Benny Westcott
In their final game of the season and the last contest in the careers of eight seniors, Sweet Home football lost 45-6 to Hidden Valley in a non-league matchup.
“For these seniors, it’s bittersweet,” said Head Coach Dustin Nichol. “It’s the last time they could put on the pads.”
One of them, wide receiver and defensive back Cole Baxter, said, “I love this team. It was great to play for them. Everyone kept a positive attitude, especially when chances were low that we were going to play.”
Nichol noted that “a core group” of 24 players have been practicing since June 14 of 2020.
“And for them to be able to get to have somewhat of a season, means that all of that effort wasn’t for naught.”
In Thursday’s contest, seventh-ranked Hidden Valley got the ball first and kicked a field goal to go up 3-0 with 9:32 left in the first quarter.
After punts from both teams and a Sweet Home turnover on downs, the Mustangs scored a touchdown on a pass to OSU recruit Jeremiah Noga to go up 10-0. Sweet Home gave the ball back to the Mustangs quickly after fumbling the ensuing kickoff.
Hidden Valley capitalized when Tobias Powers ran the ball into the end zone, putting his team up 17-0.
On the next possession, Sweet Home was able to march the ball down the field with some big passes from quarterback Aiden Tyler to receivers Cole Baxter and Russell Holly. They reached the Mustang five yard line, then stalled out on fourth down.
Hidden Valley answered quickly with a drive culminated by a touchdown pass to the corner of the endzone, putting the Mustangs ahead 24-0.
Sweet Home had to punt again on a later drive, and Hidden Valley was able to score again before halftime, with Jeremiah Noga catching a touchdown pass with just 8 seconds left in the half to put his team up 31-0 going into the break.
The second half started much better for Sweet Home, who got the ball first. Tyler connected with receiver Austin Marler for a big touchdown pass to put six points on the board for the Huskies, who failed to convert on the ensuing two-point attempt.
Things got even better for Sweet Home on the next play, when the Mustangs fumbled the ball on the kickoff and Sweet Home recovered.
However, the Huskies soon gave the ball right back to Hidden Valley with a fumble of their own.
Partway through the third quarter, things got chippy as a fight broke out between opposing team members after a play ended on the Husky sideline. Both teams had players ejected from the contest following the skirmish.
“We don’t have too many kids that we can give up to personal fouls,” said Nichol. “Our bench isn’t as deep as theirs. So that hurt us going forward.”
Sweet Home was unable to score the rest of the game, and Hidden Valley was able to get into the end zone twice, on a touchdown pass to Lawrence Matusik and a final rushing touchdown, making the final score 45-6.
Tyler threw for 210 yards and a touchdown, completing 13 of his 35 passes with one interception.
Tyler was also the Huskies leading rusher, gaining 13 yards on seven carries.
Cole Baxter was the team’s leading receiver, with 100 yards. Austin Marler caught for 84 receiving yards, including a touchdown.
But Hidden Valley had too many weapons for the Huskies to contain.
“They can hit you in a lot of different ways,” said Nichol of the Mustangs. “I thought we did a fairly decent job defending the run, but we didn’t have an answer for every one of their threats in the passing game. They did a good job there.”
“Offensively, we couldn’t really establish too much of a run game,” he added. “And we had some dropped passes that I think kind of changed the momentum and the outcome of the game.”
But he saw improvement in his squad’s performance in the second half.
“I thought we did a pretty good job making some halftime adjustments, including rolling Tyler out of the pocket and giving him the option to run first and pass second,” Nichol said.
Holly also thought Sweet Home played stronger as the game went on.
“At first it was a little rough, but towards the end it got better,” he said.
Holley also said that “our defense did okay, and our passing was pretty good.”
Looking back on the short season, Nichol took some positives from the experience overall.
“This season I’m really just happy that the kids got to play, that they were able to put the pads on and line them up and knock them down,” he said.
He said that the boys “did all they could given the circumstances. And I’m just glad that they were able to have a season.”
Looking ahead to next year, Nichol is emphasizing getting good participation numbers in the program. The team only had 37 players this season, and will be losing 8 seniors.
“That’s fine for varsity, but it doesn’t leave much for JV and so forth,” Nichol said. “So I’m hoping that we can get some more bodies out for next year.”
He also hopes to return to some sense of normalcy next season after last minute changes due to COVID metrics made scheduling and logistics challenging this spring.
“Hopefully if things open up we can have a more traditional summer schedule,” he said.
He wants his kids to continue to work on their games despite challenging circumstances.
“I don’t think there’s going to be team camps going on that we can go to,” he said. “But I’ve got my eye on a couple of individual camps that I’d like the kids to go to. If we get enough of our kids to those camps, it could benefit us quite a bit.”