The East Linn Loggers nine-man football team opened its season Saturday with a 42-20 loss to the defending national champions Polk Pioneers at Husky Stadium.
But Coach Jesse Garcia Sr., in his third season with the team, was encouraged.
“Yeah, we lost,” he said. “But I am happy with what I saw, especially on defense.”
The Loggers stayed relatively even with the visitors in the first half, though their offense was sputtering a bit in the intensely wet and windy weather.
Cold rain was blowing horizontally across the field early in the game and in the latter part of the second half.
Garcia said the weather was a big factor in quarterback Duane Stevens’ uncharacteristic inability to find receivers such as Devin Dvorak and Mike Bell, who were open numerous times but came away empty.
“Duane couldn’t get a handle on the ball,” he said. “We didn’t take advantage of our opportunities on offense. We absolutely didn’t do what we wanted to do.”
Polk scored first in the 30-minute first half, at 16:54 on an eight-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ivan McCrae to Mike Conner. The Pioneers’ two-point conversion attempt failed.
Jesse Garcia Jr. evened the score with a 75-yard return on the ensuing kickoff. Derek Robinson’s extra point kick attempt was blocked by Tim Martin.
The Loggers got two chances to take the lead after pass interception by Trase Privratsky and Bodie Dowding, but they turned the ball over on downs each time.
With 4:20 left in the half, McCrae put the Pioneers up again with a 15-yard touchdown run, in which he dived past a pair of Logger defenders into the end zone. Polk’s PAT attempt failed again and they led 12-6.
But things were just heating up and Loggers quarterback Duane Stevens found running back Danny Nunn with a touchdown pass from the 20 yard line and the score was tied with 1:14 to go in the half.
McCrae drove the Pioneers down the field, though, and hit Chris Hussey with a 12-yard pass for a go-ahead touchdown. This time Polk completed a two-point conversion to take a 20-12 lead into halftime.
In the second half, things fell apart for the Loggers.
At 25:17, McCrae scored on a second touchdown run, this one from two yards out, and hit John Williams with a two-point conversion pass to put the Pioneers up 28-12.
The visitors scored on two more touchdown passes and two-point conversions at 17:49 and with 2:16 left to take a 42-12 lead.
But the Loggers weren’t done, as Stevens hit Mike Bell with an eight-yard touchdown pass with 40 seconds left, then found Nunn with a pass for the two-point conversion for the final score, 42-20.
Garcia said he was particularly pleased with his defense, which corralled McCrae, the league’s leading rusher last year, for much of the game.
“We gave up no big plays at all,” he said of the 2-4 defensive scheme the Loggers installed to try to contain McCray.
“This game will be a barometer of how we do for the rest of the season,” Garcia said. “If we play that way against the rest of the teams, I’m happy.”
The Loggers play the Eugene Firebirds at South Eugene High School at 4 p.m. Saturday, April 22, then will be back in Husky Stadium April 29 for a 2 p.m. game against the Cascade Steel.