After two losses to football teams that look to be among the top finishers this season in the 4A Division, Sweet Home needed a change – and it got it Friday night at Phoenix.
The Huskies left with a 32-19 win, but it took some mental adjustments to prevent their hosts from roaring back after Sweet Home opened with a 13-0 first-quarter lead.
“We had some issues to deal with there,” Coach Dustin Nichol said. “It’s a perfect example of opportunities and momentum, how that other team took advantages of their opportunities.”
The Pirates had not yet scored this season, after losses to 3A-Division Cascade Christian and to Newport, but Nichol attributed some of that to the smokey conditions in the Medford area, which have been worse than in Sweet Home.
“They were citing smoke, lost practices,” he said. “That was three days of development you don’t get. It sets you back at the beginning, then you start getting better.”
Up 19-0 at the end of the second quarter, after runs of one and 14 yards by Hayden Nichol and 12 yards by Hayden McDonald, the Huskies looked like they were cruising when Pirates quarterback Zachery Dungey got outside Sweet Home’s defensive linemen and found a receiver, then did it again two plays later, hitting Nikolus Goff with a 21-yard touchdown pass.
“We ended up where we had a defensive breakdown and he got momentum,” Dustin Nichol said. “We were winning 19-7, but with the momentum they had, kit was like we were behind. One play right there kind of defined the first half, in the kids’ minds.”
Back in possession at the start of the third quarter, Dungey rolled out of the pocket again and hit Davon Ruiz, who sidestepped a tackler and went 42 yards for a second score.
“Those two plays set the tone for the second half,” Nichol said, adding that he thought his team was clearly the better one at that point. “But we were second-guessing ourselves, trying to cover for everybody else, and exposing our own responsibility. Everybody just needed to calm down and take care of business.”
A timely fumble recovery turned things around for Sweet Home at the end of the third period. Phoenix had marched to within a half yard of the Huskies’ end zone when Paul Glynn fell on a fumble on the 1½ yard line. Sweet Home moved the ball out and punted to the mid-field stripe.
“That’s when the light switched on for us and we started playing some more football,” Nichol said. Quarterback Colton Smith found Jake Swanson with a 9-yard scoring pass and then ran it in from the 7 yard line to give Sweet Home a 32-13 lead.
Phoenix scored one more time, in the waning moments of the game, on a jump ball in the end zone.
Nichol said he though Smith did a “better job” directing the offense and he was “happy with the offensive line, for the most part.”
“What stifled our drives was penalties,” he said, noting that a 25-yard run to the 15 by McDonald was called back for a holding penalty at one point, after which Phoenix got the ball and scored.
“Things like that, instead of being first and 10 on the 15, it’s second and whatever from the 48 or something,” he said. “We kind of shot ourselves in the foot.”
Defensively, the Huskies did well except when Dungey escaped, he said, noting that the Pirates only amassed 24 yards on the ground, to go with 230 through the air.
“I wasn’t really happy with the containment of the quarterback. A potential sack turns into a completed pass. It wasn’t like he was able to sit in the pocket and pick us apart. It was sandlot football. When we did keep him contained, he wasn’t able to do much.”
The Huskies finished with 123 yards on the ground, including 72 from McDonald, and 129 through the air, with Smith completing seven of 13 passes for 111.
Nichol said he was happy with his two running backs, who “hit the holes pretty hard,” and with Nathan Virtue, who had two key catches – “really momentum-changing at the right time.”
Hayden Nichol and Virtue were Sweet Home’s leading tacklers, with five and four respectively.
Dustin Nichol also said he was happy that his team, which has had issues getting up to speed after long bus rides south, was able to hit the ground running after a four-hour trip to Phoenix.
“I thought our kids traveled well.”
Sweet Home starts its inaugural Oregon West season Friday night at home against the other league newcomer, Sisters, who also moved over from last year’s Sky-Em league. The Outlaws are 0-3 after pre-league losses at home against Burns (33-7), on the road at Valley Catholic (41-16) and at home against Crook County (35-32).
Nichol cautioned that looks may be deceiving, noting that the Outlaws have also had practice issues with smoky air.
“I looked at our smoke chart and at 10 o’clock in the morning we had a 159, which means we couldn’t practice until the wind came up and cleared the air. I looked at the chart and it was 169 in Sisters.
“If Sisters keeps improving and we don’t, we’re going to be in trouble. We have to put a stick in the ground and we’ve got to keep getting better.”
Sweet Home 13 6 0 13—32
Phoenix 0 7 6 6—19
SH — Hayden Nichol 1 run (Jake Swanson kick)
SH — Hayden McDonald 12 run (kick failed)
SH — Nichol 14 run (kick failed)
P — Nikolus Goff 21 pass from Zachery Dungey (Samis kick)
P — Davon Ruiz 42 pass from Dungey (kick blocked)
SH — Swanson 9 pass from Colton Smith (Swanson kick)
SH — Smith 7 run (kick blocked)
P — Jack Hawkins 12 pass from Dungey (run failed)
Individual Statistics
Rushing – Sweet Home: Hayden McDonald 16-72; Hayden Nichol 17-57; Colton Smith 4- (-6).
Passing – Sweet Home: Colton Smith 7-13-0 111; Aiden Tyler 2-3-0 16.
Receiving – Sweet Home: Nathan Virtue 3-95; Hayden McDonald 2-17; Jake Swanson 1-9; Hayden Nichol 3-8.