Sophomore QB Cox leads Polson past Corvallis

The Polson Pirates took their maiden voyage for the 2025 football season, traveling to Corvallis on Friday. By all accounts, it was a good one.

Sophomore Case Cox threw for 228 yards and three touchdowns on 17-of-22 passing, while the Pirates as a whole had 445 yards of offense.

It was a different look for Polson, who had started Holden Emerson the past two seasons at QB. Three snaps into this game, Emerson switched to receiver and caught six passes for 59 yards.

“We knew that going into this year, we had a chance to be pretty explosive on offense if we could mesh together,” Polson Head Coach Carson Oakland said. “When you see Holden on the field, he is one of, if not the best, athlete on the field in the games that we play. He draws a lot of attention, and with him at QB the past two years, teams would stack the box and send pressure at him.”

Oakland said Cox has worked extremely hard to earn the starting quarterback job and is very efficient.

“I'm really proud of him for how he spread the ball around and made all the right reads,” Oakland explained. “He extended the play with his legs, which also puts stress on the defense. You will see Case take the majority of the snaps at quarterback with him at some WR spots as well. Emerson will line up at wide receiver, slot receiver, running back, tight end, and quarterback this year.”

The Pirates struck first on a 12-yard pass by Cox to Merick Ramesar, and Corvallis answered back in the second quarter to tie things up 6-6 at halftime. Oakland pointed to some miscues in the low-scoring first half.

“I didn’t think we finished in the first half. We did some nice things offensively on the first two drives,” Oakland said. “We obviously can't turn the ball over, especially at the one-yard line, so we need to clean that up this week.”

Then the weather rolled in with a lightning delay of over an hour.

“Credit goes to our staff and players for being able to make some adjustments at halftime,” Oakland said. “We did a better job with containment on the perimeter defensively and tackled well. Our kids came into the game in pretty good shape, so I think that helped us execute offensively as well.”

Cox broke the tie in the third quarter with a nine-yard touchdown pass to Eli Evenson and then followed that up with a 28-yard scoring pass to Emerson in the fourth quarter. Luke Horner punched it in from seven yards out for Polson’s final score of the game.

Roman Sawyer hit two extra points during the contest. While Cox made a statement game as the signal-caller for the Pirates, showcasing some good vision, throwing touchdown passes to three different receivers, and completing 77 percent of his passes.

Polson’s offense wasn’t one-dimensional either, as Daniel O’Roake ran the ball 19 times for 116 yards.

“Our offense was balanced against Corvallis, and that was cool to see,” Oakland said. “We didn't go into the game thinking we needed to be 50 percent run and 50 percent pass. We tell our kids offensively that we will be balanced throughout the season. If we have to run the ball 40 times to win, we will do that. If we have to throw it 40 times to win, we will do that as well.”

It was also a great introduction to the season for Polson, which opened up last year with a 38-3 loss to Bigfork and finished 4-4 on the season. Corvallis was undefeated at home last season and finished 5-3 in the Western A Division.

“That was one of the better defensive performances we've had since I've been here,” Oakland said. “A lot of that goes out to our defensive staff in Coach Staley, Coach Corley, Coach Brown, and Coach Avila for putting together a good game plan. It's not easy to game plan for week one, and they did a nice job making some adjustments.”

Oakland also praised his players' execution and tackling. While there are things the team can still clean up, Oakland explained, this is a big confidence booster for the Pirates.

POLSON 26, CORVALLIS 6

Polson - 6 - 0 - 6 - 14 - 26

Corvallis - 0 - 6 - 0 - 0 - 6

SCORING SUMMARY

P — Merick Ramesar 12 pass from Cox (kick failed).

C — Javin Jessop 12 pass from Reese Tucker (kick failed)

P — Eli Evenson 9 pass from Cox (pass failed)

P — Holden Emerson 28 pass from Cox (Roman Sawyer kick)

P — Luke Horner 7 run (Sawyer kick)