Jason Casey
What a difference a year can make.
When Sweet Home started its season last year at Hidden Valley, it was a blowout in favor of the hosts as the sophomore-heavy Huskies opened with a brand new (for them) spread read-option offense against older players already well-versed in that scheme.
Friday night, Sept. 1, those teams met again, this time at Husky field, in their first game of the new season. But that was all that was similar.
The Huskies ran away with it, 35-6.
The second year of the spread offense under Head Coach Dustin Nichol looked like what he envisioned it would be when he made the switch last season.
“We are returning a lot of beat-up sophomores and juniors,” Nichol said following the game. “They’re not veterans, but they’ve got another year’s worth of size and everything going with it, and they’re getting the offense.
“We ran it in spring, we ran it up in camp, and then we added our twist to it. We got it from Central Catholic, and so we put our spin tonight, and it was nice because it fit our personality.”
Junior quarterback Colton Smith looked every bit the leader that coach Nichol said he was.
Even though he played wide receiver for the Huskies last year, Smith has played quarterback with this group of juniors since the fourth grade. He finished eight for 17 passing, with two of his three touchdowns through the air, and one interception.
“We would get our line going, and then we would have our receivers get to the secondary and then we could run on them all day,” Smith said. “It was nice.”
Nichol said Smith’s experience as a receiver helps him as the signal caller.
“I think the formula that helps is most quarterbacks never play receiver and don’t know their plight. Colton knows what the receivers can catch, what the routes are, so he didn’t have to learn much except for the read because he knew the routes of everything we had because he ran every one of them and knew how he liked it thrown so now it was working on touch.”
Smith and his two wide receivers, senior Keegan Holly and junior Nathan Virtue, showed that long-standing connection. Both receivers were unstoppable at times, especially on the last drive of the first half.
Smith hit Virtue for 26 and 13-yard passes that set up the 21-yard touchdown by Holly, who got the defender leaning and spun right as he caught the ball, then strolled into the end zone to take a 28-0 lead. Holly finished the game with two touchdowns.
“It’s awesome to see (Smith),” Holly said. “He is really good out of the pocket, and it’s awesome to see him make those throws and when he missed it was never short. He kept it away from the corner’s reach. It was awesome to have a quarterback who was seeing me and throwing good balls.”
Both teams looked a little tentative in the first quarter, which ended 0-0.
But a minute and a half into the second period Hayden McDonald scored the Huskies’ first touchdown of the season – and the beginning of a 28-point quarter, taking a handoff from Smith, avoiding a tackler at the nine and carrying a defender into the end zone early in the second quarter to end up under a pile as his team celebrated.
McDonald led the Huskies on the ground with 40 yards on 10 carries and two touchdowns.
“(McDonald) is a little stronger, the same speed, but he has more knowledge,” Nichol said. “He has seen himself on film. He saw where he made those mistakes and now he’s planting that outside foot and going up the field instead of trying to get the edge all the time. He’s trying to get those seams. The more experience he gets, the better we are going to be as a team.”
Virtue had two carries for 38 yards, as the Huskies totaled 174 yards on the ground, comprising most of their 285 total yards on offense.
Hidden Valley had trouble against Sweet Home’s swarming defense throughout the game, and senior Nick Elmore produced the bulk of the Mustangs’ 146 total yards with 97 yards rushing on 31 attempts.
The only touchdown Hidden Valley scored was on a gift in the third quarter after Sweet Home returner Austin Stevens muffed a punt in his end zone, and the Mustangs jumped on it. Then the Huskies blocked Hidden Valley’s extra point attempt.
Stevens showed the speed that made him one of the top sprinters in the league last year with some razzle-dazzle returns throughout the game, but his lack of high school experience caught up with him on that particular play.
“Well this is Austin Stevens, he played football in junior high he’s been a soccer player for the last two years,” Nichol said. “The kid has a lot of athletic ability, and that shows it, and that was me. That wasn’t him, that was me not coaching him exactly what to do in situations.”
Stevens also was perfect on five point-after kick attempts in the game.
The Huskies travel to Prineville Friday, Sept. 8, to face Crook County, a 34-12 loser to Phoenix in its opener.
Scoring Summary
1 2 3 4
SH 0 28 0 7 – 35
HV 0 0 6 0 – 6
2nd Quarter
SH – 10:36 Hayden McDonald 11-yard run (Austin Stevens kick).
SH – 3:00 Hayden McDonald 10-yard run (Stevens kick).
SH – 2:02 Colton Smith 31-yard pass to Keegan Holly (Stevens kick)
SH – :06 Colton Smith 21-yard pass to Holly (Stevens kick).
3rd Quarter
HV – 2:06 Hidden Valley recovers fumble end zone (Kick blocked).
4th Quarter
SH – 6:35 Smith 1-yard run (Stevens kick).
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Sweet Home – Hayden McDonald 10-40; Nathan Virtue 2-38; Austin James 5-27; Keegan Holly 1-14; Colton Smith 5-3; Boe Baxter 1-3. Hidden Valley – Nick Elmore 31-97; Nate Bragg 5-12; Ethan Hill 3-11.
Passing: Sweet Home – Colton Smith 8-17-1-111. Hidden Valley – Ethan Hill 5-6-26-0; Parker Wright 0-1-0-0.
Receiving: Sweet Home – Nathan Virtue 2-34; Keegan Holly 1-31; Casey Tow 1-15; Hayden McDonald 1-14; Austin James 2-14. Hidden Valley – Parker Wright 2-10; Cole Lawson 1-8; Nick Elmore 1-0.