Scott Swanson
Football is a numbers game and at the end of Friday’s first-round playoff game, the numbers were remarkably close between Sweet Home and Philomath – except on the scoreboard.
The Huskies came up a couple of big plays short to an inspired Philomath squad, losing 35-26 to take an early exit from the playoffs.
“It was a tough game,” said quarterback Cole Horner, who contributed a few big moments to the game – a touchdown-saving tackle on defense and a couple of clutch throws to keep the Huskies moving on offense.
“They are a good team too and we shot ourselves in the foot at times. They did really good at stopping us.”
The Warriors, who made no bones, in pre-game media reports, of the fact that this game was about revenge after Sweet Home sent them packing last year in a 26-20 play-in loss, came to play.
They concentrated on stopping running back Wade Paulus, who still managed 158 yards on 33 carries and scored one touchdown.
Based on team statistical totals for the season, Paulus finished with 2,097 yards – 55 yards short of the school’s all-time rushing record of 2,151 set in 1987 by Vince Barrett. Paulus’ total was the result of multiple games in which he sat out most of the second half because they were blow-outs, and because he only had five carries for 13 yards in the season opener, against Redmond.
Sweet Home finished with 317 total yards on 63 plays Friday, to 321 yards for the Warriors, who ran 42 plays.
The difference came down to missed opportunities for the Huskies at a couple of critical moments and some momentum-changing penalties.
“Going into the game, I told our coaches we needed to score 35 points to win,” Coach Dustin Nichol said. “That’s what we needed.”
It was a tearful finish all around for Sweet Home, which had rolled through seven straight opponents and was ranked ahead of Philomath.
“It’s over,” Paulus said, tears streaming down his cheeks as he hugged teammates, who were also sobbing. “We played our hearts out and sometimes things just don’t go our way. We had a lot of issues with the refs, but we can’t blame the loss on that.”
Philomath’s fire got lit early as Matt Larrabee found space between Sweet Home defenders on the Warriors’ second play of the game and scooted up the middle for a 65-yard touchdown run 20 seconds into the game.
Paulus took the Huskies down to the Philomath 18, where he went down in the mud short of a first down on fourth and four, giving the Warriors the ball back. They took advantage, marching 82 yards for a second touchdown from Larrabee, who scooted in from 20 yards out. Joe Noble then caught a pass from quarterback Derek Nash for a two-point conversion to give them a 14-0 with 1:39 left in the first period.
“We came out flat-footed,” said receiver Mitch Keenon, who played a big part in the resurgence with some key catches, including a third-quarter reception for a touchdown.
“Most teams that have scored on the first or second play, we were flat-footed. The first 14 points they got, they earned it but we made our mistakes. We made them work for the rest after we spotted them 14 points early.”
At that point Sweet Home got its engine running more smoothly, the Huskies visibly building confidence and momentum through the remainder of the half.
The problem for the Huskies was that they trailed for nearly the rest of the game.
“They kind of got motivation from that first play of the game, got up by one there and we just never gained it back,” said Nate Melcher. “We fought real hard but we just couldn’t get it back.”
Sweet Home scored its first touchdown, with 9:42 on the clock in the second quarter, on an eight-yard run by Paulus to cap a long drive. Then they got a big play from Austin Rice who picked a Nash pass out of the air after it was tipped by Colton Schilling.
But the Philomath defense held and the half ended with the visitors ahead 14-7.
The second half got off to a delayed start as officials held a conference, then ejected a Philomath player whose cleats were oversized by OSAA standards. After a 15-yard unsportsman-like conduct penalty on the Warriors for that infraction, Rice got the Huskies rolling quickly with a 53-yard kickoff return that took them to the Philomath 40.
Keenon hauled in the scoring pass from Horner with 8:31 left to tie the score after Jacob Smith’s PAT, but the Warriors came right back with an answering drive, capped by Austin Brown’s two-yard run with 3:45 left and a 21-14 lead.
That’s when the mistakes started to really count.
Sweet Home came right back down the field and Paulus, who was met by a swarm of Philomath defenders on nearly every carry as the visitors packed the box to stop him, plunged into the end zone but lost the ball on the way down. Quin Wise fell on it to ensure that the Huskies got the score. But Smith’s kick missed and Sweet Home was trailing by a point, 21-20 with 2:08 left in the third period.
Nichol said Wise’s play was a deserved finish for the senior tight end, who has spent most of the season in the trenches.
“Kudos to Quin Wise,” he said. “He was in the right place at the right time. He is a wonderful young man who has done everything right and busted his rear. Every day he is out there practicing to play an unglorious position.”
He said that the Huskies stayed on the ground with their offense for two reasons – to keep the ball out of Philomath’s hands and to give Paulus a chance to pop a big run as he had in all seven games of their win streak.
“They had a pretty explosive offense and they can score pretty quickly,” he said. “I wanted to use a ball-control offense and we went primarily with Wade and Spencer (Knight) – traps and counters. Wade slipped a couple of times and he never got the big one we were hoping for.
“In my opinion, we were doing just what we wanted to do, getting three or four yards a carry. We had, like, 20 more plays than they did, which was great.”
As the fourth quarter began, the Warriors, with a fourth and eight on their 40-yard line, converted with a little trickery as Nash hit Cole Chambers for a 31-yard gain, then, two plays later, connected with Chambers for a 29-yard touchdown pass and a 28-20 lead with 10:50 remaining.
“They had some good fourth-down plays that we should have gotten,” Keenon said.
Sweet Home came right back with a 12-play drive that covered 65 yards and was kept alive by a sweet 24-yard reception by Keenon from fellow-receiver Colton Holly on a fourth and 11 play. Horner snuck in from the 3 yard line to close the gap to 28-26 with 4:24 left.
But when the Huskies went for two, which they had to at that point, Holly rolled to the right and cocked his arm to pass, losing the ball in the process. He scooped it up but couldn’t reach the end zone as he was met by a couple of Warriors a yard short.
Philomath was rolling by that point and the Warriors recovered the on-sides kick and marched down the field in an attempt to run out the clock, which paid off when, on fourth and one, Larrabee got loose for a 31-yard run and a 35-26 lead with 2:19 left.
The Huskies went to the air, but they were out of synch and Horner’s three pass attempts missed or bounced off receivers’ hands.
“We just never got our momentum back,” Melcher said. “We had a little momentum but we couldn’t pick it up. We just couldn’t get ahead. I don’t think a lot of things went our way in this game. But we can only control what we can control.”
Horner finished with four completions in 13 attempts for 73 yards.
“I think Cole has quietly done a good job as quarterback,” Nichol said of the 6-0, 175-pound junior. “He hasn’t had an interception since Banks and he’s thrown for a touchdown in at least every game. He’s played this year’s role really well.”
He and players gave credit for this year’s success to the offensive line.
“Our offensive line all season has played really well,” he said, naming Zach Gill, David Skeen, Melcher, Austin Horner, Zane Jackson, Kyle Wodtli and Ben Terry.”
Paulus agreed.
“I’m just another football player,” he said. “This is more than just me. This is everybody from varsity down to freshman. I don’t take credit for anything. I give all the credit to the line and to those practice players who earned it. They deserve it. They deserve the cheers.”
Nichol said that Terry, a junior, had a “coming out party” on defense.
“He did an excellent job. He was a momentum-changer in a lot of ways on defense.
“Josh Holman has also been solid all season long on the defensive line and Colton Schilling, pound-for-pound, is the most fundamentally sound player I’ve seen in a long time.
“This is a wonderful group of guys who have been together for a long time.”
Players agreed that it was a special season and a special team.
“The season was good,” Horner said. “It didn’t end like we wanted it to.
“The seniors, I’ll miss them so much next year. I love them. It will be a challenge next year without them.”
Melcher said he also had a “great” season.
“It was the best season of football I’ve ever had,” he said. “I really made a lot of friends.”
Nichol said the Huskies played “a good game” overall.
“We weren’t as explosive as we’re used to being and we didn’t have any breakaway runs. We had our chances there at the end to stop them.
“Our boys had a good season. They had some adverse situations hit them in this game. I thought our guys conducted themselves in a professional, respectable manner and they played within the rules.
“That shows how they’ve grown from last year, when they had unsportsman-like conduct penalties when things weren’t going their way in the last game. This year, instead of excuses and unsportsman-like conduct, there was no finger pointing, no cheap shots.”
Despite the disappointing result, Nichol said, he was proud of his team.
“They’re league champions and nobody can take that away from them,” he said. “There are 16 teams left that are really good teams and any one of those teams could beat another or get beat. It just so happened that night the ball didn’t seem to bounce our direction.
“I think our team definitely was the classiest on the field that night, who can sleep well at night with the effort they put forth.
“We’re not happy with the outcome, but I know myself and our team played within the rules. We did everything we could to win that game and we fell short.”
Scoring Summary
Philomath 35, Sweet Home 26
Sweet Home 0 7 13 6 — 26
Philomath 14 0 7 14 — 35
First quarter
PHS: Matt Larrabee 65 run (kick failed), 11:41
PHS: Larrabee 20 run (Joe Noble run), 1:39
Second quarter
SH: Wade Paulus 8 run (Jacob Smith kick), 9:14
Third quarter
SH: Mitch Keenon 9 pass from Cole Horner (Smith kick), 8:31
PHS: Austin Brown 2 run (Larrabee kick), 3:45
SH: Quin Wise recovered fumble in end zone (kick failed), 2:08
Fourth quarter
PHS: Cole Chambers 29 pass from Derek Nash (Larrabee kick), 10:50
SH: Horner 3 run (run failed), 4:24
PHS: Larrabee 31 run (Larrabee kick), 2:18
Individual statistics
Rushing: SH – Wade Paulus 33-158, Jacob Smith 5-26, Spencer Knight 7-18, Trever Olson 1-8, Cole Horner 1-3; Total – 49-224. P – Matt Larrabee 11-137, Austin Brown 8-50, Joe Noble 6-8, Ben Desaulnier 2-5; Total – 30-196.
Passing: SH – Horner 4-8-0 70, Colton Holly 1-1-0 24; Total – 5-9-0 94. P – Nash 7-10-1 113.
Receiving: SH – Mitch Keenon 4-70, Holly 1-24; P – Cole Chambers 2-60, Desaulnier 3-27, JP Parsons 1-21, Noble 1-5.