Ken Roberts
For The New Era
Stayton took advantage of Sweet Home turnovers in the first half and held ground for the remainder of the game to defeat the Huskies 18-7 in a nonleague football matchup Friday.
Both teams had trouble hanging onto the ball in the opening minutes. The Huskies fumbled twice and Stayton once. Sweet Home’s second fumble gave the hosts the ball at the Husky 12 yard line. It took a fourth down play for the Eagles to score on a 12 yard pass from Ian Campbell to Kelly Thuerkoff. Stayton missed their two point conversion as they would all three of their attempts.
Following a Husky two-yard punt, Stayton scored a second touchdown with a 67 yard drive Most of the yardage came on the ground, with Kyle McGrath going in from two yards out.
Sweet Home countered with a solid march up the field, but finally failed on a fourth down-pass play when Keenon Martin was sacked for a 5 yard loss and the Huskies added a 15-yard personal foul to make matters worse.
It took just six plays from midfield for Stayton to use the Campbell to Thuerkoff duo again, this time on a 22-yard pass, which gave the Eagles an 18-0 halftime lead.
“Anytime you have three turnovers and trouble twice with your punting game,” said coach Rob Younger, “you put yourself at a disadvantage. It came back to haunt us.”
Sweet Home came out energized in the third quarter. They chewed up five minutes with their 71-yard drive, all by rushing, which was capped off with Amos Parmenter’s six-yard run.
Stayton killed most of the rest of the third quarter by keeping the ball on the ground. The Eagles’ 35-yard punt backed up the Huskies on their own 5-yard line. From there, Sweet Home took up half of the fourth quarter just to get to Stayton’s 35 yard line.
But for all practical purposes, the game ended when Thuerkoff made his second interception of the game.
“Stayton never did stop us,” explained Younger. “It was a matter of us stopping ourselves.”
After having considerable success with their passing game in the first two contests, the Huskies took a step backward, completing just five of 12 passes for 33 yards with two interceptions and three sacks. On the other hand, Sweet Home had the advantage in rushing, 227 to 189. With total yardage nearly even, it was the 4-1 margin in turnovers that did the Huskies in.
Younger felt the Huskies were forced into passing situations to catch up in the second half.
“We’re going to be much more effective when we throw the ball when we want to throw it,” stated Younger, “not because we have to throw.”
Parmenter, the Huskies’ leading rusher with 83 yards, suffered a strained neck while playing defense in the third quarter and had to be transported by ambulance to a hospital as a pre-cautionary measure. He retained movement in his extremities at all times and his condition improved quickly after the game. Younger said he has been cleared to practice, though they will take it tentatively throughout the week.
It is possible that the 0-3 Huskies will also get Josh Riggs and Logan Clark back next week to put the team back at full strength. It will depend on their medical clearance and their agility during practice.
On Friday, Sweet Home takes on Yamhill-Carlton, also 0-3. The Tigers lost to Gladstone and Philomath by large margins as well as being beaten by a common opponent, Estacada, by a score of 40-12. The Huskies lost to the Rangers 42-41 at home two weeks ago.
Scoring Summary
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
Sweet Home 0 0 7 0 7
Stayton 6 12 0 0 18
1st Quarter
Stay: Ian Campbell to Kelly Thuerkoff 12 yd. pass (run failed)
2nd Quarter
Stay: Kyle McGrath 2 yd. run (run failed)
Stay: Campbell to Thuerkoff 22 yd. pass (pass failed)
3rd Quarter
SH: Amos Parmenter 6 yd. run (Erickson kick)
Team Statistics
Rushing: Sweet Home 42-227; Stayton 39-189
Passing: Sweet Home 5-12-2, 33; Stayton 5-9, 59
Sacked: SH 3-20; Stayton none
Total Offense: Sweet Home 240; Stayton 248
First Downs: Sweet Home 16; Stayton 12
Tackles for Losses: Sweet Home 3; Stayton 6
3rd/4th Down Conversions: Sweet Home 6-14; Stayton 6-11
Penalties: SH 3-25; Stayton 7-60
Turnovers: SH 4 (2 fumbles, 2 int.); Stayton 1 fumble
Individual Statistics
Rushing: SH: Parmenter 13-83; Ward 11-52; Byers 7-49; Moyer 4-26
Martin 4-25; McGuyre 1-1; Graville 1-(-2); Macklin 1-(-7)
Stay: McGrath 15-83; Lindeman 5-41; Mikolas 12-41
Passing: SH: Graville 4-4, 13; Martin 1-8-2, 20
Stay: Campbell 3-6, 56; Clark 2-3, 3
Receiving: SH: McGuyre 3-31; Macklin 1-8; Parmenter 1-(-6)
Stay: Thuerkoff 3-37
Kickoffs: Callagan 2-110 (7 returned); avg. start line 18.5
Stayton 4-156 (31 returned); avg. start line 28.8
Kick Returns: SH: McDowell 2-20; Byers 2-11; Stayton 1-7
Punts: SH: Parmenter 1-2, 2 avg.; Stayton 4-125, 31.3 avg.
Punt Returns: SH: Cota 1-0; Stay: None
Fumble Recoveries: SH: Cota
Tackles: SH: Cota 10, Parmenter 8, Rowe 7, Marchbanks 7
Sweet Home JV 30, Stayton 22
The Sweet Home JV squad played another exceptional game against Stayton Eagles last Thursday, winning 30-22 to stay unbeaten for another week.
Solid passing and strong rushing contributed to the win, as the Huskies varied their attack to confuse the opposing defense as to what was coming next.
Quarterback Tyler Holly was very accurate in his passing, as well as getting out of the pocket and finding and hitting an open receiver. Sweet Home led 16-0 after one quarter, Holly hitting with a 25-yard pass to John Webb for the first touchdown.
After Stayton came back to tie the score at 22-all in the fourth quarter, the Huskies put together a very good drive and scored the winning touchdown.
We had a very good fan turnout for this game and they were able to watch a very well played game by the Huskies. Steven Bidwell scored two rushing touchdowns and Webb caught two passes for scores.
The offensive line gave Holly plenty of time to throw and the defensive lines, linebackers and cornerbacks provided excellent pass and run coverage. The Huskies got some large gains on runbacks thanks to some key blocks from special teams.
– Dick Oglesby