Scott Swanson
Sweet Home opened its 2012 football season against 5A Division Redmond Friday, and the results weren’t good for the Huskies – on the scoreboard, at least.
Actually, Redmond’s scoreboard blew out just before the game due to technical problems, and that was probably a blessing in disguise for Sweet Home, as the senior-dominated Panthers rolled to a 35-0 win in the OSAA endowment game that was the season opener for both teams.
“It was ugly,” Coach Dustin Nichol said.
Sweet Home went into the game notably undersized compared to Redmond, which had some 30 seniors on its roster.
Redmond moved from the 6A Division to 5A Division this year after splitting into two high schools. The new school, Ridgeview, which only has three classes – freshmen through juniors this year – defeated Medicine Hat of Alberta, Canada, Friday night in its first-ever game.
“They had a lot of seniors and they were pretty big,” Nichol said of the Panthers. “I think we got manhandled at the offensive line. “
Two 300-pound defensive tackles made life miserable for the Husky offense, which started the game missing several of its core players – lineman Zach Gill and defensive lineman Jacob Smith due to two-game suspensions for disciplinary reasons, and tailbacks Wade Paulus and Josh Wooley for attendance issues. Nichol said senior players helped decide on what the consequences would be for those who skip practice.
Their absence didn’t help, but he said his linemen had trouble with their fundamentals against the larger Panthers.
“They were taller than we were. Instead of staying at their knees and thigh level, we played them high. When you’re giving up 60 or 70 pounds, you can’t do that. You need to block guys down low.”
Paulus and Wooley entered the game in the second half, but by then Redmond led 28-0.
With the scoreboard out, the only clock was in the back judge’s pocket so players, coaches and fans had little idea where they were in the game except for occasional announcements as quarters neared their end.
Redmond scored on its second possession after the Huskies went three-and-out on their first possession and then fumbled the ball away on their second.
The Panthers followed that with two more touchdowns, on their next two possessions, their third score coming on the first play of the second quarter. Kicker J.D. Abbas was good on all five of his PATs and put every kickoff in the end zone, leaving Sweet Home’s return men with no returns for the night.
Quarterback Andrew Leeland finished with three touchdowns, en route to a 9-of-11 night for 189 yards.
Senior running back Cam Peters rolled for 111 yards as Redmond rolled up 182 yards on 55 attempts on the night.
Sweet Home, which finished with 33 offensive plays, finished with 11 yards on 25 carries and one completed pass in four attempts for two yards. Its top ground-gainer was Paulus, who rushed five times for 13 yards after his entry in the second half. The Huskies’ longest gain of the night was a five-yarder by Kyler Gaskey.
Redmond rolled for 18 first downs. Sweet Home finished with none.
“Our defense was on the field way too much and our offense never could get anything established,” Nichol said.
He said that despite the difficult game, some of his players delivered good performances, particularly in the defensive secondary.
“I thought Trever Olson did well defensively and Colton Schilling made some mistakes but hre played hard.
“In a lot of ways a lot of people didn’t go full speed on every play. They took breaks and got complacent, and the scoreboard reflects that.
“We have seven two-way starters. When smaller guys are pushing that much more mass, you get tired. This week we have to work on conditioning.”
The Huskies will travel to Banks Friday. The Braves lost at Cascade 20-12 in their own endowment game.
Nichol said he expects Banks to be “pretty good.”
“They’re fast and they have a lot of returning guys,” he said. “They were young last year. I expect them to be very good.”
He said this will be the fourth time Sweet Home has met Banks.
“That’s an old rivalry. They were our Achilles heel for two years in a row back when I was in school, and then we ended up beating them our senior year, so we’re 1-2 against them,”he said. “A lot of guys I went to school with remember those rivals from that era – Banks, North Valley. Now their kids are playing football so I decided to try to re-establish some of those rivalries.”
Redmond 35, Sweet Home 0
Sweet Home – 0 0 0 0 — 0
Redmomd – 14 14 0 7 — 35
Red— Trevor Hindman 8 run (J.D. Abbas kick)
Red— Hindman 12 pass from Andrew Leeland (Abbas kick)
Red— Cam Peters 19 run (Abbas kick)
Red— Peters 24 pass from Leeland (Abbas kick)
Red— Matt Dahlen 29 pass from Leeland (Abbas kick)