Ken Roberts
For The New Era
For Coach Rob Younger, the jamboree at South Albany High School was a time to evaluate the stage of development for the 2004 version of Husky football.
Unlike the teams they played, first Crescent Valley and then Summit, Younger gave every player an opportunity to perform in the abbreviated scrimmage where each team had two series of nine plays on offense and defense, starting from the 35 or 40 yard line.
“We wanted to give everybody an opportunity to play and get them on film so the coaches can evaluate them and get our rotation set,” said Younger.
The Huskies opened impressively on defense against Crescent Valley. Brian Lindsay intercepted a pass on the first play and, after stopping the rush convincingly, Travis Smith intercepted another pass in CV’s first series.
Then Sweet Home started their first possession with Cody Shipp at the helm. Smith and Brandon Martin were able to rush at will, with Martin finishing off the final nine yards for a score on the Huskies’ fifth play. Shipp also completed a 9 yard pass to Lindsay in that sequence.
The Raiders were much more successful in their second series. They passed for a couple of touchdowns when the Husky secondary broke down on coverage. But the Huskies came back as Smith galloped 35 yards on their very first play of their last series. Sweet Home produced one more first down on Bobby Eli’s rushing and a CV penalty, but Heath Belknap was unable to convert a field goal attempt on the final play.
In the second scrimmage against Summit, the Huskies struggled. The Storm scored almost three times in their first segment. With the Huskies tackling difficulties, Summit was able to march down the field easily with their running game that featured quarterback draws. Even though Sweet Home stopped them from scoring in their second set, once with another interception by Smith, the Storm was able to move the ball until penalties hurt them.
On offense, the Huskies had difficulty with Summit’s defensive line and pass rush. Though Martin had a couple more nine yard runs, Sweet Home never scored against the Storm. Both Shipp and sophomore Kyle Pettit threw accurately when they had time, but the Husky receivers had a few too many dropped balls to keep the momentum going. On their last chance to score, Belknap had the distance on his second field goal attempt, but the ball sailed wide left.
“We have a good group of receivers,” said Younger, “and we’re not going to drop the ball on a consistent basis.”
Younger knows the Huskies have several things to correct before they travel to Sherwood next Friday at 7 PM, one being tackling technique.
“With a young team, that’s something you’re always going to have to work on,” stated Younger. “It wasn’t as crisp as we would like it, but we’ll be a good tackling team down the road.”
For that matter, Younger felt that all the mistakes the Huskies made were very correctable.
He was especially satisfied with the defensive front.
“For the most part, our execution up front was good, though we didn’t get much of a pass rush,” said Younger. Martin racked up the only Husky sack of the night.
With film in hand and four days to prepare, Sweet Home will set out to conquer the early flaws as they seek to start this year out as they did last year when they throttled Sherwood 34-15.