Scott Swanson
Sweet Home’s football team is back in the playoffs, with a first-round game this Friday, and the No. 4-ranked Huskies really couldn’t ask for a much better opportunity.
They host 12th-ranked Philomath (8-2, 4-1) at Husky Field and then, if Sweet Home wins that game, it would then host the winner of Friday’s Cascade-Douglas matchup.
But first things first.
“They’re a very talented team,” Coach Dustin Nichol said of the Warriors. “They returned most all their players from last year’s squad and I actually picked them to win their league.”
Thanks to a 26-14 loss to Cascade, the Warriors finished second in the Oregon West Conference, but they are dangerous.
Philomath has been a high-scoring offense, putting up 421 points and allowing 199. The Warriors’ only other loss was at Gladstone (42-22).
They used their quick-strike offense to beat a young Brookings-Harbor team 56-15 Friday, Nov. 2 in a play-in game, running up 415 yards of offense in the first half, despite running only 15 plays in the first half.
Senior quarterback Derek Nash, 6-1, 170, completed 8 of 11 passes for 264 yards and five touchdowns to four different receivers for the game, and running backs Matt Larrabee (5-9, 190, senior) added 93 yards on three carries, Austin Brown (6-0, 170, junior) 81 on four carries and Will Pittman (6-1, 165, junior) 97 yards on two carries. (Brown is the son of Sweet Home High School teacher Alain Brown.)
The Warriors also have a talented, if somewhat young receiving corps, led by three juniors: 6-2, 170-pound Joe Noble, 6-1, 185-pound Ben De Saulnier and 6-, 160-pound Cole Chambers, who all caught touchdown passes against Brookings-Harbor, which had a league record of 2-3 and 3-5 overall coming into the game.
“They have a pretty balanced attack,” Nichol said of Philomath. “They can run and pass. They are probably our toughest challenge this season. We need to get through this one.”
He and some 16 of his players scouted last Friday’s game.
“I think it was a good learning experience for the kids,” Nichol said. “We sat together in a group and talked about how to study a game together. We didn’t just watch.”
The Huskies’ week off will hopefully pay off, he said.
“Our guys had some dings and I hope we got it right in the fact that we let some guys who needed it to rest. Sometimes you need to heal.”
The rest of the team spent most of the week working on fundamentals and individual drills.
He said he expects teams from here on out to load the box against the Huskies in an attempt to stop Sweet Home’s powerful running attack, led by Wade Paulus and Spencer Knight. Paulus, who has only played in eight games and sat out most of the ends of the ones that were blowouts, is 212 yards away from breaking the school’s all-time rushing record of 2,151 yards, set by Vince Barrett in 1987, the year the Huskies won the state title.
“They’re a talented team but we’re a talented team as well,” Nichol said. “We can’t be more evenly matched.
“The 4A Division is wide open. Everybody has beat each other at one time or another, so no one is undefeated. No one stands out. It’s open for the taking.”
What the Huskies have to do is play as well as they can, he said. No fumbles at the goal line, no blocks in the back or holding penalties when it’s second and eight, as happened against Cottage Grove two weeks ago.
“The winner of this game will be the one who has the fewest mistakes,” Nichol said. “We just need to minimize those types of mistakes and I think the score will take care of itself.
“I think we match up well with these guys and I’m excited about the team we drew and the opportunity we have to play.”
Game time is 7 p.m.