Crescent Valley senior Colby Eason fought back the tears as he addressed his teammates Friday night in the end zone at the Field of Dreams.

He told them he had thought Friday night's game was over when the Raiders trailed by 20 late in the fourth quarter, and expressed how proud he was of the way the Raiders fought back and never gave up.

Then he promised the juniors he would be back next year when they took on West Albany for the Mid-Willamette Conference football title.

While the sixth-ranked Raiders made a late push Friday night against the No. 2 Bulldogs, it wasn't enough to claim a championship.

West Albany, the two-time reigning state champions and winners of the first three MWC titles, stayed undefeated in conference play with a 34-28 victory over the Raiders to make it four titles in a row.

The Raiders (8-2, 6-1) scored 14 points in the final 2:26 but couldn't come up with one last onside kick and West Albany (9-1, 7-0) ran out the clock.

"I feel like it was a big learning experience for our program," Eason said. "We have made so many strides this year. We're not done learning and we found that out tonight."

The Raiders will have two weeks to prepare for No. 3 Sherwood. The teams meet in the 5A playoffs at the CV on Nov. 20.

On Friday, the Bulldogs showed there is no substitute for experience in big games.

"I'm proud that they fought back and competed with them, but hopefully they will learn from this," CV coach Scott Sanders said. "We just made too many mistakes."

West Albany took advantage of two muffed punts in the first quarter to prolong possession and eventually scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Nick Orsborn for a 7-0 lead.

Anthony LaCoste then scored from 4 yards out and it was 14-0.

Colton Kelsey returned a fumble to the Bulldogs' 1 late in the second quarter and Andre Oglesby leaped over for the score as the Raiders went into the locker room down 14-7.

Kelsey forced another fumble early in the third quarter and Eason went 70 yards on one play to tie the game at 14-14.

"I saw the line open up and my coach always tells me run for daylight so I just kind of tried to make a cutback and luckily it worked out for me," Eason said. "I'm not the fastest guy so I'm glad I got to pull one off at least."

West Albany regained the lead on LaCoste's 20-yard run, but the PAT was wide and West Albany led 20-14.

The Raiders took the ensuing possession and reached the 5 on a 12-yard run by Eason.

But back-to-back procedure penalties forced the Raiders back and an interception in the end zone ended the drive.

"It goes back to learning how to be in a situation to win a close game," Sanders said. "They were antsy. They felt it, they smelt it."

The Bulldogs then scored on back-to-back drives to push their lead to 34-14 with 4:18 left.

"We just made too many mistakes," Sanders said. "I never asked them to play perfect football and we needed to play perfect football tonight and we didn't."

Oglesby's 26-yard run got the Raiders within 34-21 and CV recovered the onside kick. Grant Mattes hit Eric Aust from 14 yards out and it was 34-28 with 59 seconds left.

But the Bulldogs recovered the onside kick to hold on.

"I just believe in every single one of the guys on this team and I know we can win games like this," Kyle Gardner said. "I just believed that we could come back and win. We just didn't."

West Albany 34, Crescent Valley 20

WEST ALBANY 14 0 6 14 - 34

CRESCENT VALLEY 0 7 7 14 - 28

First quarter

WA: Nick Orsborn 1 run (Tyler Davis kick), 7:10

WA: Anthony LaCoste 4 run (Davis kick), 0:56

Second quarter

CV: Andre Oglesby 1 run (Mark Geniza), 3:17

Third quarter

CV: Colby Eason 70 run (Geniza kick), 7:21

WA: LaCoste 20 run (kick failed), 1:54

Fourth quarter

WA: LaCoste 35 run (Jackson Ruckert pass from Orsborn), 7:26

WA: Cole McHenry recovered fumble in end zone (kick failed), 4:18

CV: Oglesby 26 run (Geniza kick), 2:26

CV: Eric Aust 14 pass from Grant Mattes (Geniza kick), 0:59

RUSHING: WA - LaCoste 25-144, McHenry 8-28, Ruckert 1-26, Jarrett 3-14, Orsborn 8-6. CV - Oglesby 23-137, Eason 7-122, Gardner 2-9, Cochran 5-25, Matters 6-19.

PASSING: WA - Orsborn 7-20-1 120. CV - Mattes 1-10-1 14.

RECEIVING: WA - Thomas 3-61, Reid 1-11, Ruckert 3-48. CV - Aust 1-14.