Eighth-ranked Thurston was completely dialed in with its passing game and Crater couldn’t find enough of a steady offensive or defensive attack to slow the Colts down in suffering a 52-31 loss Thursday night in Midwestern League football.

Thurston senior quarterback Noah Blair passed for two touchdowns and ran for another to help his team build a 28-7 lead by halftime, then came back with three more TD passes in the second half to thwart the Comets’ comeback hopes at Dutch Meyer Field in Central Point.

After fostering dreams of a MWL championship this summer and into the early fall, Crater has now lost three straight games with three must-win contests remaining if the Comets (3-3, 2-3 MWL) are to possibly qualify for the Class 5A state playoffs.

“We had a lot going against us tonight and we were able to keep fighting and not give up,” said Crater head coach Seth Womack. “For four quarters, they scrapped and scrapped and scrapped. They didn’t always win the battles, but they were always in them. Sometimes after losing two games in a row and things not going our way in the third game, it’s easy to kind of say here we go again and kind of give up, and our kids didn’t do that tonight.”

Senior running back Valentin Rodriguez rushed 37 times for 189 yards and two touchdowns for the Comets, while quarterback Ben Higginson ran for 91 yards on seven carries and passed for 53 yards and a TD while sharing duties with Tairren Kane-Kruse, who passed for 112 yards.

“I think we had a good effort from a lot of kids,” said Womack. “There’s a lot of things I’m happy about from our team. As a team we really did fight and claw and try to keep ourselves in that game all night long, and that’s hard to do when you’ve lost the last two.”

The top three teams in the Midwestern League qualify for the 16-team state playoffs, with five at-large bids available after each of the other four leagues send their top two teams to state.

Churchill (5-1, 5-0) and Thurston (6-1, 5-1) lead the MWL, followed by Willamette (5-0, 4-0), North Eugene (4-3, 4-2) and Crater.

The Comets close out the regular season against two of those teams — North Eugene and Willamette — and winless South Eugene.

After Thurston’s tremendous first half, Higginson got the Comets off on the right foot to start the third quarter when he broke away for a 54-yard run to put his team instantly in scoring position. Rodriguez pushed in from 5 yards out and added a two-point conversion only 45 seconds into the second half.

Thurston was able to counter with a 30-yard field goal from Noah Zanotto but Crater came back with another short-yardage TD by Rodriguez and ensuing two-point conversion that made it 31-23 and breathed new hope into the Comets.

“We brought ourselves back within eight but things kinda fell apart after that,” said Womack.

Matt Newell leaped over Crater cornerback Terrius Allen for a sensational 30-yard TD reception one minute later, and then Higginson spinned as he was looking for a running back but a miscommunication led to a fumble and Colts recovery at the Crater 18-yard line. Blair connected with Ryan Roser for a 33-yard score to cap that drive and regain a 45-23 cushion.

“We’ve been trying to eliminate that in practice and every game we’ve played in this year that’s just been our downfall is the turnovers,” said Womack. “We just can’t protect and control to keep the ball. It’s frustrating but we’re still learning and we’re still getting better and we’ll kind of see how things go. We’ve got three games left so we’ll go from there.”

Kyle Petty supplied Crater with its final points on a 34-yard inside handoff counter run after he previously had caught a 48-yard scoring strike from Higginson on a scramble drill. Petty finished with three catches for 53 yards and five carries for 60 yards.

Defensively, Crater had some highlight moments with sacks by Hunter Verstegen and company but an inability to string quality defensive sets together proved costly, especially with Thurston’s ability to pull in passes downfield despite good coverage.

“On the defensive side of the ball, our linebackers put pressure on that quarterback,” said Womack. “They did a decent job throughout the night at times and when our coverage was on, we did OK.”