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Quick goals hand NHS win over Tigard
Newberg team falters, fall to 1-3
Bucks blow out Cougars
Bruins drop opening game, but rally to win
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NHS makes it two in a row |
Newberg knocks off Canby 24-14 to assume the
driver's seat for a playoff spot |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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The Newberg High School
football team just made a few more believers.
The Tigers got out to a 14-0 halftime lead Thursday and persevered
for a 24-14 home win over Canby.
“I don’t know what to say but that it was because of the team,”
said NHS running back Nick Skaale, who rushed 18 times for 56 yards
and a touchdown. “Everybody worked hard and came through.”
Newberg came into the matchup on the verge of not making the
playoffs with its 2-2 record. Now the Tigers have their third win,
probably their most important one of the season, putting the team in
a prime position to make the playoffs.
“We finally played four quarters,” said NHS quarterback Brad
Johnson. “We knew it was going to be a battle but we thought we
could take it.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Newberg got on the board early in
the second. Johnson hit Cyrus Hostetler for an 18-yard pass across
the middle, then Skaale ran it in from three yards out.
Newberg’s defense seemed to bend the whole night but never really
broke. The defense finally snuffed out a 12-play drive in the second
quarter to force a Canby punt. Newberg’s offense took advantage of
the team’s defense to put another score on the board. The
Tigers put together their longest drive of the season, a whopping 14
plays, which culminated in a 7-yard touchdown reception by Hostetler
with 38 seconds left in the first half. The drive chewed nearly six
minutes off the clock. It was the team’s second drive that ate up
more than four minutes.
“We took two drives that basically took up the whole first half,”
Johnson said. “We’re like a big play team so it was good to prove
that we could drive the ball.”
With a 14-0 halftime lead, Carlson said he didn’t want the Tigers
to relax.
“I told them that it was 0-0 and to not celebrate,” Carlson said he
told his team. “(Canby is) a quality team and we had to match their
intensity in the second half.”
Newberg did just that. After a Canby score with 5:03 left in the
third quarter, the Tigers bounced back with a 12-play, 73-yard drive
that ended when Johnson flipped end over end on a 12-yard touchdown
run with 5 seconds left in the quarter.
The drive was kept alive in part by a pair of 13-yard runs by
senior running back Cole Rogers and thanks to a Canby pass
interference call in the end zone.
Newberg drove the ball again later in the quarter and kept its
drive alive because of another Canby pass interference penalty near
the goal line. Eventually, the Tigers added a 27-yard field goal by
Kaleb Eilert with 5:20 left in the game before Canby’s Shawn Doman
scored on a 90-yard kickoff return with 5:05 left. The teams traded
punts before Newberg ran out the final 2:45.
The pair of Canby pass interference penalties were critical for the
Tigers, Carlson said.
“I think they were good calls,” he said. “(The Cougars) were giving
us some things and we were good enough to take advantage of them.
Cyrus made some nice plays, Brad made some nice passes and that’s
what’s happening lately — we’re starting to make the plays like the
catches, the throws and the blocks. We just need to keep it up.”
The field goal by Eilert was somewhat of a mystery for Carlson. He
said he couldn’t remember the last time a team of his made one.
Eilert’s kick couldn’t have come at a better time.
“He’s really good in practice and works really hard,” he said of
Eilert. “He kicks something like 100 balls a day. We’ve been working
at that and it was nice to see it pay off. Plus, it made them have
to score three times and it put the pressure on them big-time.”
Newberg came into the win off a victory over Forest Grove, a team
Canby had beat 25-18.
“I think we had a really good chance of beating this team,” Skaale
said. “We didn’t come unprepared. We practiced hard all week long
and we didn’t underestimate them. We knew they were a good team. We
knew we had to come out and do our jobs and that’s what we did.”
In the beginning of the season, Newberg was thought to be in the
bottom half of the conference. Some predicted Newberg wouldn’t even
make the playoffs. Senior linebacker Alex Wolff said he thinks those
people who predicted a non-playoff season for the Tigers to will
have think again about Newberg.
“They should be (believers),” he said. “We knew we could do it. It
feels good anytime you win.”
Carlson said he thinks people will be surprised Newberg defeated
Canby.
“Until you beat someone that’s good, you’re just another team,” he
said. “Now I think we’ll get a little more notice.”
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From
Oct. 9,
2004, Newberg Graphic
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