It wasn’t the result the Huskies wanted in their first football playoff game in five seasons, but it was a classic as host La Grande scored a late touchdown Friday night, Nov. 7, to escape with a 20-17 win.
Sweet Home weathered the long trip well, as the Huskies took it right to La Grande in the first quarter.
“They turned the ball over quite a bit for us, which definitely made it easier,” Coach Ryan Adams said.
The Huskies scored on a 10-yard pass from quarterback Kyle Zajic to tight end Luke Rosa midway through the first quarter, to take a 7-0 lead.
Adams said that Bekham Hibbert, a 6-2, 235-pound defensive end and offensive lineman who is one of La Grande’s best players, missed the first two series, which gave the Huskies a chance to build some early momentum.
“They were really good, up front,” he said, adding that Hibbert and tight end/defensive end Darek McIlmoil (6-3, 220) “did a phenomenal job just dictating the edges.”
Sweet Home scored again with eight seconds left in the opening period when sophomore running back Sam Barringer scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to give the Huskies a 14-0 lead with the extra point from Keeghan Gittins.
At that point Hibbert re-entered the game and the hosts began to generate some momentum.
“Once they started taking care of the ball, they were able to take it to us a little bit,” Adams said.
With 7:38 on the clock in the second quarter, Sweet Home attempted to punt from its 27 yard line and the Tigers got a hand on it.
“That gave them the ball on the 4-yard line,” Adams said. The Huskies held the hosts off for two plays, but La Grande scored from the 2-yard line on third down to make it 14-7 with 6:08 left in the half.
The Tigers forced Sweet Home to punt on its next possession and marched down the field to the Huskies’ 17, where Kaeson Walker deflected a Tiger pass, which, unfortunately for Sweet Home, landed in the hands of McIlmoil at the 10-yard line.
“There was nobody there,” Adams said, and the tight end cruised into the end zone to tie the score.
The third quarter was scoreless, though the Huskies had chances late in the quarter. Barringer carried the ball into the end zone for Sweet Home, but officials called a hold in the end zone on Bode Nichols, negating the apparent touchdown. Then, on the next play, Nichols caught a pass from Zajic in the corner of the end zone, but was ruled out of bounds when he came down.
The Huskies salvaged that drive with a 12-yard field goal from Gittins on fourth and six to take a 17-14 lead.
La Grande stormed back, and Sweet Home managed to get the stop and the ball back with four minutes to go.
But the Huskies struggled with penalties on the drive, getting called for a block in the back at one point, and had to punt with 2:54 left to play.
“We just needed to get a stop, but we were unable to,” Adams said regarding La Grande’s final touchdown. They ran it down our throats with a minute left.”
Sweet Home went big at the end, but the Tigers picked Zajic off on a “Hail Mary-type” pass, he said.
Adams said the team approached the game “phenomenally.”
“They knew it was borrowed time,” he said, referring to the fact that Sweet Home was in the playoffs solely because Philomath, their previous opponent, had had to forfeit due to a rules violation. “I was proud of how the kids handled the long road trip and how they practiced.”
He noted that the Tigers have developed a tradition of good football.
“They have a long history of success over the last 10 to 15 years,” Adams said. “They are not new to the post-season. They know how to win. We knew that.
“They put their fingerprint on the football game. They made it difficult to block, to make stops. They didn’t do anything different than we watched on film all year.”
The coach credited Gittins’ field goal, adding that the kicker “been practicing for two years for that opportunity” and was able to deliver.
“Our kids didn’t flinch,” he said. “We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times, with that blocked punt and Kaeson’s deflection. But nine times out of 10 that deflection goes our way. This one didn’t.
“It was a really fun high school football game. We really battled back and forth, throwing haymakers right and left.
“La Grande was able to execute when they needed it most.”
Sweet Home finished with 109 yards rushing, and Zajic was 10 of 21 for 105 yards passing, with a touchdown and two interceptions.
La Grande rolled to 308 yards on 48 carries, adding 52 yards in the air. The Tigers had 19 first downs but were only two for six on third-down conversions, whereas the Huskies finished with 12 first down, five for 13 on third-down attempts.
Other individual statistics were not available at press time.
“I’m really proud of our team,” Adams said. “It’s been a long, long time since we’ve been able to play a post-season game.None of our kids had ever experienced that and to bring back that taste of post-season is such a solid foundation for our program going forward.”