Ken Roberts
Sports Writer
Like a Western movie, another tough hombre, the number ten ranked Molalla Indians, came to town, only to find the sheriff was still too quick with his weapon, in this case the Sweet Home running game. The second ranked Huskies dropped the Indians from the ranks of the unbeaten, 35-19.
For coach Rob Younger, the script for the Huskies only covers the first six plays, plays that the team practices thoroughly all week long and are comfortable with by game time. It works.
In only one game this year have the Huskies failed to score on their opening drive. They did not disappoint the crowd this Friday either. Starting from their own 28, the Huskies opened with an 11 yard pass from Donny Cliver to Ricky Howe. From there, they ran eight straight times with Cliver keeping the ball on a four yard bootleg for the touchdown.
“The first six minutes of each half and the last six minutes of each half are really important time frames,” said Younger. “We put emphasis on that.”
Seth Graves, the starting tailback, enjoys his role as the ball control ground gainer for the Huskies, even though Sweet Home’s explosive offense seldom allows them an opportunity to run off a long series of plays. But Graves said they have to be ready for that situation.
“One of our goals is to get 10 play drives,” he said. “I like to run right into the middle of things, make some moves, and see if I can break one out.”
Molalla, which had been a team that relied mostly on rushing as well, surprised the Huskies with their early passing game plan. As a quick response to the Husky scoring drive, Chris Larson came out throwing, first to Levi Hopkins for 52 yards to the Sweet Home 24. After an 8 yard run, Larson threw again, this time to Mitch Coleman in the end zone. Their extra point tied the game at 7-7.
But the Huskies also have a penchant for coming right back.
“It was a wake up call for our football team,” said Younger, “to realize that this was a good football team we were playing.”
Travis Smith had comeback on his mind right away.
“I knew that we were better than that,” he said. “We needed to get some leadership on our team and play like we could. I figured if I run hard, it will help us get motivated.”
After gaining 22 yards in two carries in the first drive, Smith capped off another eight play drive, featuring passes to Smith and Tim Matuszak in long yardage second and third down situations, by blasting through for 32 yards on a trap play.
Molalla started out down the field once again, but two major penalties throttled that attempt.
Penalties would turn out to be a reoccurring problem for the Indians, who amassed 102 yards on 9 penalties, as well as the long snap from center on punts. In their first effort to punt, the center snapped the ball out of the end zone for a Husky safety.
After the Molalla kickoff, the Huskies took very little time to score once again. Two runs by Graves got them a first down. After their third offside penalty, the lead role was given to Smith again. They ran the same trap play with the same result, a 38 yard touchdown.
Younger said Smith has convincingly become the third threat in the offense.
“He has a motor running all the time,” said Younger, who said the undersized fullback has also become a good blocker and plays a significant role in their passing game. “That was my motive going into the year to put him at fullback because he gives us great quickness to the hole.”
The Huskies capped off their 26-7 half-time lead after a Howe interception allowed them to position themselves for a 28 yard field goal by Cliver at the gun.
In the second half, Molalla started with another controlled drive. Steven Dailey and Nick Chance had caused problems for the Huskies in the first half, breaking many tackles for additional yardage and it was to these two the Indians went to again. Dailey ended up with 109 yards in 16 carries for the night.
“We were tackling too high for as small a player as Dailey is,” said Graves, who led the Huskies with 11 tackles, 8 of those in the third quarter. “You think you can just grab him and throw him down.”
Tyler Emmert, the player of the game with 7 tackles and a blocked punt, found himself on the corner one on one with Dailey more than he figured going into the game.
“They ran a lot more quick pitch plus their misdirection,” said Emmert. “It was so much faster than at practice. It took awhile to get used to it.
Get used to it they did with the bend but don’t break theory. Molalla reached the Sweet Home 22 before Larson misfired on three consecutive passes. The Huskies took advantage of another bad punt play after stopping the Indians in three plays the next time they had the ball. Emmert came from the outside so quickly that he almost overran the kick and blocked it with his foot while Phil DeLong made the recovery.
From the 7 yard line, it only took two plays before Graves pounded into the end zone once again.
“The team does a good job in sudden change situations,” said Younger. “That’s a mark of a good team with experience.”
The Huskies produced another sudden change when Matuszak caused and recovered a fumble.
On another nine-play drive, Matt Zollman, who ran for the first time this year, scored on an 8 yard run.
Molalla scored a meaningless touchdown on a controversial call after their second bad punt snap was picked up by punter Austin Coley, who ran for 9 yards and then fumbled forward, which was illegally advanced by running back Dylan Webb for the remaining 70 yards.
The Huskies had a season high 322 yards on the ground. Smith had 103 yards in just 8 carries while Graves had 83 yards in 15 attempts and Cliver ran for another 67 in 11 tries. Molalla also had a good game on the ground, 195 yards if you don’t count the illegal 79 yards.
The Huskies, who have only one home game remaining, start on their road trip with a game at Cascade on Thursday.