Sweet Home found its lack of varsity football experience a problem Friday, losing 13-7 to a Sherwood Bowmen team that returned 10 of 11 starters from a year ago.
The Huskies returned only one offensive starter this season.
“Other than losing a game, we were very pleased with the way we executed. Watching the game films, we saw great improvement. We’re expecting even more improvement this week, perhaps the most of the season,” Coach Rob Younger said. “We’ve got a varsity game under our belt. We now know the speed of the game and how to execute.”
Caster scored both Bowmen touchdowns, a three yarder in the second quarter and a one yarder in the third. The first kick was good and the second attempt failed.
Sweet Home’s lone TD came on a Brian Seward to Brandon Miner aerial of 39 yards. Donnie Cliver iced the cake with his PAT kick.
Overall, the Huskies picked up 60 yards rushing and an a 21 yard aerial intercepted.
Seward was 3-6 passing for 55 yards and Cliver was 4-4 for 36 yards.
Sherwood carried the ball 44 times for 156 yards and added 52 yards in the air for a 208 yard night.
“Even though they picked up more than 200 yards, our defense played well,” Coach Younger said. “Their longest gain was 15 yards.”
Specialty teams played well for the Huskies, Coach Younger said. Donnie Cliver was named offensive player of the week, kicking especially well.
Brandon Martin was named defensive player of the week and Ricky Howe was the specialty teams player of the week.
The Huskies host Wilsonville Friday in their only home game in the first five weeks of the season.
Wilsonville lost to a strong Junction City squad Friday but aren’t a team to be overlooked, according to Coach Younger.
“They will spread it out and try to beat us with misdirection,” Coach Younger said. “Defensively, they will throw a lot of fronts at us.”
QB chatter…
“We just didn’t have the ball enough on offense,” Quarterback Brian Seward said of Friday’s loss.
“We couldn’t sustain a drive. Usually we’ll have an average of 60 plays a game and we had only 34 Friday,” Seward said.
Sherwood is a good team, he added, but a couple penalties hurt the Huskies.
“It was a pretty clean game overall,” Seward said. “We didn’t fumble or throw interceptions but we didn’t have the ball as much as we should have.”
The Bowmen were solid up front, Seward added and Husky linemen didn’t get as good of a read on blocking as they might have with more experience under their belt.