Turnovers trip Sweet Home up in football loss to JC

Jason Casey

The Huskies literally fumbled away their Homecoming football game Friday night in a 22-8 loss to Junction City.

The contest, for Sweet Home, was marred by two fumbles and four interceptions, three of those in the red zone as the Huskies were rolling down the field toward what seemed like sure scores.

What may have been worse, it was pretty much a group effort.

“We shot ourselves in the foot tonight,” Head Coach Dustin Nichol said. “It was all on us. You look at the mistakes and we were still in it. My word, the number of mistakes and we were only down by seven?

“There isn’t one person on this team that can’t say that they didn’t own this outcome. It’s across the board – linemen, running backs fumbling the ball, quarterbacks throwing interceptions, not finishing. Just not finishing.”

A big reason for Junction City’s success was Tiger senior Zach Rodgers, who was all over the field on offense and defense, finishing with 145 yards rushing, a touchdown, and three interceptions on defense.

Offensively, the Huskies looked very solid until they got inside the Tigers’ 15 yard lines. They had two fumbles and an interception in the red zone, but despite the turnovers the Huskies were only down 7-0 at halftime because of some stout defense that held Junction City’s double wing offense in check. The Tigers’ only first-half score came on a 19-yard pass from quarterback Jesse McLintock to Conner Ramseyer, who slipped behind the Sweet Home secondary, which hitherto had contained all the Junction City parameters.

“I told them at halftime, ‘I’d love to come in there and say we are doing this wrong and that wrong and that wrong,’ but we are moving the ball and we are stopping them on defense,” Nichol said. “We just need to quit fumbling the ball, we need to quit throwing interceptions and we need to quit having penalties. That’s the game.

Brandon Keenon led the Huskies with 98 yards rushing and Justin Tow completed seven of 16 passes for 86 yards.

“We were, honestly, running all over them,” said Ty Plebuch. “They couldn’t really stop us until we stopped ourselves. (Nichol) told us to keep doing what we were doing, but we couldn’t come out and do what we needed to do.”

“The first half on offense, we were able to move the ball and stop their offense for the most part,” Nichol said. “Then we would just shoot ourselves in the foot on offense with either a fumble in the red zone, an interception, missed snaps between the quarterback and center. “The defense did good. it was 7-0 at half. In my opinion, we shoulda, coulda been 21-7 at half, but you never know how people react to adversity. Then it’s on them to play catch-up.”

Center Josh Rice admitted that the Huskies “kind of stumbled a little.”

“If some plays got done different we could have turned it around like nothing. If we played harder it would have been a walk in the park.”

Things went flat for Sweet Home in the second half, after the offense kept rolling down the field during the first two quarters, moving almost at will on three drives that all ended in turnovers.

But in the second half the Huskies couldn’t get anything going offensively until the last drive of the game.

The Tigers got their double wing clicking in the second half, and the Husky defenders couldn’t continue the containment they demonstrated in the first half, clearly having trouble picking up ballcarriers in the backfield behind the confusion of moving players created by the scheme.

Junction City scored on a 36-yard run by Rodgers in the third quarter, and followed that up with another touchdown pass to Ramseyer.

“With this offense, it’s so much a mosh pit, “ Nichol said. “I think the whole defense did a fairly good job. I know the score is not in indicative to a very good defensive game. However, considering the time they were out there and the position we put them in we just started running out of gas coming late into the third and fourth quarter.

Sweet Home finally got on the scoreboard with two seconds left in the game to avoid the shutout, as Daniel Virtue took over at quarterback for Tow. It was a clutch effort from Virtue, who’s spent the entire season playing and practicing at wide receiver.

Virtue threw it up to the 6-6 Plebuch, who outfought a defender and came down with the ball flat on his back in the end zone for a 32-yard touchdown.

“I’m a lot taller than the kid; it kind of helps,” Plebuch said. “We had that matchup all night long. We just didn’t get the protection that we needed and we finally got it. Unfortunately, it was towards the end, but we got it and it just ended up being a good play.”

Virtue’s move to signal calling wasn’t the only shuffling act for the Huskies.

“We were the walking wounded,” said Nichol. “Garrison Whitfield was playing guard and we were flipping him back and forth between (numbers) 74 and 34. George Rayborn and (Bryce) Coulter were at fullback in the first half.

“Then, on the defensive side of the ball, we had a lot of people playing out of position. This last week we lost a kid, Austin Griffin, with an MCL. On Wednesday we lost Desmond Ely with an ankle injury – probably a torn ligament, and Jake Porter had a concussion in last week’s game.”

Other Huskies were struggling with grades, adding to the uncertainty.

“We were practicing freshman and sophomores to start tonight. That’s where it started, right there – just not getting things taken care of in the classroom, a lot of adversity we need to overcome,” Nichol said.

Though playing out of his normal positions, Whitfield was a standout for the Huskies, Rice said.

“Garrison Whitfield played the hardest he’s ever played in this game. He did good, he’s a real man, he took the challenge and played hard.”

Plebuch said linebackers Whitfield and Keeney and the defensive line were key in stopping the Tigers in the first half.

Nichol credited George Rayborn, in particular, with “a great job.”

“I’d say he was the juggernaut at the nose and the tackle. He did a great job there.”

The Huskies tried to change up the offense in the second half with motion as Junction City was stacking the box with eight and nine players, but both drives in which Sweet Home built real momentum ended in passes picked off by Rodgers. the move had the desired effect, but the Huskies eventually turned the ball over any time they had momentum.

“We were just trying to change it up, trying to open things up and spread it out,” Nichol said.

Plebuch said he thought nerves had something to do with the off night for Sweet Home.

“Everyone was nervous. We had senior speeches and everyone gets emotional. Everyone had to step up to the next level. There was a lot of pressure on this game and we couldn’t get it done. People cracked under the pressure.”

Nichol also attributed some of the Huskies’ problems to nerves, particularly in ball exchange problems between Rice and Tow.

“I think we had some anxiety built up there between the two of them. There was a good nose guard on our center, an anxious quarterback; they weren’t just working together, they weren’t in sync tonight.”

Plebuch said Rice has made a big effort for the team.

“We lost our starting center three weeks ago and it’s hurt us a lot,” he said. “Getting a new guy in there, it’s been a long process. I’ve got to give it up to Josh Rice for stepping up to the challenge and doing the best he can under the circumstances.”

Now 1-2 in league and 2-4 overall, Sweet Home is tied for third with Cottage Grove, which the Huskies defeated on Oct. 2.

Up next is Elmira, which edged Sutherlin 23-22 Friday for its first win of the season. The Falcons were led by Levi Oilar, who had 127 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Sutherlin returned a kickoff 80 yards late in the game to narrow the gap to a point, but the Falcons stuffed the Bulldogs’ two-point attempt to escape with the win. In the other league match-up, fourth-ranked Sisters beat Cottage Grove 28-21, outlasting a fourth-quarter comeback by the Lions.

Right now we’ve got to get our confidence back and get back to some fundamentals, bread-and-butter stuff, and hopefully we get about three guys back that we didn’t have this week,” Nichol said.

“That’s what I’m excited about – we get three starters back for the most part they get to practice this whole week and get to play in the game, barring any injuries or setbacks next week with grades.

“I think all of them had kind of a panic attack – the fumbling the center exchanges, the miscues. I think with some people playing in some different positions and with the hype of Homecoming and Senior Night and last game on Husky Field, I think everyone just kind of hyperventilated tonight – instead of just getting mean, down and dirty, and nasty within the rules.”

Rice noted that all is not lost for Sweet Home, and the Huskies need to refocus.

“There’s still a chance for a play-in game,” he said. “Keep your head up and keep playing hard. Don’t let one little game like this affect you.”

Scoring Summary

SH 0 0 0 8 – 8

JC 7 0 15 0 – 22

First Quarter

Conner Ramseyer 19 pass from Jesse McClintock. Gard Drag kick) 4:38

Third Quarter

Zach Rodgers 36 yard run. (Drag kick) 9:49

Conner Ramseyer 32 pass from Jesse McClintock (PAT attempt good) 6:09

Fourth Quarter

Ty Plebuch 32 pass from Daniel Virtue 32 yards (PAT pass from Virtue to DevinStafford good) :02

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Brandon Keenon 23-93; Justin Tow 5-22; George Rayborn 1-3; Jesus Patricio 1-4; Daniel Virtue 1-16.

Passing

Total
0
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