, they just played balls out. It was awesome to see tonight.”
After he was injured on the opening kickoff of the game, Toledo was forced to play without standout senior Nico Acosta.
“Ninety percent, especially this game, of what we wanted to do offensively involved him,” Toledo coach Mike Christensen said. “We just had stuff that we’ve been preparing for all season to use, and to not be able to use it, I think, really left us reeling.”
Austin Reed also got hurt early, leaving the Riverhawks without two of their offensive playmakers.
“Now we’re taking our receiver and our other receiver and moving them to the back,” Christensen said. “We were disjointed there. That’s on me as a coach to not be as prepared as we should’ve been.”
Christensen said he wasn’t sure how the group would respond after seeing Acosta go down on the game’s first play, but he added that he was “really proud” of the way they battled, especially on the defensive end.
“They really played their ass off,” Christensen said. “I thought that we responded the right way.”
The loss snapped Toledo’s six-game winning streak that dates back to Week 2, but it also snapped a much longer streak that predates COVID-19.
Prior to Friday, the Riverhawks had last lost a home game on Oct. 11, 2019, a seven-year stretch where Toledo won 30 straight games on Ted Hippi Field.
“Nobody wants to be the group that loses a streak,” Christensen said. “For our seniors to lose that on their Senior Night is really, really hard for them, and it’s not something they’re ever gonna be happy about.”
Toledo (6-2, 2-1 C2BL East) will wrap up its regular season on Thursday, Oct. 29 in Mossyrock, and then the Riverhawks will turn their attention to their crossover in Week 10.
If the Riverhawks win and secure the No. 2 seed in the C2BL East, they will face the West’s No. 2 seed — Adna, Napavine, or Forks — in a neutral-site crossover for a state berth.
Christensen said that the next two weeks will be about assessing who is healthy on offense and building from there.
“I thought we had the momentum in the right direction with the group that we had really culminating to this game,” Christensen said. “It’s almost like we’re gonna have to take a little step back … We have two weeks to get whatever group of guys are there and healthy ready to play a big game against a really good football team.”
Onalaska (7-1, 3-0 C2BL East) will also wrap up its regular season on Thursday, when the Loggers head to Toutle Lake.
As the No. 1 seed, they will host the West’s No. 3 seed (which could also be any of Adna, Napavine, or Forks) in a Week 10 crossover.
“We’re excited for Toutle,” Gordon said. “And we’re really excited to see where we go after that.”
