When Bode Nichols hit Marist ballcarrier Conner Harvey with a savage open-field tackle on the first play of the Spartans’ visit to Sweet Home Friday night, Oct. 3, the ball squirted out of Harvey’s hands.
That was the initial punch in a night-long slugfest, a mostly clean one, that resulted in a 27-20 triumph for the Huskies, their first victory over Marist in decades and a 1-0 start in Special District 3.
“That was fun,” Head Coach Ryan Adams said. “That was exactly the heavyweight fight we kind of expected.”
The victory was not secure, literally, until the final two plays.
“That felt amazing,” said senior Luke Rosa, who has been a key player in Sweet Home’s turnaround from a winless season two years ago.
“We’ve been waiting to get one on them and this year was the year.”
Marist, which came into the game 1-3 after losses to highly-ranked Henley and Tillamook, both on the road, showed early that it intended to leave with a W.
Following that opening fumble, the Spartans forced Sweet Home to punt after stymieing the Huskies’ first drive in three plays, and then 68 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead with 5:05 left in the first quarter.
They stopped Sweet Home again after three plays, forcing another punt.
Then things changed for the Huskies as Kyle Zajic picked off a pass from quarterback Brody Gilliam, setting Sweet Home up at its 37 yard line.
The Huskies launched a 10-play drive of their own, capped by a nine-yard scoring pass early in the second quarter from Zajic to Dillan Davis. With a point-after kick from Keeghan Gittins, the Huskies had the score tied with 8:12 left in the half.
After forcing Marist to punt, they went to work again, moving 40 yards in 10 plays to the 28, where, on fourth-and-four, Zajic hit Nichols for his second touchdown pass of the night and a 14-7 lead with Gittins’ kick.
Late in the quarter they forced another punt and marched 68 yards again, Zajic finding Nichols again, this time from the 20, with another touchdown pass. The kick failed, but the Huskies took a 20-7 lead into the locker room.
With less than a minute left in the first half, Gilliam was sacked and had to be helped off the field, not to return for the rest of the evening.
Late in the third quarter Marist took over on its 42 and five plays later Elijah Martin connected on a 22-yard pass to Harvey to close the gap to 20-14.
“Their backup quarterback had a lot of playing time,” Adams said. “I think he played the whole game the second game of the year, when he got subbed in.
“That’s why I told our guys, ‘Hey, this isn’t going to change anything. This is a dang good football team.”
Then, less than a minute into the fourth quarter, Marist got the ball back on a bad snap to Nichols, who was trying to punt on fourth down at his 27 yards line, and was tackled at the 25.
Six plays later the visitors evened the score with an eight-yard scoring pass from Martin to CJ Giustina, tying things at 29-20 with 9:14 left on the clock.
“Credit to them for battling back,” Adams said. “You know, down two scores going to that second half, they kept punching along.
“I’m just really proud of the way our guys responded to this.”
With 3:36 left in the game, Sweet Home took over on its 29, and two plays later Zajic connected from the 31 with Davis, who outsprinted the Spartan defenders to the end zone and Gittins made it 27-20.
But Marist knows how to win and the Spartans weren’t done yet.
They took over on their 35 after Gittins’ kickoff rolled out of bounds and Martin immediately threw a bomb to Grady Hazen for a 41-yard completion and Marist powered to the 2. Then Rosa stormed into the backfield and wrapped up Harvey, who was a workhorse for the Spartans all night, and forced a fumble that was recovered by Trenton Templin with 1:12 on the clock.
Two plays later, Zajic connected with Davis from the 5 to give the Huskies a first down, which iced the game for Sweet Home.
“There were some ups and downs,” Rosa said. “We were thinking about the next play. Our focus this week was our preparation and the next play.”
Zajic said the win was the result of the way the Huskies have practiced.
“It was just, just the process,” he said, commenting on those final minutes.
“It’s something we practice every single day. These are the moments that they happen and you just have to make it true.”
He said the Huskies knew they had to be “very confident” coming into the game.
“We haven’t beat these guys in I don’t know how long. We just had to stay confident, be on our heels and just keep firing.”
Adams said his team was ready.
“Our whole thing this week was just confidence through preparation,” he said. “I thought they prepared really well all week. They approached this game extremely well. We talked in the game, ‘always next play, always next play.’
“We just really focused on not getting them too high or too low, no matter what. And they responded really well.”
Assistant Coach Rob Younger, who led the Huskies for 22 years and last year returned to help Adams on the sideline, said he appreciated the atmosphere at Husky Field, which, he said, added to the win.
“It reminded me of the past, when the stands were full and there were people standing around the track and the concession stands were busy,” he said – all of which was true on Friday night.
“Getting people back, involved, on Friday night gave me a lot of joy. Someone told me that they opened their window two miles away from the stadium and they could hear the roar.”
The win, he said, is a testament to the team’s focus and commitment.
“These kids have come a long way in the two years I’ve been privileged to be part of it,” he said, crediting Adams for putting together a team of “good, consistent coaches” and for delegating well.
“Eight of the nine guys who are part of varsity staff are all ex-Huskies. They have that pride.”
Zajic had his best passing game of the year, finishing with 181 yards on 12/21 with four touchdowns and no interceptions. Sweet Home had 84 yards on the ground, most of it from Barringer.
Marist finished with 224 yards through the air, and 107 yards on the ground, with two interceptions by the Huskies.
Up next for Sweet Home, now 5-0 overall and 1-0 in Special District 3 and ranked No. 6 by OSAA in the 4A Division, is Junction City, which is also 1-0 after a 28-8 win over Cottage Grove last week. The only common opponent thus far for Sweet Home and the Tigers is Woodburn, whom Junction City defeated 30-13 the week after the Huskies beat the Bulldogs 27-13.
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