After spotting the hosts two touchdowns in the first four minutes of the game, Sweet Home’s football team never did find its stride Friday, losing to Banks 27-13.
Banks returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead and after the Huskies held the ball for a six-play series, they had to punt.
Punter Wade Paulus corralled a bad snap and quick kicked the ball.
“It went about 20 yards and a guy picked it up. We’re all standing around and he just takes off,” Coach Dustin Nichol said.
Banks led 14-0.
“Then we started playing football,” Nichol said. But the Huskies struggled with consistency all night.
They put a nine-play drive together after Banks’ second score, capped by a touchdown from Paulus, who rushed for 130 yards on 28 attempts. But that was it for Sweet Home until the fourth quarter.
Nichol said the Huskies were plagued by turnovers – four of them.
Junior quarterback Cole Horner struggled as he completed six of 19 pass attempts for 56 yards and one interception.
Nichol said the problems largely centered around “basic mistakes” by the special teams play and general inconsistency.
“We’d be doing everything right, then we’d do something goofy,” he said. “We’d be moving the ball, fumble and recover it. We had two fumbles between center and the quarterback.
“Our special teams dropped balls both on kickoffs and punts. We jogged on kick returns and we didn’t block well. We always had a long field on offense and they had a short field.
“The sad part about it was we were still in the game in the fourth quarter. That’s what’s promising but very frustrating.”
Banks scored again in the third quarter and finished its scoring late in the fourth with a four-yard touchdown pass.
Sweet Home wasn’t quite done, though, as Paulus scored another touchdown in the closing minutes, running the ball in from nine yards out.
Nichol noted that the Huskies were still missing two key varsity players in Zach Gill and Jake Smith, who are expected to be back this week after sitting out two games, and injuries left the team depleted, which meant a lot of players were doing double duty or playing in positions they hadn’t had a lot of practice in.
He said Horner, who focused on quarterback last year, did not come out of the game except on punts and kickoffs because he was needed at linebacker. Colton Schilling, one of the smallest players among the varsity starters at 5-7, 145 pounds, was forced to play linebacker at one point.
“We had all the bodies there but they were not all playing positions they were trained for,” he said.
With 30 varsity players on the roster, compared to 37 last year, the Huskies are more dependent on swing players from the JV, of which both teams had played the night before.
“We’re not as deep in some areas,” Nichol said. “That’s just the nature of the beast. We have to do what we’ve got to do.”
He said he blamed himself for the performance of the special teams and the passing game.
“We didn’t practice as much because we had some injured people,” he said. “The problem right now is getting the quarterback and receivers on the same page, to have faith in each other to get the job done. We’ll be working on that this week.”
Sweet Home will travel to Central for a 7 p.m. game this Friday.
The Panthers, tied with Philomath for eighth in the Associated Press football poll this week, beat Dallas 30-24 in their opener Sept. 7, scoring a touchdown and two-point conversion with 30 seconds left to win. Ben Finnegan completed 13 passes for 148 yards with a touchdown.
Nichol said he believes the Huskies can beat Central if they play well.
“That’s a good rivalry there,” he said. “We need to not make mistakes, to take care of things we have control of.
“I think we can turn things around. This is not a train wreck and this isn’t a situation where we can’t pick up the pieces. We have not played a game yet with everybody eligible. If we did and this was happening, I’d say we need to do some reconfiguring here.”
The absence of varsity players has given back-ups more playing time, which is a silver lining, he said.
“Right now Ben Terry and Kyle Wodtli are getting a ton of starting time they would not be getting if we had Zach Gill and Jake Smith and Josh Holman. We’re building up depth. Good things are coming out of this. Down the stretch this is building up our depth, which is what we need to do. Much as I want to win every game, the preseason is about development.
“Our goal now is to finish the pre-season 2-2, which is tough with Central, but doable. None of the teams we’ve scheduled during the preseason have been a cakewalk.”
Banks 27, Sweet Home 13
Sweet Home 0 7 0 6 – 13
Banks 14 0 6 7 – 27
First Quarter
B – 94 kickoff return. (Kick good)
B – Kemper 18 run. (Kick good)
Second Quarter
SH – Wade Paulus 4 run. (Kick good)
Third Quarter
B – 25 run. (Kick failed)
Fourth Quarter
B – 4 pass (Kick good)
SH – Paulus 8 run. (Kick good)
Other statistics
Rushing – Wade Paulus 28-130; Cole Horner 6-28; Spencer Knight 5-14; Trever Olson 3-6.
Passing – Cole Horner 6-19-1-56.
Receiving – Wade Paulus 4-22; Spencer Knight 1-17.