Scott Swanson
For Josh Wooley, the finale of Friday’s football game against Cottage Grove provided a punctuation mark to a season of personal disappointment but one that has been a red-letter year for the Huskies.
With Sweet Home leading the Lions 42-34 with the league title on the line, Wooley, a senior running back who has been forced to sit out most of the season with a serious knee injury, got the call to take over at quarterback for the final four plays as the Huskies ran out the clock.
All he had to do was handle the snap and kneel down, but for Wooley and the Huskies, it was a fitting end to the game that secured their first league championship since 2004.
“It was just a dream, because that’s my last play,” Wooley said. “That meant everything.”
Wade Paulus goes up as Cottage Grove quarterback Scotty Hitner releases one of his 41 pass attempts. To see more game action shots, visit the Football gallery at sweethomenews.com.
The rest of the game game was a barn-burner, as two very diverse offensive teams rolled up a total of 901 yards, Cottage Grove mostly through the air and Sweet Home on the ground. The Huskies also had to fight back from some mistakes – particularly an opening kickoff return for a Lions touchdown and a fumble one play away from a touchdown for Sweet Home, which finished 7-2 overall and 5-0 in league.
“I think we made it a little closer than we needed it to be,” Coach Dustin Nichol said. “Against better teams we can’t do that.”
With both teams undefeated in league play coming in, the fans responded, overflowing both the home and visitors stands.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a crowd this excited,” longtime local youth coach Dick Reynolds observed on the sideline midway through the third quarter.
Things got off to a rough start for Sweet Home when the Lions’ Brian Spindler returned the opening kickoff 65 yards for a touchdown to spot the visitors a quick 7-0 lead.
But the Huskies responded with a lengthy drive that included two big pass completions from quarterback Cole Horner to Mitch Keenon, the first on a fourth-and-10 and the second a two-yard toss for a tying touchdown.
“It was back and forth all night,” Horner said. “They did something big and we would respond right back. I think we did a great job of keeping our composure.”
Nichol said his team’s resilience in adversity was one of the positives from the game.
“Never at any time on the sideline or on the field did our guys not think they were going to win this game,” he said. “They are never out of any football game they are in.”
That initial scoring drive was followed by a second touchdown, on a 38-yard run by Wade Paulus after the Huskies recovered an onside kick to get another opportunity and led 14-7 with four minutes left.
But Cottage Grove went to the air, quarterback Scotty Hitner hitting Spindler for a tying touchdown as the quarter wound down to make it 14-all.
Hitner had a hot first half, completing 10 passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns.
Sweet Home’s first of a series of big plays on the night came midway through the second half as Spencer Knight broke through several would-be tacklers on his way to a 27-yard score, stuffing the ball behind the pylon as he went down under a tackler just outside the corner of the end zone.
“I came around on a sweep and I saw that there was nothing there,” Knight said. “I saw the linebackers over-pursue and then I saw all our linemen doing a perfect job of blocking, so I headed around. I didn’t mean for it to be so dramatic but it ended up just being way dramatic. I saw the one guy and I just stuck the ball out and hoped I’d hit the pylon.”
Things were up and down for the Huskies. On their next possession Paulus, who carried the ball 37 times for 289 yards – most with Lions hanging all over him – for the game, served as workhorse on a seven-carry, length-of-the-field drive to the 6-yard line, where he fumbled with 2:49 left in the half. Hitner drove Cottage Grove back the other way and completed his second touchdown of the game to give the Lions a 28-21 lead with six seconds left, a lead they took into halftime.
“I could have subbed Wade out and got Spencer in there, but I wanted Wade to finish that series out,” Nichol said. “He either was tired or he didn’t have a good grip on the ball. I told him, ‘Next time you look over at me and say “I got this,” or I’m subbing you out.’”
He said communication problems tripped the team up a few times throughout the game, as Horner called different plays than Nichol wanted.
“That’s what we’re going to work on this week,” Nichol said. “We’re going to go back to basics and work on some of the fundamentals. It’s entirely about us, how we can get better and perfect our craft.”
The Huskies, though, showed a high level of self-confidence as they came out of the locker room and marched the length of the field in their first possession of the second half, capped by a 6-yard scoring run by Paulus to tie things up 28-28.
After a see-saw battle for the remainder of the third quarter, the Huskies started stepping it up in the defensive secondary, and then came the play that gave Sweet Home real momentum.
Spindler caught a pass from Hitner and ran through the Sweet Home players on the sideline, then stepped on a tackler as he got up to return to the field.
Referees called the Huskies for a personal foul, drawing loud boos from the crowd, in full view of whom the whole play took place.
But a few plays later, Austin Rice picked off a pass, two minutes into the fourth period, and returned it 41 yards for a go-ahead touchdown.
“Right after I caught (the interception) I was so excited I just about tripped and I came up again,” Rice said. “I was stoked. I just read the quarterback’s eyes and I was in the right place at the right time.
“I knew there would be one play in the game that would really get the momentum going for us and eventually it happened.”
Defensive lineman Josh Holman, who was one of those responsible for a lot of pressure Hitner was feeling during the game, said the play was one of the reasons for the Huskies’ focus.
“We just found it somewhere inside to get ourselves pumped up,” he said. “We just used things like that flag on the field to get mad. We just channeled all of our emotions into doing our best.”
Colton Schilling then ended Cottage Grove’s next series with another interception, ripping the ball away from the Lions’ Tanner Gates as they fell to the ground.
“I kind of got turned around and as I found the ball he caught it on his hip and I just kind of took it away from him and we tumbled a little bit and I came out on top,” said Schilling, whose helmet got ripped off in the scramble.
Hitner scored again for the Lions, this time on a 2-yard quarterback sneak with five minutes left, but missed on the two-point pass attempt.
Cottage Grove attempted an onside kick, but Rice recovered the ball after a Lions player missed a chance to scoop it up.
Then Paulus scored on an 18-yard run with 1:29 left to clinch the victory and Cottage Grove came up short on four desperation passes, giving Sweet Home the ball with a minute left and Wooley took over to wind the clock down.
The win was particularly satisfying because it fulfills expectations that players said they and others have had for years.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Schilling said. “When we were in fifth and sixth grade we were always on top and through middle school, so as seniors, coming up through, we really wanted this. We were striving for a league title, a state title. We’re on the path and week after week we’ll see what happens.”
“Finally, for the seniors, this is what everybody’s been waiting for,” Wooley said. “We’re finally fulfilling what everybody’s been expecting. It was a great season and this game was amazing.
“We have so much potential and we’re just growing and growing every game. Going into the playoffs now we have just as good a chance as anybody.”
Their win moved the Huskies from 11th in the OSAA 4A Division power rankings to fourth before the rankings were frozen Saturday night. Cottage Grove remained at fifth.
Because Sweet Home finished first in the Sky-Em League, the Huskies get a week off before entering the first round of the playoffs on Nov. 9. Play-in games are this weekend.
“I was totally shocked that they moved us from 11 to four,” Nichol said. “That saved our bacon.”
The ranking will give Sweet Home a home game against a yet-undetermined opponent in the first round. Nichol said he believes the opening 35-0 loss at Redmond, which finished the regular season as the top-ranked team in the 5A division, actually helped the Huskies. The Panthers are 9-0 and have scored 40 or more points in all but two games, including the one against Sweet Home.
“That loss carried us a long way,” he said.
Nichol said the Huskies were taking Monday off and then getting back to work on those fundamentals this week, then preparing for their next opponent next week.
“There are some things we have to do some housekeeping on,” he said. “What was disappointing in the game was the holding penalties and block-in-the-back penalties. They did not stop us on any one drive. They did not come out there and lay the lumber on us, make us get three and out and have to punt.
“When we had to punt, it had everything to do with us making mistakes – just laziness, just not moving feet and getting into position to make a play.”
Tough “rust” can be a problem for teams that take a week off and get out of the routine of practicing and playing weekly games, but Nichol said he doesn’t think this year’s squad will have as much as a problem with that.
“That’s more mental than physical,” he said. “I think a lot of it will have to do with how us coaches go about practice.”
Holman, the lineman, said he didn’t think the Huskies would lose too much of their edge either.
“We have a week off to recover and work on some things and get ready for next week,” he said. “We hold it together pretty good in practice. We stay focused.”
Nichol said the season is a whole new ballgame now.
“Right now, as far as I’m concerned, we’re 0-0,” he said. “What makes a team is what you do in the playoffs, when everything’s on the line. Once you get to that level, you have to come ready to play, to do your part.”
Scoring Summary
Sweet Home 14 7 7 14 — 42
Cottage Grove 14 14 0 6 — 34
First quarter
CG: Brian Spindler 65 kickoff return (Brad Bonds kick), 11:48
SH: Mitch Keenon 2 pass from Cole Horner (kick failed), 6:12
SH: Wade Paulus 38 run (Bryce Keenon pass from Colton Holly), 3:54
CG: Spindler 9 pass from Scotty Hitner (Bonds kick), :06
Second quarter
SH: Spencer Knight 27 run (Jacob Smith kick), 6:50
CG: Hitner 4 run (Bonds kick), 4:37
CG: Oscar Rauda 17 pass from Hitner (Bonds kick), :14
Third quarter
SH: Paulus 6 run (Smith kick), 7:56
Fourth quarter
SH: Austin Rice 41 interception return (Smith kick), 10:12
CG: Hitner 2 run (pass failed), 5:00
SH: Paulus 18 run (Smith kick). 1:29
I
ndividual statistics
Rushing: CG — Spindler 14-76, Hitner 9-45, Bloom 1-15. Total 24-136; SH — Paulus 37-286, Knight 8-57, Horner 5-8. Total 50-351.
Passing: CG — Hitner 21-41-3-314; SH — Horner 6-11-0-110
Receiving: CG — Gates 5-87, Rauda 5-83, Spindler 7-72, Bonds 3-58, Richardson 1-14; SH — M. Keenon 4-87, Smith 1-8, Rice 1-10
Kickoff Returns: SH – Hunter Jutte 4-63; Paulus 1-15.