An Oregon punt that rolled and eventually was downed at the 1-yard line turned out to set up the longest play in Dixon history.

Quarterback Cullen Shaner’s 99-yard pass to Eli Davidson on the Dukes’ first play from scrimmage broke a school passing record that had stood since 1956 – when John Wooten connected with Paul Ackerman for a 90-yard touchdown against Princeton almost 60 years ago. The longest touchdown run in Dixon football history belongs to Mike Ridgway, who ran for a 95-yard score against Ottawa in 2006.

Shaner’s pass went 30 yards downfield, and Davidson did the rest. Dixon (2-0, 2-0 Big Northern Conference) rolled to another conference win with a 35-0 shutout at home.

“We just had the right play called up,” Shaner said. “Coach said to look at him if they had two high safeties. They had one high safety, so I was just going to trust the best player on the team. I threw it up to him and he took it for six.”

Davidson was surprised he had a one-on-one opportunity against the defense. He took full advantage.

“I knew we had it dialed up for me to go deep, and I took off – and I didn’t have to slow down at all,” he said. “He put that pass right in the basket, and I just kept running and beat them to the pylon.”

Shaner finished 9-for-17 passing for 153 yards and three touchdowns, along with 88 rushing yards and a TD. Davidson had four catches for 121 yards and two scores and added 58 yards rushing.

Oregon (0-2, 0-2), which was without its top two quarterbacks because of illness and injury, finished with 84 total yards on offense.

“We’re trying to figure ourselves out,” Oregon coach Broc Kundert said. “We had our three-year starting quarterback go down, then we had our backup go down last week, so we’re on our third guy right now. We’ve had to make a pretty monumental shift to a new offense because we felt like that’s what’s best for our guys right now.

“We moved the ball OK at times, kept it out of their hands early, but it’s something that’s got to get greased up. It’s got to have time to jell, so we’ll get there.”

Newman rolls in bounce-back win

The Comets were locked in against Mendota in Saturday’s home opener following last week’s 28-14 loss to Princeton.

Newman won 42-0 and scored on offense, defense and special teams in the win.

Daniel Kelly had a 22-yard interception return, Cody McBride returned a punt for a score and had a rushing touchdown, and Evan Bushman had a passing touchdown in the win.

“From a special teams standpoint, last year, we didn’t get a single return,” Newman coach Mike LeMay said. “Our special teams coach, coach [Todd] Messer, was really harping on that. We’re really explosive, and it showed tonight on that one.”

Sterling defense stays tough

As the Sterling offense continues to work at finding its footing, the defense has played well enough to win.

The Golden Warriors lost 17-0 to Niles Notre Dame on Friday to fall to 0-2, but the defense has shown promise.

Sterling held the Dons to 175 total yards and only 27 rushing yards. The Golden Warriors also intercepted two passes.

If Sterling can get the run game going and jump-start the offense, wins should come.

“I have to believe if our defense continues to play like that, we’re going to find a way,” Sterling coach Jon Schlemmer said. “We’re going to keep knocking on the door. I’ll tell you right now, this defense isn’t going away, and our offense is only going to get better.”

Forreston’s Boettner rushes for 209 yards

Forreston tailback Evan Boettner scored a touchdown and led the backfield with 209 rushing yards in a 38-0 win over Dakota. The Cardinals had 390 rushing yards as a team in the win. Dane Setterstrom also had three rushing touchdowns Friday.

Boettner has 271 yards rushing this season with and is averaging 9 yards a carry.