Ken Roberts
For The New Era
Welcome back to the Husky rushing game.
Tyler Horner, Skyler Bascom, and Kyle Pettit took turns going around, driving through, and evading the Taft defense as Sweet Home overwhelmed the Tigers 41-0 in front of the hometown fans at Husky Stadium.
“We talk about preparing to win, practicing to win, and playing to win,” explained coach Rob Younger.
“Each week this team has gotten better at those three components. I wasn’t too surprised by our performance.”
This week the Huskies played to win. Younger mentioned last week that the Huskies needed to improve their outside running attack. After stopping Taft on their first series of the game, Sweet Home displayed that attack as Horner took an outside pitch and threaded his way through would be tacklers for an 80-yard touchdown at the seven minute mark.
Sweet Home would score three more times before the first half was over. Bascom scored the first of his three touchdowns on a 19 yard power run.
For Bascom, it seemed like the holes were huge because of the inspired offensive line, playing against a much larger Taft unit.
“The line played their best game,” said an appreciative Bascom. “They worked so hard this week. On our touchdowns, we weren’t even touched.”
Pettit, who often danced and darted his way out of some pressure from Taft, picked timely spots to complete seven of 10 passes for the night. His one touchdown pass occurred in the second quarter, a 22 yarder to Adam
Hummer, the Huskies’ leading receiver.
Later Horner scored again on a four yard run. The only blip in the Husky offense was an interception that came deep in Taft territory near the end of the half. They racked up 296 yards of offense in the first half, on their way to 479 yards for the game.
Sweet Home’s defense was just as impressive. They forced Taft to punt on their first five possessions, holding the Tigers to just 28 first half total yards and only three first downs, all of those on Taft’s first series. Tyrone Perrine recovered a fumble to end the half for the hapless Tigers, who trailed 27-0.
The third quarter was simply more of the same. A nine play, 70 yard opening drive culminated with a 24- yard run by Bascom. Then Bascom put the finishing touches on the game, pounding for a five-yard touchdown. From that point on, the first unit took a break and many new Husky faces saw action.
The defense only yielded one more first down, that on a pass interference penalty, before they too relinquished the job of finishing the shutout to second and third unit players. Taft’s deepest penetration came when Kyle Hamlin completed a pass to Josh Navarro at the Husky 21-yard line, but it was knocked loose and recovered by Cody Sells. Defensive end Nathan Whitfield led the defense with six tackles, two on sacks, and forcing a fumble on another hit.
Part of both the offensive and defensive line, Whitfield believed the linemen had a mindset to just keep hitting the larger Taft linemen until they quit. It seemed as if the front four surged constantly into Taft’s backfield.
“Whenever they passed, we put pressure on them,” stated Whitfield. “We were stopping them at every point.”
When the game was over, Taft could only manage 79 yards of total offense.
“Going into the game, we were very conscious of the veer, especially the quarterback,” said Younger. “Our perimeter people just took the quarterback out of the game.”
Horner ran for 166 yards in 15 carries, followed by 93 yards from Bascom and another 59 by Pettit. Pettit threw for 121 yards with six of the seven passes completed for more than 10 yards. The Huskies rang up 20 first downs to the Tigers’ 6.
“It was a feeling of relief,” said Bascom. “After two losses in a row, we needed something.”
The Huskies, now 1-1 in league play, take on the Central Panthers at home this Friday. Central has a 2-3 record for the year and lost their league opener at home against Newport, 20-7. The Panthers had a one-point victory over Tillamook, a team that Sweet Home handled easily.
“In many ways, Central is a mirror image of us,” said Younger. “They played a tough preseason schedule and are better than their record indicates. They are getting better each week also.”
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
SHHS 14 13 14 0 41
Taft 0 0 0 0 0
1st Quarter
SHHS—Horner 80 yd. run (McKinney kick)
SHHS—Bascom 19 yd. run (McKinney kick)
2nd Quarter
SHHS—Pettit to Hummer 22 yd. pass (kick failed)
SHHS—Horner 4 yd. run (McKinney kick)
3rd Quarter
SHHS—Bascom 24 yd. run (McKinney kick)
SHHS—Bascom 5 yd. run (Nunn kick)
Team Stats
Rushing: SHHS 45-362; Taft 20-40
Passing: SHHS 121; Taft 71
Sacks: SHHS 4-32 (Whitfield 1.5, Riggs, Wallace, Davis .5)
Taft 1-4
Total: SHHS 479, Taft 79
1st Downs: SHHS 20; Taft 6
Turnovers: SHHS 1; Taft 2
Penalties: SHHS 8-80; Taft 9-81
Individual Stats
Rushing: SHHS: Horner 15-166; Bascom 10-93; Pettit 7-59;
Sells 4-24; Byers 5-20; Weikel 1-1; Ottre 1-0; Pitts 1-(-1);
Taft: King 3-11
Passing: SHHS: Pettit 7-10-1, 121; Graville 0-1
Taftt: Hamlin 7-18, 71
Receiving: SHHS: Hummer 3-40; Pitts 1-30; Riggs 1-20;
Bascom 1—17; McKinney 1-14
Taft: T.Butler 3-35; Navarro 2-27
Punts: SHHS: None
Taft: Hamlin 7-181 (25.9,19.1 net)
Punt Returns: SHHS: Pettit 3-47
Kick Returns: SHHS: Sells 1-5
Taft: 6-95
Interceptions: SHHS 0; Taft 1
Fumble Recoveries: SHHS 2 (Perrine, Sells); Taft 0
Tackles: SHHS—Jones 6, Whitfield 6, Bascom 5