It was an “ugly, ugly win” in the words of Head Coach Ryan Adams as his players left the field with a 20-0 victory over Molalla Friday night in their home football opener.
But it was a win.
The Huskies gave the ball away seven times – four fumbles and three interceptions – to the Indians, but played lock-down defense, limiting the visitors to 37 total yards for the game, 36 of those passing yards from Molalla quarterback Cash Mead, who finished 5 for 21 with a long completion of 19.
Sweet Home was dominant on offense as well – when it held onto the ball, marching on its first possession to the Molalla 21 before quarterback Kyle Zajic’s pass over the middle was picked off with 5:53 on the clock.
Molalla failed to get a first down and the Huskies took over again, only to fumble the ball away two plays later.
That was the story of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Sweet Home advanced to the Molalla 36 yard line before, with 10:18 on the clock, the Indians picked off their second pass of the game.
A tackle for loss and two incomplete passes left the visitors on their 11 yard line, and at that point Luke Rosa tackled Mead and the ball appeared to squirt from Mead’s hand, recovered by Trenton Templin, Eli Cruz and Kellen Hartsook. But officials ruled that Mead’s hand was moving forward and that it was an incomplete pass.
appearing to knock the ball from Mead’s hand, but officials ruled it an
incomplete pass. Photos by Scott Swanson
That’s when Sweet Home started getting some traction, at least on the scoreboard.
Molalla punted and Dillan Davis took the ball at the Indians’ 45 yard line with 8:43 on the clock in the second quarter, reversed field away from the Molalla bench, broke a few tackles and outsprinted the Indians to the end zone for Sweet Home’s first score.
“I was just running angry and I was just taking the house call,” Davis said afterwards. “We needed the momentum. We needed to bring some energy.
“We were beating ourselves up.”
The snap for the extra point went awry and kicker Keeghan Gittins had to scramble to pick up the loose ball and was tackled.
But the Huskies struck again with 3:41 left in the half as Zajic hit Templin with a 27-yard scoring pass to make it 12-0, and with snap for the point after good this time, Gittins added the extra point.
Sweet Home’s third score came at the end of an eight-play, 45-yard drive that ended with 7:44 left in the game as Zajic ran it in from the 1 yard line.
The Huskies finished with 266 total yards in 53 plays to 37 for Molalla, which ran 43 plays.
The Indians switched to an empty backfield in the second half, putting more players on the line, but it didn’t change anything for them against a suffocating defense by Sweet Home.
“We played Molalla the last three, four, years, and we have not seen them do that one time,” Adams said. “ They obviously did not show it last week on film, but I thought our guys responded really well.
“They kept flying to the ball and making plays and keeping us in it.”
He said the Huskies will be working on their ball handling.
“You know, anytime you put the ball on the ground, turn it over, eight or nine times – yeah, I kind of lost track – you’re doing just about everything you can to give it to the other team.
“And so we’ve obviously got some things to shore up.”
He credited the special teams for keeping things in check and “flipping the field, creating a scoring opportunity for us” with Davis’ return.
“And then our defense, obviously, played lights-out.”
Sweet Home was six for 10 on third-down conversions, while holding Molalla to zero in that category. The Indians finished with one yard in 18 rushing attempts, thanks in part to five tackles for loss by the Huskies and two sacks.
Sweet Home finished with 176 yards on the ground on 38 attempts, and Zajic was 6 for 12 for 90 yards in the air, with a long pass of 31 yards.
“The (calls) were not in our favor but we got it done,” Davis said. “Our mental mistakes need to be fixed immediately. That’s our No. 1 thing – fumbles.”
The Huskies did snag a turnover of their own late in the fourth quarter when Riley Vaughan intercepted a long desperation pass from Mead.
“We did enough to win, so we’re encouraged by that, but got a lot of things to shore up,” Adams said.
Up next is Woodburn, which is a 5A school but plays football at the 4A level, is coming off a 30-13 loss to Junction City after falling 27-3 to Crescent Valley and 49-0 to Ridgeview in its opener.
The Huskies will host the Bulldogs at 7 p.m. Friday and Adams predicted that they will see a “physical run game” from the visitors.
“They’ll use a lot of different formations to try and establish the run,” he said.
Sweet Home will be working on “consistent execution” this week.
“I think Friday night was a great example of if we execute the way we’re capable of, the sky is the limit,” he said. “So we’re looking forward to working all week on that consistent execution and then applying it to the game Friday.”
