Jason Casey
For The New Era
The Huskies took a bite out of the Cottage Grove Lions Friday night.
Sweet Home got a huge league win, avoiding a giant 0-2 hole, with the 42-35 victory over Cottage Grove.
The game wasn’t without its heart-pounding moments. The feverish scoring pace got off to quick start when Lions’ wide receiver Michael Tharpe took the opening kickoff back 82 yards for the touchdown.
“When we came off the field their heads were down after that kick return, said Coach Dustin Nichol. “I said ‘Hey, it’ll be 48-42; whoever has the ball last wins. We just got to keep scoring back and forth we’ll play that game, just keep on with it.’”
And keep on scoring the Huskies did.
Brandon Keenon was the hammer and Jesus Patricio was the nail with the final blows of the game.
Keenon bulled his way to over 200 yards rushing and three touchdowns, and added an interception on defense. The Lions couldn’t contain him in first half.
“Brandon always goes as hard as he can,”said quarterback Justin Tow following the game. “He’s a work horse. I don’t know what his yards were but he fights for every yard, he’ll dive for yards we need. He was awesome.”
The first drive of the game set the tone of the game. Nichol called for hand-offs to Keenon early and often going 70 yards in nine plays, all on the ground. On the touchdown, Keenon sliced through the defense for 11 yards.
The Lions couldn’t contain Patricio in the second half, as he capped the scoring with a 60-yard touchdown through the air. He blew past his man, and Tow laid a perfect ball in his out-stretched arms. End result: six points.
“I didn’t think that I was going to be able to get there, but turns out I did,” Patricio said. “I juked him out; he played good defense but I had to move a little bit to get past him.”
Nichol noted the emergence of the senior wide receiver.
“Jesus was the one last year that got injured and wasn’t able to play,” the coach said. “He has just been biding his time. I’ve got a lot of respect for him because he hasn’t been complaining. We were giving the people that were there last year in the rotation. He had to earn his spot back – just because he is a senior doesn’t mean he gets to walk into it. He’s been patient.
“Danny Virtue got dinged there a little bit. Jesus answered the call; you can’t ask for anything more, and he just earned another starting spot, so now we have got two deep threats.
“Jesus was the wild card in the game where you need to have somebody that isn’t normally a playmaker step up. Jesus definitely gets that title tonight.”
Sweet Home had to convert two long third-down conversions, both monumental, to avoid giving the ball back to the Lions with a chance to tie the game. Patricio caught both of them, one for 26 yards on third-and-17 and the other a 60-yard bomb on third-and-18.
“I was scared, I was shaking, but I had adrenalin, we got lucky,” added Patricio who finished the game with seven receptions for 144 yards.
The last nine minutes of the game were as exciting as it gets in football. Cottage Grove started it off with a touchdown by quarterback Blake Sentman to bring the score to 35-28. Those two long third-down conversions and the long touchdown by Patricio to make it 42-28; along with an interception by Dillon Stutzman, made it look like icing on the cake, but Cottage Grove got the ball back and scored with 1:14 left on the clock to close the gap to 42-35 and went for the onside kick. It was recovered by George Rayborn and was the end of the furious scoring and big plays.
Virtue, who had been the Huskies’ primary threat at receiver up to Friday night’s game, was not missing in action. He made a splash early in the game when, on second-and-10, Tow threw his first touchdown. Virtue blew by the Lion defense like they were standing still and raced into the end zone for a 75-yard score.
“I thought we were awesome, said Tow. “I thought our pass protections was great, I thought all our receivers ran all their routes perfect. They are a spread team, so they pass all the time, they are used to that stuff and I think we just shoved it down their throats.”
You can’t have a running back bruise his way to 200 yards, a receiver with 144 yards receiving, and a 75-yard touchdown without stellar play from the offensive line, which struggled mightily the week before against Sisters, a game in which Keenon only had 32 yards on 15 carries and Tow was on the run most of the night.
This time, the Huskies quarterback had all the time he needed in the second half to pick apart the defense.
“We had the best practice, offense line-wise,” Nichol said. “Our coaches threw out a challenge Monday… that’s our teaching day. We ran them through some drills, we upped the tempo of practice and the kids responded in a positive way. You could see a huge difference this week in our offensive line for the most part.
“Gavin Baskin, Joel Holman did a good job. One that doesn’t get enough credit is the center Josh Rice, and he hasn’t played any center to speak of, all season long. He comes in, big game. Josh had a lot of pressure on him, and he stepped into that role and did a good job there for the most part. Basically, our whole offensive line did a good job.
“Justin had a lot of time to throw the ball, there was some seams created for the running backs to run through. The big key tonight was our offensive line. Our best defense was our offensive line, in a lot of ways.”
The defense gave up 35 points to the high-flying offense of Cottage Grove, but they had three interceptions, by Keenon, Virtue and Dillon Stutzman, and one fumble recovery.
“The defense was amazing,” said Tow. “We gave up 35 but they scored 55 on Elmira, 44 on somebody else. I thought we stuffed them.”
Nichol was a little more critical.
“Our defense bent and almost broke,” he said. “The thing is, we were giving some yards up the middle with the tackles and it’s tough. They’ve got a lot of really good athletes, they get their athletes out in space, and they just make your guys, one-on-one, make tackles.
“Basically, what it comes down to is who makes more mistakes and, fortunately, they had a couple.”
Nichol, though, was clearly delighted with the turnaround the Huskies showed.
“I told the guys we had some breakdowns in crucial moments at Sisters. Three crucial times against Sisters we just had complete mental breakdowns – when we should have had total focus and total aggression and intensity at that time and we didn’t have that.
The No. 1goal this week is should be playing intense the whole game, but if it comes down to a crucial moment, that’s when it doesn’t matter how bad your legs hurt, how tired you are, how much you don’t want to get in that stance. You get in it and hold it for as long as you possibly can because we need something at that given point and time.
“They did it. There wasn’t one that we fell short on.”
Next week the Huskies host Junction City, which, along with Sisters, is undefeated in league after wins at Sutherlin (43-8) and against Elmira, 34-10, on Friday night.
Zach Rogers scored three touchdowns for the Tigers, two on the ground and one through the air. Junction City quarterback Jesse McClintock completed 11 of 13 passes for 181 yards. Rogers rushed for 52 yards and had four catches for 54.
“It’s always a good rivalry and I think our kids are prepped,” Nichol said. “I’m confident going into next week’s game and Homecoming, the hype and everything else. I’m excited about what our opportunities are for next week.”
“I told the kids (if) we get a little help from Cottage Grove, they go up and beat Sisters next week, it’s a three-way tie for first and, as far as I’m concerned, we are still vying for a league championship. I don’t want to quit, I’m not going to take that out of mind while all options are still available. We’ve got to play like the league title is on the line.”
Game time will be 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, at Husky Stadium.
Scoring Summary
SH – 13 15 7 7 – 42
CG – 14 7 0 14 – 35
First Quarter
CG – Michael Tharpe 82 yard kick return (Kick good) 11:47
SH – Brandon Keenon 11 run (Jesus Patricio kick) 7:57
CG – Brynden Howell 22 run (Kick failed) 5:44
SH – Dan Virtue 75 pass from Justin Tow 75 yard (Patricio kick) 2:56
Second Quarter
SH – Brandon Keenon 3 run (Jesus Patricio kick)
SH – Garrison Whitfield 3 run (Devin Stafford pass from Justin Tow)
CG – Bryndon Howell 11 run (Kick good)
Third Quarter
SH – Brandon Keenon 5 run (Jesus Patricio kick) 3:29
Fourth Quarter
CG – Blake Sentmen 11 run (Kick good) 9:26
SH Jesus Patricio 60 pass from Justin Tow (Jesus Patricio kick) 3:37
CG – Kory Parent pass from Blake Sentman (Kick good) 1:14
Individual Statistics
Rushing – Brandon Keenon 41-215, 3 TD; Keanu Aiona 4-11; Garrison Whitfield 1-2, 1 TD.
Passing – Justin Tow 9-16-0-242, 2 TD.
Receiving – Jesus Patricio 7-144, 1 TD; Dan Virtue, 2-98, 1 TD.