Ken Roberts
For The New Era
Led by speedy tailback Cory McCaffrey, the Sisters Outlaws cruised by Sweet Home in a convincing 35-7 victory in the first OSAA Endowment Game.
It didn’t take long for McCaffrey to make his mark. After an opening 12-yard pass play from Jarred Hasskamp to Nathan Jackson, McCaffrey streaked down the left sideline on the Outlaws’ second play for a 63-yard touchdown, the first of four for the junior tailback.
Sweet Home started a comeback with its first possession as Kyle Pettit completed three of his first four passes to put the Huskies into Sisters territory at the 34. But junior linebacker Taylor Davenport made his presence known with the first of his three sacks, dropping Pettit for a 19-yard loss.
Sisters marched down the field quickly again. McCaffrey had one 25-yard run before eventually breaking loose for a 44-yard touchdown. Hasskamp completed a pass to fullback Jeff Sampson for a two-point conversion and a 14-0 lead.
After Cody Sells returned the kickoff 24 yards to the Husky 40, Pettit’s arm led the Husky offense once again. Only a dropped pass prevented Pettit from being a perfect four for four on the drive. Despite another 10-yard sack, Pettit responded on a third down and 18 with a quick slant to Steve Bergevin who outraced the Outlaws to the end zone on the 29-yard pass play.
Sisters seemed prepared to make another quick march after two long runs, but the Husky defense stepped up with three consecutive plays for negative yardage, including the fourth down sack by Ben Brewer and Steve Jones.
That brought renewed energy to the Husky offense. For the first time, they showed signs of establishing a running game, including a 13-yard run by Sells. Another big sack by Davenport nullified three more completions by Pettit, who came up three yards shy after being forced to run on fourth down at the Sisters 13.
After the Huskies stopped Sisters’ final drive in the half, they went into the locker room with the momentum, despite trailing 14-7.
“We were doing better than we thought we would,” said senior guard and defensive end Nathan Whitfield. “The coaches thought we were doing a lot of things right.”
But the second half was all Sisters. After stopping Sweet Home’s opening possession, the Outlaws took over on the Husky 36 after a short punt topped off with a personal foul on a Sisters fair catch. Once again, McCaffrey’s speed took over with runs of 17 and 18 yards to give the Outlaws a quick score.
Another Sisters sack produced another three and out for Sweet Home, who ran only 16 offensive plays in the second half. This time the Outlaws moved the ball steadily down the field before Hasskamp sneaked across for the final yard, giving Sisters a 28-7 third quarter lead.
The only turnover of the game, a fumbled snap exchange, gave the Outlaws another chance to go on a lengthy drive with McCaffrey capping his night with a seven-yard touchdown. For the night, McCaffrey rushed for 228 yards in 18 carries and added another 14 yards receiving.
McCaffrey, one of eight returning offensive starters, was able to break containment of the inexperienced Huskies.
“He’s a great running back to start with, and playing him early with an inexperienced defensive football team is not the best formula for success,” Sweet Home Coach Rob Younger said. “He hurt us, but it will make us a better team because we will learn what it takes to stop a great back.”
Sisters, with another 59 yards rushing from Sampson and 97 passing yards for Hasskamp, racked up 454 total yards compared to Sweet Home’s 174.
Pettit completed 11 of 17 passes for 126 yards with an additional 22 yards rushing. However, he was sacked five times in the game.
Younger said Pettit did a good job for the first game of the year, especially considering the defensive prowess of the opponent.
Still, their passing game could get better. Part of the pass protection problem came with a couple of blocking breakdowns by the line or running backs. The other part came with delivering the ball in a timely manner.
“I thought Kyle played very, very well, but it could get better,” Younger said. “Passing has to be a big part of our offense this year.”
For most of the game, the running attack was non-existent. Sells led all rushers with 61 yards in eight attempts, though 28 of those came on a single run against Sisters’ second unit late in the fourth quarter.
“When you are playing a game in the second week of the season, experience coming back is such an advantage,” Younger said, noting that Sisters also had seven returning defensive starters while the Huskies had only three or four starters on each side of the ball.
Non-league competition continues with a home game against Estacada this Friday. Estacada graduated a number of its top players last year and is working on a new offense. But the Huskies won’t be focused so much on the Rangers as they will be in improving themselves.
“We have a lot of brand new guys,” said Whitfield. “We just need to improve the most we can and learn from our mistakes in the Sisters game.”
That’s the message from Younger as well.
“The whole week is about improving us,” Younger emphasized. “In many ways, we are playing ourselves Friday night. The key for us is what we do to improve between week zero and week one.”