Ken Roberts
For The New Era
Stayton only had one pass reception Friday night, but it ended up being the most important play of the game, as the Eagles downed the Huskies in a defensive battle, 8-6.
Late in the first half, Stayton’s Tony Eccles intercepted a Sweet Home pass near midfield and returned it to the Husky 25. In the closing minute, Stayton rushed to a first down at the 15 before being forced to go to the air. The Eagles’ first two pass plays went incomplete, with the second knocked down at the line by Josh Riggs. But Robert Julio then completed his only pass to Gus Hendricks with just over five seconds left on the clock.
A Husky offside penalty allowed the Eagles to move half the distance to the goal on the extra point. From there, Justin Gower scored the two-point conversion, which would end up being the deciding factor in the game.
For over nine minutes, junior quarterback Greg Sipe had led the Huskies on a 20-play drive from the Husky 9 to the Stayton 20-yard line before being stopped. Sipe got the start at quarterback because Kyle Pettit had a staph infection on his knee, which had made it impossible for him to go to practice the entire week. Sipe started out strong, completing his first three passes, the first two to Adam Hummer who had five receptions for the game.
With the running game clicking as well with Cody Sells and sophomore Trevur Byers, Sweet Home converted three third-down plays, two of them third-and-long situations, and found themselves in the red zone. However, the Eagles made a stand, dropping the Huskies for negative yards twice before Sipe fired two incompletions.
“One of our goals was to produce some long, time-consuming drives that are typical of Sweet Home football teams,” said coach Rob Younger. “I was pleased with the improvement. I felt we controlled the football game.We just didn’t capitalize and put the ball in the end zone.”
Younger made the decision to start Pettit at quarterback in the second half, partly because Sipe was tired, having played both offensively and defensively in the first half. Pettit, who had the swelling on his knee go down on Friday, quickly mobilized the offense without showing any effect of the injury. He completed two passes and ran for 43 yards on two running plays to march Sweet Home to the Eagle 21. But once again, Stayton showed its resolve and held off the Huskies, taking over on downs at their own 16.
On the next series, after two big runs, Stayton had to deal with the Husky linebacker Ridge McKinney. He dropped one runner for a loss, made a first down saving tackle on a second play, and then put the final hit on punter Ryan Bowers, who tried to run instead of kick on fourth down.
Pettit then led the Huskies on their lone scoring drive, completing three passes, two on third-down plays. Sells ran in for the final two yards early in the fourth quarter. Forced to go for two points to tie the score, Pettit’s pitch to Sells was fumbled, which would be more costly than the Huskies thought.
With the Husky defense preventing any Stayton offense, Sweet Home would have two more chances, but both attempts fizzled near midfield. Stayton closed the game out with their second interception on a miscommunicated Husky passing route.
Defensively, the seniors, led by Kris Schaefer, Nathan Whitfield, and McKinney continued to make some impact plays when they had to. For Schaefer, it’s been an evolutionary process.
“I used to play defense thinking too much, about where to go and what my responsibilites were,” said Schaefer. “Now it’s more fluid with the team. We are giving each other the calls that we need and we are communicating.”
While the team is gaining experience and improving, Younger still sees room for growth.
“I thought the defense played a good but not a great football game,” said Younger, who pointed out that the one Stayton touchdown was because of a mistake in coverage. “We had too many missed assignments. We need to take the next step to become a consistent football team, play after play, series after series.”
Offensively, the game was an even one, with Sweet Home actually having slightly more total yards than the Eagles, 234 to 214. Pettit thinks it’s just a matter of the Huskies executing with more precision.
“We just have to take care of the mental mistakes,” said the senior quarterback and leading rusher. “We beat ourselves in the Stayton game.”
Sweet Home hosts a relatively unknown opponent in the Tillamook Cheesemakers this Friday.
“Again the focus will be on us,” said Younger. “That’s the nice thing of having non-league games early where we can just focus on what we need to do to get better.”
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
SHHS 0 0 0 6 6
Stayton 0 8 0 0 8
2nd Quarter
Stay—Julio to Hendricks 15 yd. pass (Gower run)
4th Quarter
SHHS—Sells 2 yd. run (run failed)
Team Stats
Rushing: SHHS 35-157; Stayton 41-199
Passing: SHHS 87; Stayton 15
Sacks: SHHS 0 Stayton 3-10
Total: SHHS 234, Stayton 214
1st Downs: SHHS 13; Stayton 12
Turnovers: SHHS 2; Stayton 1
Penalties: SHHS 8-46.5; Stayton 6-35
Individual Stats
Rushing: SHHS: Pettit 5-51; Sells 20-51; Byers 4-35; Pearson 3-23; Pitts 1-1; Davis 1-(-2) Sipe 1-(-2)
Stayton: Gower 12-76, Hendricks 12-44
Passing: SHHS: Pettit 8-13-1, 57;
Sipe 3-9-1, 30
Stayton: Julio 1-6, 15
Receiving: SHHS: Hummer 5-45; Sells 2-7;
Bergevin 1-16; Byers 1-7; Pitts 1-6; Pearson 1-6
Stayton: Hendricks 1-15
Punts: SHHS: Delong 3-80 (26.7, 19 net)
Stayton: Bowers 4-119 (29.8, 29.8 net)
Punt Returns: SHHS: None
Stayton: None
Kick Returns: SHHS: Delong 1-3 Stayton: 2-2
Interceptions: SHHS: None; Stayton 2
Fumble Recoveries: SHHS 1 (Jones) Stayton 0
Tackles: SHHS: Whitfield 10, Schaefer 9 McKinney and Jones 8