Jason Casey
For The New Era
Sweet Home beat Stayton 28-6 Friday night, Sept. 15, but it wasn’t pretty.
The two teams combined for three fumbles, five penalties, and six punts in the first 12 minutes of the game.
Despite the bobbles, the Huskies got a hard-fought win and will go into league play 3-0 for the first time since 2009, and just the sixth Sweet Home football team since 1979 to do that.
“Well, I’ll take half of the (penalties); we had three penalties that were spearing with the running back as he’s falling forward, being tackled and he’s leading with his head, and he falls into somebody,” said Head Coach Dustin Nichol.
He said the others weren’t so forgivable.
“These stinking penalties on the sideline, we got the plays called in and they’re audibling, and they’re changing plays, and they’re not supposed to. They’re out there formulating stuff or whatever, and somebody is going to be in for a rude awakening.
“I’ll take one or two of those delay of games but those other four or five or whatever that’s the kids out there drawing stuff in the sand and it’s driving me nuts.”
Running back Austin James and quarterback Colton Smith led the way offensively for the Huskies.
Smith got the scoring started for the Huskies with 3:26 to go in the second quarter. He took the snap from center-optioned right, ended up keeping the ball and reversing his field and scoring on the far left side of the field. The point after was blocked.
“He bit on our running back hard, and I’ve always been taught that if he goes on my outside shoulder keep it and go up the middle, so that is what I did,” said Smith. He finished the game five-for-19 for 88 yards, with 32 yards rushing, and three total touchdowns.
James had 14 carries for 134 rushing yards, and one touchdown. He broke the game open with 56 seconds to go in the second quarter, taking a handoff from Smith and racing down the right side of the field for 69 yards. An Eagle defender caught James from behind.
“There was just one guy to beat, everyone else was taken, and I broke it,” said James. “I just didn’t have the stamina from playing all game, but it was great blocking by the guys up front, that is what opened it up.”
Two plays later Smith hit Nathan Virtue for a easy four-yard touchdown pass in the back of the end zone.
“(The offensive line) is doing really good work out there,” said sophomore wide-out Casey Tow, who finished the game with two catches for 14 yards receiving. “I mean they are blocking for our run, blocking for our pass. You can’t ask for much more in a game like this.”
Sweet Home went into the half up 14-0 after Smith and Jake Swanson connected on the first of a pair of two-point conversions the Huskies scored in the game.
In the third quarter, Keegan Holly made what has become his weekly trip to the end zone. Holly caught a pass from Smith near the 40-yard line and evaded all Eagle defenders for a 70-yard touchdown. Sweet Home took a 22-0 lead, and all but cemented the game.
The offensive line has been one of the most consistent units on the team. In each game, it has taken a few drives or quarters for them to start jelling, but they once again did it against Stayton.
The Huskies racked up 486 yards of total offense, led by James on the ground.
Hayden McDonald finished with 81 yards on 15 carries. Junior Boe Baxter got his first consistent action of the season and came through with 63 yards on four carries. Nichol noted that Baxter should probably get into the game earlier and that his legs were fresh towards the end of the game, when the Stayton defense was gassed.
Baxter gashed them for 18, 30, and 11 yards on the last Husky drive of the game, which ended with James scoring his second touchdown of the game.
“Well, the line just started getting blocks,” said James. “They started picking up linebackers down the field, so it was just easy to make cuts. For the first part of the game, they were struggling a little bit on who they needed to get but second quarter they started picking guys up and all we had to do was run.”
The Eagles were led by their senior duo of quarterback Aidan Hill and running back Jerry Daniels.
Hill finished the game 11 for 20 with 156 yards passing and a touchdown, along with an interception.
Daniels finished with 84 yards on 18 carries, but fumbled three times. The Eagles turned the ball over five times but gained 441 yards of total offense.
The Huskies defense bent but didn’t break for the third week in a row.
“The defensive plan is try to take away their No. 1 player,” said Nichol. “So what we did was try to make somebody else beat us, and I told the kids all along Stayton is a good football team; they’ve got two really good runners in the quarterback and running back, and if you give them an opportunity, their receivers will get good.
“I think McDonald ended up with three (sacks) going into the third or fourth quarter. Shocker had some; our endplay was pretty solid, we didn’t go inside too many times. We tried to keep (Hill) in the pocket.”
Sweet Home hosts Sisters (2-1) this Friday, Sept. 22 in its fourth-straight home game. The Outlaws beat Crook County 24-14 at home last Friday, a week after Sweet Home beat the Cowboys 21-0. Sisters lost an overtime heartbreaker 17-14 two weeks ago at Cascade (1-3), which has fallen to both North Bend (24-8) and Marshfield (48-19), the Nos. 1- and 3-ranked teams in the state early on.
The Outlaws use a spread offense, but they are a run-first team, Nichol said, adding that it will be up to the defensive line and linebackers to control the line of scrimmage to keep that running game under control.
“Sisters’ offense is quite a bit different than their offense last year,” Nichol said. “They are a spread team but they run 80 percent of the time, pass 20 percent, and they’ve got a pretty good running back and quarterback, kind of like Stayton.
“They’re a pretty good football team.”
Scoring Summary
1 2 3 4
SH – 0 14 8 6 – 28
ST – 0 0 0 6 – 6
2nd Quarter
SH – 3:26 Smith 19-yard run (kick blocked)
SH – : 28 Smith four-yard pass to Virtue (2-pt conversion Smith to Stevens)
3rd Quarter
SH – 6:54 Smith 70-yard pass to Holly (2-pt conversion Smith to Stevens)
4th Quarter
ST– 7:40 Hill 16-yard pass to Tye Moore
SH- 1:31 James 8-yard run (2-pt conversion failed)
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Sweet Home – Austin James 14-134-1; Hayden McDonald 15-81; Colton Smith 3-32-1; Boe Baxter 4-63. Stayton – Jerry Daniels 18-84; Aidan Hill 13-32; Ryan Diehl 1-0; Ben Rash 1-23.
Passing: Sweet Home – Colton Smith 5- 19-2-88. Stayton – Aidan Hill 11-20-1-156
Receiving: Sweet Home – Casey Tow 2-14; Nathan Virtue 1-4-1; Keegan Holly1-70-1. Stayton – Ryan Diehl 6-92; Sean Bodi 3-47-1; Ryan Burton 1-7.