Jason Casey
Sweet Home lost 43-28 at Sisters Friday night, Oct. 21, but the young Huskies’ steady improvement paid off for them with a chance to play again – at Marshfield in a play-in game this Friday, Oct. 28.
Other than a rough third quarter in which they let their hosts score 20 points, Sweet Home played the Outlaws rather closely.
Daniel Virtue got things going for the Huskies when he ended an extended drive by throwing a 22-yard pass to Keegan Holly in the first quarter, for an early 6-3 lead.
“That first series that we had the ball, that was the first 15-play drive we had all season long,” said Head Coach Dustin Nichol. “That sounds like our old offense, where we just chugged away and dink-n-dunked and moved down the field. They did a great job.”
Sisters came back, though, Tanner Head throwing to Jacob Stevens on the seven-yard line. Keegan Holly came up and made the tackle. However, Stevens rolled over Holly, never touched the ground, and scored a 30-yard touchdown.
The Huskies bounced back after the Outlaws’ Johnny Gurney fumbled.
Virtue got pressured in the pocket, stepped up and eluded two defensive linemen and hit Austin James in stride for a 49-yard touchdown. After the two-point conversion failed, the score was 12-10, Sweet Home.
In the back-and-forth first half, Sisters had the ball last and used wide receiver/running back Gurney as a wildcat quarterback, giving him the option to hand the ball off or run it.
He ran it on three of the four plays in Sisters’ final drive of the half, which ended with a 1-yard touchdown with 38 seconds to go.
“I thought we did a great job the first half, both offensively and defensively,” Nichol said. “The only thing that was disappointing about the first half was our kickoff. Those were not planned; they were supposed to go to the 25 or 30 in the corner, but he was just feeling the cold, I think.
“Otherwise, I thought our guys played a solid 2½ quarters and made these guys nervous. I think they were expecting to come here and have it be 42-0 at the half. It could have very easily been the 12-10 or us 18 or 20 to 10.”
Sisters Head Coach Gary Thorson may have delivered some choice words to his team. Whatever happened in the locker room, the Outlaws showed up on their first drive with a 15-yard pass from Head to Christopher Luz, who should have set up a tent and sleeping bag in the end zone on a cold night in the mountains. Luz scored three touchdowns before the quarter ended.
“I am not quite sure what was different. We just missed tackles and I don’t know,” Nichol said, noting that there was “carnage” on the field as far as Sweet Home was concerned. The Huskies missed tackles as Sisters ran roughshod over them.
On the Outlaws’ next drive, Luz caught a deep ball from Head on the left side of the field, then ran all the way across the field to the right side, made one more Husky miss at the five-yard line and scored what looked like a play in Madden Football.
It was one of the better runs after the catch you will see in high school football.
“The kid [Luz] ran 80 yards but he ran 130 yards, side-to-side and it was embarrassing, to be honest with you,” said Nichol. “It looked like something that was on some TV show that was staged the way he ran back and forth our guys were falling all over the place. I don’t know where their heads were at.”
Luz wasn’t done. Keanu Aiona punted booted a punt to the 45-yard line, which Luz took back 55 yards for the third touchdown of the quarter for the junior, extending the lead 36-12 for the Outlaws.
Four minutes into the fourth quarter, Head threw another touchdown to Luz to extend the lead to 43-12.
After Aiona was stuffed on a run on fourth-and-2, Sister’s backup quarterback Taylor Fendall was stripped in the end zone, and the Huskies recovered to score their third touchdown of the night, then added a two-point conversion with 5:45 to go in the game.
Another turnover by the Outlaws gave the Huskies the ball again. Sweet Home went with some trickery on the drive, as Aiona took a handoff, rolled left, didn’t see anyone open, ran back to his right and threw a 40-yard pass to Colton Smith. With the ball on the two-yard line, Virtue hit Aiona for a touchdown, bringing the score to the final 43-28.
“This is what (offense) is meant to be: put the guys that are a threat and put it in their hands,” Nichol said. “Keegan Holly caught the ball. Hayden McDonald carried the ball well. Keanu Aiona caught and carried the ball well, Colton Smith had a catch and carry, and Danny had some good things happen.
“Instead of them keying on one person and just imposing our will on them we had five people find success out there on the field and give us an opportunity to score points.”
He noted that sophomore Jake Swanson was also a threat for the Huskies.
“We just have to keep improving, if you see from week one to right now I think in our league we have improved the most, bottom line, and that it was I told these guys. Each week, as long as we improve week-to-week, we are going to be a threat to the next team that we play.
“These guys are a special group. They are really good kids. I haven’t had one discipline problem, I have not had one grade issue, I have not had any outside-of-football issues, once the season started. It just speaks volumes to the quality of the character of these kids,” Nichol said.
This week Sweet Home will face Marshfield in Coos Bay Friday in a play-in game. The No. 8 Pirates (3-2, 6-2) are third in the Far West League, behind No. 1 North Bend and No. 7 South Umpqua. The Pirates lost the Coos Bay-area Civil War game Friday 39-20 to North Bend.
The Pirates led 20-13 at halftime, but allowed North Bend to rush for 322 yards and roll up 26 unanswered points in the second.
Marshfield is a big, experienced team in more ways than one, with 18 of its 52-man roster listed at over 200 pounds.
Sweeet Home’s 34-man roster has 19 sophomores.
Scoring Summary
SIS – 3 13 20 7 – 43
SH – 6 6 0 16 – 28
First Quarter
SIS – FG
SH – Daniel Virtue 22-yard pass to Keegan Holly (PAT blocked) 2:02
Second Quarter
SIS – Tanner Head 30-yard pass to Jacob Stevens (PAT good) 10:59
SH – Virtue 49-yard pass to Austin James (2-pt failed) 4:38
SIS – Johnny Gurney 1-yard run :38 (2-pt failed) :38
Third Quarter
SIS – Head 15-yard pass to Christopher Luz (PAT blocked) 5:42
SIS – Head 80-yad pass to Luz (PAT good) 2:52
SIS – Luz 55-yard punt return (PAT good) :27
Fourth Quarter
SIS – Head 35-yard pass to Luz (PAT good) 7:59
SH – Fumble recovered by Jake Swanson (2-pt good) 5:45