Huskies topple Sherwood with big plays–and Howe!

Ken Roberts

Sports Writer

Every Sweet Home touchdown was a show-stopper on last Friday night’s football stage.

A 58 yard run by Travis Smith. An athletic move by Ricky Howe on a 15 yard touchdown reception followed by another athletic leap over a defender for a 60 yard touchdown pass from Donny Cliver. A 41 yard burst by Brandon Miner. And shortly after that, a blocked punt recovered by Matt Zollman in the end zone.

These were the show tunes in the Huskies’ 34-15 defeat of a tough Sherwood team. Co-writers for this magnificent production were the offensive linemen, opening up some gaping holes for the featured players on the runs who also benefited from good downfield blocking by the wide receivers.

Smith’s touchdown occurred on Sweet Home’s first possession after the defense stopped Sherwood at midfield. After the punt, the Huskies, starting on their own 19, posted two quick first downs before Smith broke free on a trap play.

“I was just thinking run hard and don’t go down,” said Smith, who led all rushers with just four carries for 108 yards. He didn’t, and Donny Cliver added the first of his four extra points.

Then Smith turned his talent to the defensive side. On Sherwood’s second play, he recovered a fumble, giving the Huskies a great opportunity at the 19 yardline. But the Bowmen quickly stifled that hope with an interception and regained control.

Sherwood put together a scoring drive toward the end of the first quarter, starting with two good runs by Joel Geelan, one of the many running backs used by the Bowmen. The Huskies dug in, but on third down with fourteen yards to go, Calvin Davis lofted a 26 yard sideline pass to John Bellanger, despite outstanding coverage by Mike Severns. Sherwood worked the ball all the way to the 7 yard line before the Huskies made one of their two goal line stands, forcing Sherwood to be content with a 26 yard field goal by Robbie Dehaze.

That is as close as Sherwood would be for the rest of the game. After an out of bounds kickoff gave Sweet Home the ball at the 35, Seth Graves ran for 9 yards and Cliver dumped a pass in the flat to Smith who was in full stride and raced up the sidelines for a 29 yard gain.

After grinding out another first down on the ground, Howe caught the first of his two scoring receptions from 15 yards out.

The defenders gave him a lot of room off the line of scrimmage. Both he and Coach Rob Younger thought he might be able to turn the out route designed for a first down into a score, which he did, leaping in the air to stretch out for the final few yards.

“He is such a good athlete that we want to isolate him one on one because he is going to make those kind of plays,” said Younger.

As good as he was on offense, Howe shined even more on defense. From his safety position, he led the team in tackles with eight, most of them coming in the first half when he made great reads. To top off an incredible first half, he picked off two Sherwood passes as well. He credited the coaching staff for the preparation in knowing Sherwood’s offensive tendencies and the defensive front for the pressure applied to the quarterback.

“I have faith in the front four,” said Howe. “Davis just had to throw where he could.”

Suffering from the hot weather along with everyone else, in what Younger referred to as the hottest weather in which he had ever coached, Howe was sick at halftime. But he still wasn’t done for the night.

Starting the second half, both teams had decent drives that ended up stalling out. On the Huskies’ second drive of the third quarter, Howe used his height to scoop the ball over a smaller defender on a pass that was slightly underthrown by Cliver, who was under heavy pressure.

“I felt the pressure, but I have a lot of faith in my receivers,” said Cliver. “Rick’s always telling me to throw it up, so I did.”

Howe made good on his word.

“I had to make up for lost time after last year,” said Howe, referring to a season-ending injury that kept him out of much of the season. Howe had a total of 4 receptions for 90 yards. For the night, Cliver completed 9 of 14 passes for 128 yards.

The Sweet Home defense forced Sherwood into a punt situation after just three plays on their next possession, but the Husky defense fell victim to fake punt play when Davis threw to Bellanger for 24 yards. From there, they used a big running back, Nic Bellingham, who entered the game for the first time. He scored from 12 yards out on his fifth carry, closing the gap to 21-9.

Despite a great 40 yard kick return by a cramping Miner, Sweet Home’s offense bogged down. They made matters worse when Cliver was tackled at their own 11 yardline after a bad snap on the punt attempt.

But the defense withstood the test. Bellingham rushed three times to move it to the four yard line. On fourth down, Smith stepped up again. After a Sherwood timeout, they faked to Bellingham, with the quarterback Davis taking the designed bootleg straight into Smith, who was firing in from the corner like he always is supposed to do on 4th down.

Sherwood’s heart was removed at that point. It took Sweet Home just three plays to go 95 yards, starting with a Miner five yard run. Then Smith was sprung loose on another trap play for 49 yards.

“Donny (Cliver) kept saying we want two first downs,” said Smith, recounting the standard Husky strategy when they have their backs to the goal line. “I just wanted to get a first down.

But I think the hole was maybe bigger than the first time.”

On the next play, they faked to Smith, who drew the attention of both the middle linebackers, and Miner broke free for what he called “a cakewalk” 41 yard run.

Nothing went right for Sherwood from that point on. Tim Matuszak, who needs three more interceptions to break the school record, applied his trademark skill on the very first play.

“I watched a lot of film on routes they run,” said Matuszak, who also had six tackles. “If a quarterback doesn’t look around much, wherever he looks, that’s where he’s going.”

Matt Zollman added the final touch on Sherwood’s next possession by recovering a blocked punt in the end zone. Sherwood tacked on a meaningless touchdown on a 66 yard run by Jason Frank against primarily Husky JV substitutes.

The Husky defense put pressure on Davis all night, using about ten different players on the front wall to contend with the heat. Plus they handled the misdirection in Sherwood’s running game. All this led to five Sherwood turnovers.

“You have to stay in your area and keep outside containment,” said Miner, a key force on defense. “They did everything we expected them to do. There were no surprises.”

Other than the bad punt snap, the Huskies, with the deep kickoffs and long punts of Cliver, kept Sherwood deep in their own territory to start drives. Younger was pleased most with the way they handled adversity, especially with the two goal line stands.

“Our execution was okay for a first ball game, but we really handled adversity well,” said Younger. “That’s what we were looking for, to see what we would do in that kind of situation. That’s going to make us a better football team.”

It doesn’t get easier next week when they play at Wilsonville. Wilsonville is 2-0, including a 15-13 victory over a top-rated Junction City. Wilsonville returns many players from last year’s strong junior and sophomore classes.

“We are going to treat it like a state playoff game,” stated Younger. “It’s going to be a stepping stone to that caliber of football.”

Younger wants his team to be better conditioned, though the heat may have caused problems there. But he also wants to establish greater offensive consistency and not rely on just the big plays.

“Good football teams improve more between week one and week two than any other time in the season,” said Younger.

The Husky coaches will be breaking down a lot of film, looking for ways to improve as they move on to game two. They will see those big plays again. And maybe, despite Younger’s concern for consistency, they will see a few more in next week’s film.

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