Same strategy fine for Tigard.

Byline: Steve Mims The Register-Guard

Their names, David Faaeteete and Beau Hovland, are often mispronounced.

The lineman is fah-eh-TAY-tay and he wears No. 57. The quarterback, pronounced HUV-land, is No. 14.

4A FOOTBALL

Tough to pronounce, even tougher to miss on the football field.

"We'd match up well with them if 57 and 14 weren't playing," Tigard coach Frank Geske said. "They kind of throw things into a little disarray. (Faaeteete) makes his plays, he's a heck of a player and so is Hovland. He means to them on offense what David does on defense."

Geske doesn't expect to stop Faaeteete and Hovland but hopes his Tigers (12-1) can slow down North Medford (12-1) during the Class 4A football championship game at 4:15 p.m. today at Autzen Stadium.

"Both of those kids will make their plays. We spent the better part of the week convincing our coaches that they will make their plays," Geske said. "Our job is to negate the others and keep them in the role of role payers. Make somebody else carry the load and make tackles."

Tigard has plenty of its own weapons that North Medford will have to contain, starting with quarterback Scott Bonnano and wide receiver Kevin Mills. Bonnano has thrown for 2,696 yards and 23 touchdowns, while Mills has 72 catches for 1,301 yards and 13 touchdowns.

"Their quarterback throws extremely well," North Medford coach John Beck said. "Especially to his hot reads when he's pressured. They execute their passing game well."

Despite those numbers, Geske has been hearing that he should tone down his offense for the final.

"I keep getting advice from unsolicited sources. Heck, some of them are good football guys like former college and high school coaches," Geske said. "I can't believe they say we should play it close to the vest. We'll do what we did to get here, we're not charting a new course."

What Tigard has done is run a balanced offense that features Bonnano, Mills and running back Joey Nobriga, who has run for 1,122 yards and 14 touchdowns.

North Medford has been explosive on offense in recent weeks, as it closed out the regular season with a 57-6 win over Grants Pass and then scored 57, 42 and 52 points in its first three playoff games. The Black Tornado defeated Canby 26-14 in last week's semifinal.

Hovland has thrown for 2,013 yards and rushed for 565 yards. Tailback Rob Folsom has 1,256 yards and 14 touchdowns for an offense that is averaging 41.4 points per game.

North Medford should get a stiff challenge from Tigard, which is allowing less than 10 points per game.

"They have a super strong defense," Beck said. "They have been playing great all year. They do not have any weakness in their defense. We're trying to find one, but we're not really finding any mismatches."

Tigard shut out Clackamas 12-0 in the semifinals and stopped the Cavaliers on six drives into Tigard territory.

"Our defense keeps surprising me," Geske said. "Each game I think it is as good as they can play, so I'm not going to say that anymore. I don't know what we can do to top that, especially the pressure situations they were in."