Ken Roberts
For The New Era
Speed kills.
Marist?s Brandon Jackson used it to write the final rites for the Sweet Home Huskies in their Friday debut of the 2005 football season, 41-12.
The game turned into a track meet for the Spartans, who kept finding different ways to put Jackson on the edges with sweeps, options, and flare passes. By the end of the third quarter, the junior tailback had accounted for 341 yards, 174 rushing, 32 receiving, and 135 on punt returns, one for a touchdown.
?The Marist coaches did a good job of isolating Jackson on the perimeter,? said Husky coach Rob Younger. ?That?s a pretty good game plan with both of their running backs.?
Like Jackson, Marist?s offense ran in spurts. Early in the game, helped by a myriad of Spartan penalties on offense, Sweet Home contained the explosive Marist attack. The Huskies were able to move the ball on their opening possession, but fumbles by receivers cost them valuable yardage and then a turnover. Husky receivers fumbled four times on the night, two of them turnovers, and had another lost ball on a questionable incomplete lateral pass.
However, on its next drive following that turnover, Sweet Home marched from its own 20-yard line and scored seven plays later to put the first points on the board.
A Spartan penalty and a 19-yard pass from Kyle Pettit to Trevor Tagle put the Huskies into Marist territory. Then after a fake pitch to the right, Pettit tossed a long pass, allowing Tim Faulconer to out-jump his defender and then scamper into the end zone after a key block from Derrick Ward for a 42-yard touchdown.
That would be the Huskies’ only lead. In the second quarter, Marist took advantage of another Husky fumble and Jackson?s punt returns helped propel the Spartans to a 20-6 halftime lead. Jackson returned Skyler Bascom?s first punt for 57 yards before Bascom, the last man between Jackson and the goal line, made the saving tackle at the Husky 24-yard line.
Kyle Haskin connected with Matt Frosland on the first play and Jake Webber?s kick gave the Spartans the lead, which they would never relinquish. After another Husky fumble off a pass reception, Marist used its running game, primarily Jackson, but also Tyler Sears, who scored the Spartans? second touchdown from one yard out.
Jackson closed out the scoring in the half with a 71-yard punt return.
?I thought we played well on defense from tackle to tackle all night long,? said Younger. ?Our defense bent a little bit, but we were pleased with their execution in the first half. The defense was just on the field way too much.?
In the second half, the Huskies regrouped, starting with Cody Shipp?s 54-yard opening kickoff return. Mixing the pass and run well, the Huskies quickly drew first blood with a Tagle 2-yard run. Despite three penalties and a bungled extra-point play, Sweet Home was within striking distance.
However, Marist responded quickly, once again using the quickness of its running backs outside to score two consecutive touchdowns. Sears broke outside for a 24-yard run and Jackson, following a Marist interception, eluded Husky defenders for a 53-yard burst that put the game out of reach.
Marist added another breakaway 70-yard run by Corbin Hiday early in the fourth quarter. All total, Marist had 400 yards of total offense to the Huskies? 293, much of which came after the game was out of reach in the fourth quarter with Marist substituting freely.
Offensively, the Huskies ran and passed well. Tagle, Ryan Elliott, and Bascom all put up impressive average gains with Tagle leading the way with 102 yards on 12 carries. Pettit?s yardage numbers were hurt by the fumbles, though he still managed to complete 11 of 19 passes for 98 yards.
?Pettit didn?t throw any bad balls,? said Younger. ?The interception was tipped by our receiver. But we can still improve in our decision making and run better routes.?
For most of the night, the Husky offensive line was able to create holes for the backs and give Pettit enough time to throw.
?Marist was a little passive at first on defense,? said senior guard Joe Ellis. ?They didn?t blitz as much as we thought they would. We were able to stay low and get into them. But we have a lot of two way starters, so we would get tired at times and start standing up.?
But an unusually poor performance on special teams turned out to be costly.Though Bascom averaged 37 yards on his punts, the net yardage was a minus eight with the inability to tackle Jackson. In addition to that, six of the Huskies nine penalties were called on special teams.
?We spend a lot of time on our special teams and usually we are very good,? stated Younger. ?But tonight they let us down and the floodgates opened. Our coverage was a combination of poor execution by us and a great running back that made us look poor.?
Even though Marist accumulated 15 penalties for 119 yards, the Spartans were able to overcome the effects of the penalties often with the speed of their running tandem.
Sweet Home will see even more total team speed when they play the defending state champion in Wilsonville next week. Wilsonville lost its opening game 62-35 against Prosser, Wash., but thumped Junction City on the road 58-16 last Friday.
?They have really good runners again,? said Elliott. ?We are going to have to work
hard at keeping outside containment and breaking down to make tackles.?
Elliott was disappointed in the Huskies’ opening performance but still feels optimistic.
?Our offense was running well,? noted Elliott. ?They couldn?t stop us. Penalties and fumbles cost us. But we have to learn from that and step up and play as hard as we can to bounce back and see what we can do.?