Ken Roberts
For The New Era
Sweet Home treated Molalla to a little home cooking as the Huskies used a balanced offensive attack to serve the Indians a 39-19 loss last Friday.
That win, coupled with a Stayton loss to Sisters, put Sweet Home into a tie for second place at 2-1 in league play.
After playing three road games in a row, the Huskies came back home with a vengeance. It took just one play to establish the tone for the game. Kyle Pettit, who was 8 of 13 in passing for the game, opened with a 73-yard bomb to Tim Faulconer.
?It was nice to be able to get off to a start like that,? said coach Rob Younger. ?It gave us confidence and the momentum carried over to our defense.?
In fact, the defense only allowed Molalla to gain 16 yards in the first quarter. The other factor that turned in the Husky favor was turnovers, something that had been troubling them this year.
After Skyler Bascom?s lone punt of the night was fumbled following the Huskies? second possession, Charlie Fitzsimons recovered the ball to give Sweet Home new life at the Molalla 30-yard line. Six rushing plays later, Skyler Bascom scored on a two-yard run and Trevor Tagle added a two-point conversion to stake the Huskies to a 14-0 lead.
The Husky defense caused more problems for Molalla in the second quarter, starting with a Bascom sack, one of seven for Sweet Home on the night, and ending with a Cody Shipp interception.
?Our defensive ends did a good job of containing the quarterback,? said defensive tackle Joe Ellis, who was in on three of the sacks. ?It allowed the defensive tackles and inside linebackers to get to him.?
After the Huskies fumbled the ball away on the next play, the defense stormed right back and duplicated the effort with another sack and interception, this time by Bascom.
The Huskies would take advantage of the defensive play by using the ground game again. It took Sweet Home six plays to find the end zone again on a Shorty Weikel 10 yard run.
The defense wasn?t finished. Two plays into Molalla?s next possession, Ryan Elliott recovered a fumble. Pettit wasted no time spotting Shipp on a crossing route for a first play strike of 27 yards.
The defense made only one error the entire half. Unfortunately, it cost them a touchdown. After putting Molalla in a third and 21 situation, Joshua Haqq caught the secondary unprepared and connected with Onesiphor Kutsev on a 62-yard pass play, reducing the Husky lead to 27-7 at half time.
?We talked about not giving Molalla any momentum to work off of,? said Younger about his halftime speech. ?We wanted to continue to dictate how the game was being played instead of reacting to their defense.?
And first the Husky defense responded. After a Ben Brewer sack forced the Indians to punt, a bad snap sent the ball sailing over the punter?s head to give Sweet Home the ball at the Indian 27-yard line.
Then the offense responded. Pettit threw his third touchdown pass, once again to Shipp for a 16-yard score.
Molalla, however, came right back with an 80-yard kickoff return by Dean Pederson to lift the Indians? hopes somewhat. But Sweet Home had an answer for that, a long 80-yard, 16-play drive capped off by a 1-yard touchdown run by Tagle. During that drive, Pettit completed all three of his passes for over 10 yards. In fact, all eight of his completions were over ten yards, six of them on first down.
?We were all connected as a team,? said Pettit. ?The line gave me a lot of time and the receivers know how to get open.?
Molalla closed the scoring with a late 16 yard pass after recovering the Huskies? second fumble in Sweet Home territory.
Sweet Home gained 268 yards on the ground, using six different players who rushed for over 35 yards. Bascom led all ball carriers with 52 yards in nine carries. Molalla?s running game was non-existent, with a minus nine yards when the sack yardage was included.
Pettit had his best night passing this year in throwing for 191 yards while Molalla posted 164 yards in the air.
?It was by far our best game in terms of execution,? said Younger. ?We didn?t have many missed assignments. And the defense played aggressively all night long.?
It was a good game for Bascom, who not only led the team in rushing but also led the Huskies with nine tackles. But he was more impressed with the team?s total effort.
?It felt more comfortable because everybody just relaxed and played,? said Bascom. ?We weren?t trying to do to much by ourselves. If we play as a team, we can beat anybody.?
The Huskies are back on the road this Friday in Cascade. Though the Cougars are winless in league play, Younger pointed out that they played Sisters tougher than the Huskies did. Cascade rolled up 400 yards and scored 29 points against the Outlaws.