Jamin Pool's day job is health and physical education teacher at Siuslaw High School.

He's also working hard as the first-year head football coach of the Vikings. Friday night he was passing out high marks to his team.

"I was impressed," Pool said, after the Blue scored on the last play to pull out a 20-14 victory in the annual Blue-Gold Game at Hans Petersen Field.

"I got more (from the players) out of the game than expected. I wasn't surprised, but I was happy."

Teams were determined by a draft by the coaches. The Gold suited up 16 players and the Blue 15.

The game was played in two segments, a regular timed 12-minute quarter, with a halftime, followed by 20 minutes of play with a running clock.

(The clock was stopped in the waning seconds to allow the Blue offense two plays, the second resulting in a 28-yard game-winning pass from junior backup quarterback Trent Reavis to senior wide receiver Brogan Cornish as time finally ran out.)

"What I was looking for was trying to get pregame jitters out, try to get the rust off," Pool said. "And looking at their getting the right assignments, and getting into the right places.

"They did more than that. They executed. They not only were in the right spots, but they were making the right decisions.

"They were running hard, they were reading (the opposing offense or defense). They exceeded my expectations tonight."

The offenses got off to a slow start, with a Reavis to junior wide receiver Evan Teter touchdown pass of 28 yards the only scoring of the first segment.

The second segment featured four TDs, two by each side and all through the air.

Junior quarterback Jared Brandt, who will start at quarterback this coming Friday at Elmira, tossed TD passes of 28 and 25 yards to junior wide receiver Jake Hickson for the Gold.

Reavis countered for the Blue with a 22-yard TD pass to Teter and the game-winning toss to Cornish.

Pool was pleased by how his players were taking to his more-wide-open offense.

"They all love it, they enjoyed it," he said. "You could tell by the way they play: They're celebrating it, they're getting after it.

"They did a really good job."

The offense moved the ball with relative ease, but Pool saw a lot to like with his defense.

"We told (the players) that our defense was going to be very vanilla, and we weren't going to be able to do anything other than just sit back," he said.

So he was not worried about the five long scoring drives, each of 65 yards, and each punctuated by a scoring pass of 22 yards or more.

"I'm not alarmed at all," Pool said. "(The defenses) did good, they played real hard. I think they played coverage really well. There were a few communication errors here and there, but that was to be expected."

Reavis and Brandt put up good numbers in the abbreviated game. Reavis passed for 163 yards and ran for 45, while Brandt passed for 73 yards and rushed for 79.

Teter had 109 receiving yards, Hickson 73.

"We've got a lot of playmakers — I think a lot more than people give us credit for," Pool said.

"Time will tell if they're playmakers, or if they just looked good tonight."

NOTES

Pool saved his highest grades for the fans in the stands and for his coaching staff.

"If anybody is to be singled out, I'd like to single out the fans for coming out," he said. "I think that was awesome. I think it was a big turnout. I was happy."

Assistant coaches include Jerry Fleming, Mike Blankenship, Kris O'Connor, Pat Wondra, Dennis Davidson, Kellyn Davidson and Jeff Gray.

"My coaching staff did great," Pool said. "They were joking around, having fun, but they were keeping up the competitiveness."

Six of the eight teams on the Vikings' schedule were in action Friday, with only Elmira and Marshfield idle. Pleasant Hill hosted its own jamboree, Newport was at the Lincoln County Jamboree at Taft and North Bend was at the Cottage Grove jamboree.

Douglas, South Umpqua and Brookings-Harbor all were scheduled to play at the North Valley Jamboree in Grants Pass.

Five of the six Far West League schools are on the road this Friday, including Siuslaw at Elmira. North Bend is at Astoria, Marshfield at defending 4A state champion Cascade, South Umpqua at Mazama and Brookings-Harbor at North Valley. Douglas hosts Valley Catholic.

SCORING
Note: First period was a regular timed 12-minute quarter, second period was 20 minutes running time.
BLUE      6      14     —     20
GOLD     0      14     —     14
Blue — Evan Teter 28-yard pass from Trent Reavis (pass failed)
Gold — Jake Hickson 28-yard pass from Jared Brandt (Brandt run)
Blue — Teter 22-yard pass from Reavis (Reavis run)
Gold — Hickson 25-yard pass from Brandt (run failed)
Blue — Brogan Cornish 28-yard pass from Reavis (no point-after attempt)

TEAMS
*—did not suit up for the game
Blue
7 Evan Teter, junior, WR/DB
9 Ryan Lee, junior, WR/DB
21 Brogan Cornish, senior, WR/DB
22 Quincy Rusk, junior, RB/DB
23 Trent Reavis, junior, WR/DL (backup QB)
50 Michael Larson, senior, OL/LB
51 Logan York, freshman, OL/DL
54 Marcos Reyna, senior, OL/LB
*58 Tyler Cater, senior, OL/DL
*60 Eli Burnem, sophomore, OL/DL
63 David Fleming, senior, OL/DL
66 Matt Horrillo, freshman, OL/DL
68 Dayson Foglio, freshman, OL/DL
71 Tim Lowder, sophomore, OL/LB
75 Jordan Taniguchi, sophomore, OL/DL
76 Zach Stinger, freshman, OL/DL
*83 Daniel Crisp, freshman, TE/LB
87 Ricky Loza, freshman, WR/DB
Gold
1 Jakob Hickson, junior, WR/LB
3 Mason Wampler, sophomore, RB/DB
5 Scott Simmons, senior, WR/DB
8 Anthony DiSalvo, junior, TE/LB
11 Jared Brandt, junior, QB/DB
24 Matt Morales, sophomore, RB/DB
34 Nick Steinman, senior, RB/LB
55 Robert Fleming, senior, OL/DL
56 Salvador Sierra, junior, OL/DL
62 Issac Dunn, junior, OL/DL
64 Laney Rodriguez, freshman, OL/DL
65 Adrian Ortega, sophomore, OL/DL
70 Kainan Lane, senior, OL/DL
74 Sam Testa, sophomore, OL/DL
77 Brayson Myrick, freshman, OL/LB
*78 Riley Jennings, sophomore, OL/LB
80 Brandon Heckathorn, freshman, WR/DB