Huskies hold off Crook County comeback, even their record

Jason Casey

For The New Era

Sweet Home’s football team weathered a late comeback by Crook County to exit Husky Field Friday night with a 27-20 win over the visitors to even the Huskies’ record at 1-1.

Daniel Virtue led the way for the Huskies with 63 rushing yards and 80 passing. He added two touchdown passes.

“Virtue played with a lot more confidence,” said Coach Dustin Nichol, who saw his team open the season with a 35-2 loss to Hidden Valley on Sept. 2.

“We have 16 sophomores, eight juniors, and seven seniors who saw their first varsity experience last week,” Nichol noted. He said Virtue is adjusting to a new offense, along with his teammates, many of whom saw their first varsity action at Hidden Valley. Virtue is also getting his first real exposure to life as a varsity quarterback.

“This time last year he was a receiver and a safety,” Nichol said. “Now he is playing corner and quarterback. He’s reading (defenses), and he has sensory overload. Last week was his first introduction to guys stunting him in different areas. We were optioning off three different guys because of what they were giving us. He’s a very smart agile quarterback.”

Virtue and his receivers established Sweet Home’s new offensive scheme early against Crook County, as the quarterback found his brother Nathan, a sophomore, for two scores in the first quarter after Crook County took a quick 7-0 lead with a 33-yard touchdown pass from Cowboys quarterback Pickhardt to EJ Allen.

Sweet Home answered with a three-minute drive that was capped off by a 2-yard touchdown pass from Dan Virtue to Nathan Virtue.

“The main difference was last week our line didn’t know what we were doing, and our receivers were getting jammed at the line of scrimmage,” Dan Virtue said, following the game. “We just worked on it all week in practice. We figured out who we were blocking and how to get to the routes we needed to run, just the little things like that.”

In the second quarter, Sweet Home turned the ball over on downs. Crook County was driving when Crook County’s Pickhardt was intercepted by Keegan Holley, who took the ball and returned it almost 50 yards to the 5-yard line.

“Holley, he’s another one. He didn’t start last year and he was a corner and receiver,” Nichol said .

“Now, suddenly, he is starting safety, and starting on offense as a junior. He’s never seen varsity time; this is his second varsity experience. It just speaks volumes to the quality of the character of the guys and their willingness to put themselves out there and try and learn.”

Sophomore Hayden McDonald ran the ball in from two yards out for the touchdown and extended the lead 20-7.

Right before the half Dan Virtue was running option to the left and pitched the ball, but Ethan Edgerly intercepted the pass and returned it down to the 1-yard line.

“I basically shouldn’t have pitched it but did,” said Virtue said.

Jacob Kasberger was the bene-ficiary of the turnover, running the ball in for a one-yard touchdown with 40 seconds left to go in the first half to bring Crook County within six at the end of the half.

Crook County came out looking to bounce back in the second half, and the Cowboys almost succeeded, coming one play from pushing the game into overtime.

Things got off to a little bit of a bad start at the start of the third quarter when senior Keanu Aiona, who didn’t play at Hidden Valley, misplayed the kickoff and had to retrieve the ball from the 5-yard line. But Aiona made a few defenders miss and took off and returned it to Crook County’s 27-yard line.

“I just followed my blocks and hit the holes,” said Aiona.

The Huskies took advantage of the good field position and scored on three plays. Hayden Nichol ran it in for the Huskies from two yards out, extending the Huskies’ lead to 27-14.

Aiona was also a strength for the Huskies on defense, creating chaos in the opposing backfield on fourth down seemingly every time Crook County went for it. He blew up three different fourth-down plays, either getting a sack or disrupting what Pickhardt was trying to do.

“Aiona, the thing he brings is he is so quick, that was the fifth element we were missing,” said Dustin Nichol. “He is that spark, he is that juggernaut that we need, that we lacked on both sides of the ball. And those first two quick steps, so it was great to have him back this week.”

Crook County came close in its comeback attempt in the final minutes of the game.

With 2:15 to go in the game the Cowboys took over, down 13 points, but scored a touchdown when Pickhardt hit Keenan Mozingo with 28 seconds left in the game, narrowing the score to 27-20 after failing to convert the two-point conversion attempt.

That strategy may have been a break for Sweet Home, since a successful kick would have closed the scoring gap to six points for the Cowboys, and a touchdown would have tied or won it.

But Crook County got one more chance after the Huskies failed to run the clock on the next drive. Sweet Home punted and muffed the punt on a high snap. The Cowboys got the ball back with seven seconds to go on the 33-yard line.

Pickhardt hit Mozingo, who was streaking down the sideline, with a 32-yard pass, but Nick Marler tackled Mozingo on the one-yard line as the clock expired, sealing the victory for the Huskies, 27–20.

“These guys came in here and put 80 combined points on our freshman and JV teams,” Dustin Nichol said. “I think they thought that they were going to come in here and pancake us, but we punched them in the mouth and they were in for a rude awakening.

“I am happy for these guys. I told them we needed a couple of big breaks to blow things open and that is what happened.”

The Huskies play at Stayton (0-2), a 62-16 loser at Banks last Friday, in the first home game for the Eagles at 7 p.m. Friday,

Scoring Summary

Sweet Home 14 6 7 0 – 27

Crook County 7 7 0 6 – 20

1st quarter

CC—Heath Pickhardt to EJ Allen 33-yard pass 9:10

SH—Daniel Virtue to Nathan Virtue 2-yard pass 6:28

SH—D. Virtue to N. Virtue 27-yard pass :50

2nd quarter

SH–Hayden McDonald 2-yard run 6:54

CC—Jacob Kasberger 1-yard run :40

3rd quarter

SH—Hayden Nichol 2-yard run 10:39

4th quarter

CC—Pickhardt to Keenan Mozingo 15-yard pass :28

Total
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