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Prep Notebook Former Grizzlies recall '89 state title game By GREG STILES The memories are vivid for Southern Oregon Conference football fans. If you were lucky enough to be at Autzen Stadium on Dec. 10, 1989, you remember the sun breaking through as Ashland came from behind to defeat Roseburg and win its first state football championship, 24-22. If you were sitting on the edge of your sofa here in the Rogue Valley, you surely remember the extra commercial KOBI aired while Matt Wells toed the winning field goal through the east uprights. Nine years later, it's deja vu: Unbeaten Ashland vs. red-hot Roseburg for the state title. "It's only a year from being a decade," says Aaron Sturdevant, a rock-solid lineman for the '89 Grizzlies and now a teacher's aide in the Ashland School District. "We were laughing about it when we found out Saturday. Hopefully, Ashland will be able to come in and do exactly what we did." Like in 1989, Ashland won the SOC title and has reeled off 13 straight victories, including 35-21 over Roseburg on Oct. 9. Roseburg was the SOC runner-up in '89. This year, it tied for second. There's another, quirkier, parallel between Roseburg's '89 and '98 teams. The Indians were scheduled to play at Kennewick, Wash., on Oct. 14, 1989. But a fouled-up bus schedule kept Roseburg home. This year, the Indians were supposed to play at Eureka, Calif., the third week. But a scheduling snafu forced cancellation of that game. In 1989, Roseburg was in the midst of four straight appearances in the title game. Ashland was beginning a run toward four finals appearances in five years. That year, Ashland defeated Roseburg, 28-14, in Week 3, and in the playoffs barreled past Newberg, 46-21; North Bend, 35-7; Jesuit, 34-14 and Tigard, 33-6 to reach the championship game. But going into the final, SOC coaches went on record that Roseburg was the team to beat. The Indians simply had too many horses for the Smurf-like Grizzlies. Even now, when considering the difficulty of beating Roseburg twice in one season, Wells wonders aloud: "How many teams have beaten Roseburg twice in a decade?" In '89, Roseburg routed West Linn, 49-20; David Douglas, 40-13; Sunset, 34-21; and Gresham, 42-20. It was tough to argue against the Indians. "The thing that motivated us in that championship game was that we had beaten Roseburg pretty handily in that first game, and we still didn't get respect from around the rest of the state," recalls Al Carver, a lineman for the '89 Grizzlies who is now an assistant coach at College of the Siskiyous in Weed, Calif. "Roseburg was bigger, and we were smaller and quicker. We looked at it as an opportunity to play them again and beat them again. "I'm betting that (the 1998) kids have the same idea. I know Roseburg has a great team and they (Grizzlies) got to them early. But they want to handle them again, and they'll have to do all the right things." Bert Wilberger, whose last name was Petersen in 1989, completed 64 of 98 passes for 1,185 yards and 14 touchdowns in those playoffs. Wilberger, like most Ashland quarterbacks during coach Jim Nagel's tenure, had to wait until his senior year to step into the limelight. "I went into my junior year thinking I had a good chance, and Scott Chaddick (a present Ashland assistant) ended up playing better than I did in preseason and took them into the playoffs. "I knew I had one more shot and couldn't let it slip away. I worked as hard as I could in the off-season." Wilberger now works at Cascade Athletic Supply in Medford after playing college ball at Montana and for two years as a pro in Germany. While Nagel grooms quarterbacks the way Roseburg's Thurman Bell prepares tailbacks, Wilberger believes just about anybody could succeed. "Nagel always builds up so many good players to surround the quarterback," he says. "I used to joke that my grandma could run the offense just as good or better." But in the '89 championship game, Wilberger struggled for three quarters, throwing one of his two playoff interceptions. In the fourth quarter, he regained his form, completing all five of his fourth-quarter passes, including a 77-yarder to Bobby Foote that put Ashland on top, 21-15. Roseburg came back to take the lead on Pokey Fugate's 27-yard pass to Todd Black and Jamie Burke's PAT kick. Ashland responded with a 65-yard drive to victory. Carver remembers Wilberger walking into the huddle: "He said let's go to work. We're going to win the game right now." Wilberger was 4-for-4 for 73 yards in the drive. The drive stalled when Chad Cota, on third down, slipped down just before crossing the goal line. Then it was up to Wells, who had missed a PAT and field goal attempt, and holder Foote. Foote was involved in several big plays that day; the final outcome turned on two: Foote was the holder for Wells' 17-yard field goal from the right hash mark. "The key is to get the snap down," Foote says. "The funny thing was that it wasn't a perfect snap, and I had a hard time getting it down right. I was just happy to get it where he could kick it. When he did, it went right down the middle. I knew it was good right away." Foote then blocked Burke's 47-yard field goal attempt to end the game. "It was relly weird. Our team was supposed to do a safe _ meaning nobody was going to rush," Foote recalls. "There were two of us, who didn't hear and we were on the same side." Scott McKee was inside Foote and got blocked. Foote looped around the outside and deflected the ball just after Burke _ who would later kick at Oregon State _ thumped it. "Burke took an extra step and that gave me just enough time," Foote says. "It hit me in the right arm. I had been close on a lot of them, and that extra step let me squeeze in there." The frantic, fantastic finish reminds Wells of the 1995 NCAA Div. I-AA national championship game in which his Montana team defeated Marshall, 22-20, at Huntington, W.Va. "I told some guys right after the national championship game it was deja vu," says Wells, a receiver who now lives in Chicago. ``They went ahead and we came back with a last-second drive, converted on a couple of fourth downs, got to the 5-yard line and then couldn't punch it in. We kicked a field goal." The coaches, Nagel and Bell, remain the constant. They've accounted for six state titles and six state runner-up finishes, so it shouldn't come as a big surprise that those numbers will ratchet up Saturday. "What we had in high school with Nagel, (Dave) Kitchell, (Jerry) Wolfram, (Todd) Contreras and (Tim) Brown was definitely first-class, college-caliber coaches," Wells says. "They centered on goal setting, believing in ourselves and what we could do. We had no choice but to win it. We didn't know any better." (Greg Stiles is a Mail Tribune sports writer. He can be reached at 776-4483.) Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford,