It hasn’t been a great season for Sweet Home’s football team.
There was that disappointing loss to Sisters. Then another to Stayton.
But when push came to shove, the Huskies held firm to outlast Newport 27-26 Friday night, Oct. 25, and land themselves a play-in game at Estacada this Friday night, Nov. 1.
“We got in,” Coach Dustin Nichol said. “I wasn’t sure.”
With the OSAA ranking system, Sweet Home needed to be in the top 24 to get into the playoffs. The Huskies (2-3, 3-5) ended up with a No. 19 ranking after the game, which gave them the chance to travel to 13th-ranked Estacada (2-3, 5-3). The winner will move on to the 16-team playoff bracket.
Sweet Home was hot Friday, opening up a 6-0 lead in the first quarter after quarterback Aiden Tyler hit Tye Moore with a 10-yard scoring pass.
The Huskies added another touchdown in the second, on another pass from Tyler, this time for five yards to Jasper Korn, to take a 14-0 lead after a two-point conversion.
After the Cubs scored to narrow the hosts’ lead to 14-7, Sweet Home came right back with another scoring pass, nine yards from Tyler to Cole Baxter, to take a 21-7 lead into halftime.
“Guys were flying around, doing really good things,” Nichol said.
But officials warned him at halftime, after two Sweet Home players were called for roughing the passer and targeting in the first half, he said.
Not wanting to risk losing players for the next game, he cautioned his team in the locker room.
“I didn’t see anything malicious,” Nichol said. “These were guys playing football. But I don’t have the angle that the officials had. I’m not going to question the officials.”
He said he told his players to be “cognizant,” because the officials were on the alert.
The Huskies came out flat and didn’t play with the same fire in the second half, scoring on their first drive on a 27-yard pass from Tyler to Zach Luttmer, then going scoreless for the rest of the game as Newport battled back.
“It didn’t seem like we were nearly as aggressive as we were going into it,” Nichol said. “We were playing a little bit hesitant. The edge was taken off, unfortunately.”
The defense played well, he said, but Newport started to complete passes in the second half, which got the Cubs back into the game, scoring on a 16-yard pass in the third, then following that up with two touchdowns in the fourth.
Plus, Sweet Home had trouble with communication between Tyler and his receivers, and some sloppy play on the line in the second half, which gave the visitors opportunities, Nichol said.
“Offensively, we didn’t make any changes, but we weren’t as crisp in the second half,” he said.
Newport went for it after a 9-yard pass from Luke Losier to Kaden Bruns to close to 27-26, but the Huskies were able to bat the ball down on a two-point conversion attempt and escape with the win.
“I’m proud of the guys,” Nichol said. “We won by one point. I’m just glad our guys stuck it out, going down the stretch. They did what they needed to do to earn the next round. They made some mistakes, but they came back and toughened up.”
He credited Jackson Royer with good play on both sides of the ball, along with Cade Gaskey and Iakona Howerton.
Gaskey led all rushers with 53 yards on 11 carries, while Travis Thorpe had 35 yards on six rushes, and Tyler and Royer both gained 33 on nine carries. The Huskies finished with 284 total yards, 160 on the ground.
Tyler finished with 13 completions on 26 passing attempts for 124 yards and the four touchdowns. Korn finished with five catches for 26 yards, while Baxter finished with 37 yards on three catches to lead the team.
Newport finished with 269 total yards, 226 of them through the air.
The win left Sweet Home tied for third in the Special District 3 with Sisters and Newport, also 2-3, but the Huskies had one more win than those two, at 3-5 overall, and two of its losses have been to now-No. 5 Marist and No. 1-ranked Banks,
Estacada is in fourth place in Special District 2, behind North Marion, Gladstone and The Dalles, which plays down in football, and ahead of Crook County and Woodburn.
The Rangers will likely look a lot like Cascade, Nichol said, depending on a full-house backfield and a lot of double tight end looks, with unbalanced lines and a veer option.
“They run the ball a lot. They run with a lot of power. They put three backs in the backfield and run play action off that. They grind and pound.
“We’re not going to Baker. We’re not going to Marshfield. They’re going to be a tough opponent, but it’s something I think we can do.