Brett King
For The New Era
Sweet Home’s football team started out strong in the first quarter and kept the fast pace going through the second half in its league opener against Sisters, leaving the soggy field with a 28-6 victory Friday night.
That was a change from the Huskies’ previous two games, in which they let opponents slip away in the fourth quarter for losses.
“Our offense worked a lot better as a team,” said wide receiver Ryan Adams. “All of us were just tired of losing every game during the second half. We came running out of our locker room, prepared for a win.”
The game was played during a steady rain, the beginning of the storms that swept through the region over the weekend.
The wet weather resulted in four Sweet Home fumbles, one of which they lost, and two for the Outlaws, who recovered one, as both teams slipped around the sodden field.
Sweet Home withstood the stormy conditions better, leaving the first quarter with a 14-0 lead.
“The field was a sloppy mess,” said Head Coach Dustin Nichol. “If the rain didn’t enable us to tear up the field, I wouldn’t mind it so much. It’s not that I hate the rain, I just hate what it does to our field. What I can say, though, is that our running backs did a great job of trudging through it.”
Sweet Home quickly took the lead with eight minutes left in the first quarter when JT Weld pushed through for a 4-yard touchdown. Sweet Home was up 7-0 after Hunter Jutte kicked their extra point.
Striking up and down the field, Weld ran for a total of 114 of Sweet Home’s 247 yards on 24 carries, surpassing the entire rushing yardage of their game against North Valley.
Sophomore Brandon Keenon followed Weld with 105 yards on 13 carries.
“JT was a juggernaut out there,” Nichol said, “I can say the same for all our other running backs.”
It didn’t take long for Sweet Home to sneak past Sisters for another goal. Keenon ran 24 yards to score Sweet Home’s second touchdown in the first quarter, bring them up 14-0 heading into the second quarter.
Senior quarterback Cole Horner, still resting his hurt ankle for play next week, watched from the bench as his substitute Cole Ashcraft led the team in their second win of the season.
Horner was released to play the morning before the game, but Nichol thought it would be best if he sat out and let Ashcraft play. He did insert Horner in for a couple of brief series in the second quarter, but Ashcraft returned late in the period and led the team until late in the fourth quarter, when sophomore third-stringer Justin Tow took over.
“Ashcraft has been preparing to play against Sisters all week,” He said, “He handled preparation for the competition very well and was super confident. I let him play because he was ready to step up to the challenge.”
“It was a little overwhelming knowing I would be playing the whole game as quarterback,” Ashcraft said. “Our offense just went running and kept our play up. We played great.”
Sweet Home was up 21-0 midway through the second quarter after Ashcraft dove into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown. Jutte completed the kick giving them their extra point to bring them up 21-0.
The Outlaws gained a brief surge of confidence after Isaac Mackenzie hauled in a 45-yard pass in the end zone from Tristen Lewis with a minute left in the first half. But that boost was short-lived when Sisters failed in a 2-point conversion attempt.
“We played a much better game,” Nichol Said, “Sisters isn’t as high of a caliber as the other teams we’ve played, but our win was a combination of that and just playing better.
“Our offensive line did a much better job opening up a hole for our running backs to move through. We switched from an odd front to an even front; the offense did a great job with the transition. Our running backs did a great job getting through, too.”
Ashcraft struggled with the weather conditions, completing one of his nine pass attempts, as he had problems getting a grip on the ball.
Sisters’ Tristen Lewis was more successful in the aerial game, passing for 127 yards. The Outlaws finished with 32 rushing yards, thanks to 20 yards lost to Husky defensive pressure.
But it was a pass that got the Huskies their final score. Ashcraft handed the ball off to Austin Rice who then threw a 29-yard pass to Eric Flierl for their last touchdown of the game.
Nichol noted that it’s sometimes a good idea to try some trickery.
Mud-caked and soaked from head to toe, Sweet Home walked off the field with a 28-6 victory and a lot of laundry to do.
Sweet Home will be traveling for their first away game against Elmira on Friday, Oct. 4th at 7pm.
Elmira, now 0-1 in league and 3-2 overall, lost 55-16 Friday to visiting Cottage Grove after wins against Mazama (28-26) and Stayton (61-26). Playing in similar conditions as Sweet Home, Cottage Grove’s 6-4, 215-pound senior quarterback, Scotty Hitner, completed 18 of 29 passes for 281 yards and seven touchdowns, five of them to Brad Bonds, who finished with 10 catches for 158 yards.
The Falcons’ Bo Highburger caught a 71-yard touchdown pass from Mikey Langner early in the game to tie the score, then, after Cottage Grove scored two more touchdowns to make it 21-7, Highburger took a kickoff back 75 yards for the Falcons’ second score.
“It’s going to be an interesting game,” Nichol said. “I think the winner is going to be determined by whichever team tackles better and has a more disciplined defense. My opinion is that about 50 percent of their offense is their running back, Bo Highburger. We’ll have to block him.”