Despite playing well and doing almost everything right, Sweet Home’s football team suffered its second straight loss Friday night, 24-21, in an “entertaining” visit to Crescent Valley.
“It just didn’t go the way we needed it to to win the football game,” Coach Ryan Adams said.
“Definitely disappointing.”
The loss leaves the Huskies 1-2 in Special District 3, behind Philomath, Junction City, Marist and Crescent Valley, which all stand at 2-1. Cottage Grove, Sweet Home’s next opponent, is 0-3 after a 35-0 loss to Marist Friday at home.
“We’ve got to win the last two,” Adams said of the Huskies’ goal to make the playoffs.
The game was tight from the opening kickoff; both teams played solid football.
Bradyn McClure ended Crescent Valley’s first possession by picking off quarterback Ryan Williams, and Sweet Home quarterback Kyle Zajic drove the Huskies to the 19, where he missed Bode Nichols on fourth down and turned the ball over.
But a bad punt gave the Huskies the ball on the Raiders’ 39 yard line with 11:13 left to play
and Zajic ran it in from the 1 after a short series to put points on the board for Sweet Home, and Keeghan Gittins added the extra point for a 7-0 lead with 7:50 left.
Crescent Valley responded with 30 seconds left in the half as Sterling Holland made an acrobatic one-handed catch of a 12-yard pass from Williams in the far right corner of the end zone and the Raiders converted the extra point to make it 7-7 going into the locker room.
With 5:26 on the clock in the third quarter, Trenton Templin ran a tight sweep from the 10 yard to score the Huskies’ second touchdown of the night, to make it 14-7.
Then, with 1:46 on the clock in the third, Williams, on the run from Husky pursuers behind the 20 yard line, got the ball off on the left side to Gabe Pannebaker, who broke free from Bridger Royer and scampered into the end zone to tie the score again.
Sweet Home came back with an answer with 10:44 in the final period as Zajic handed off to Sam Barringer on the 20 yard line, who ran it in. The kick was good and Sweet Home led 21-0 with 10:38 on the clock.
With 7:05 left, Williams hit Holland for another Raiders score, tying things up for the third time, at 21-all.
The Huskies defense held Crescent Valley on its final drive for three straight plays at the 12-yard line, and Raiders kicker Simon Patel gave them a three-point lead with a field goal.
Down 24-21, Zajic started driving the Huskies up the field, but with 1:21 left, Zajic was picked off from his 34 when his receiver, Bode Nichols, slipped and fell on his pass route and Holland, who was defending and had also lost his footing and fallen, got up in time to snag the ball where Nichols was supposed to be and run it back to the 18, where the hosts ran out the clock.
“From a football standpoint, it was, obviously for us, super disappointing,” Adams said. “It didn’t go our way. They answered every time they needed to, which was a testament to them.
“I thought Friday night was a really good example of, you know, sometimes the other team just makes plays and we were able to kind of have a really entertaining, a really fun football game.”
The Huskies effectively shut down Crescent Valley’s running game in the second half, limiting the hosts to 85 rushing yards, while Sweet Home finished with 172.
But Williams completed 22 of 33 passes for 245 yards and three scores, while giving up two interceptions.
Zajic completed five of 13 passes for 28 yards, with one pick.
Individual rushing and receiving statistics were not available at press time.
“I was really proud of our offense,” Adams said. “I was really proud of the guys up front, in the trenches, both offensively and defensively; especially in that second half, I thought we played extremely physical.
“I thought we did a great job shutting down their run game and that left a lot of big plays for them through the air. But even in those plays, a lot of them are 50-50, jump balls. Our kid is there, and their kid just was able to get up and and get the ball before our guy was, and so that’s obviously disappointing, but you know, it’s a little easier to lose games like that.”
He noted that Crescent Valley, a 5A Division school in every other sport, dropped down to 4A this year because the Raiders were winless in their 5A league play last year after going 2-7 in the giant and powerful Mid-Willamette Conference in the 2023-24 season after losing players and bringing in a new coach who took over a young team following the departures.
“Their coaches are doing a great job,” Adams said. “I don’t know how long they’ll be down in 4A, if it will be more than just this year, but for what they’ve been doing really well. Big credit to that coaching staff.”
Up next for Sweet Home, in a must-win situation, will be Cottage Grove (0-3, 1-6) on what will be Senior Night for the Huskies at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, followed by the regular-season finale on the road at Philomath on Oct. 31.
“We’ve got to win both,” Adams said. “Our kids aren’t afraid of that. They’re aware of that, and they’re excited to take that challenge.
“But if we want any chance, we’ve got to, for sure, win the next two and then even on top of that, there might be an element of needing some help, depending on how the rest of the league shakes out.
“But we understand that. Like I said, we know why we’re in this situation, as a cause and effect of the way we’ve handled the last two weeks. And so now it’s just kind of getting back to focusing on what we actually can control from this point.
“The kids are really excited for that, and so I’m excited to kind of see how they respond.”