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Despite losses, NHS still on top
Bucks clip Crow's wings 50-30
Newberg passes tough test, beats
Tigard, Canby
| Quick
start propels Tigers |
NHS scores three touchdowns in the first 7:26 and
rolls past Dallas Thursday, 35-0 |
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 recorded its
first Pac-9 Conference shutout win since 1995 with a 35-0 pummeling of winless Dallas at
home Thursday.
Newberg’s last conference shutout came eight years ago when the Tigers
manhandled McMinnville 41-0. Since then, the Tigers (4-2 overall, 2-2 Pac-9 Conference)
haven’t shutout an opponent and haven’t been shutout, either.
NHS coach Eric Carlson said there aren’t too many shutouts in the Pac-9
Conference.
“Not in the Pac-9, you don’t get too many of them,” he said.
“Any win in the Pac-9 is a good win, though. I know they’re struggling, but the
shoe has been on the other foot before. They got us for a lot of years.”
In fact, it was just the third win over Dallas in Carlson’s 15-year
tenure as the coach of the Tigers.
The Tigers got on the scoreboard quickly Thursday. After Dallas went three
and out, Newberg took over at its 46-yard line with 10:24. On the fifth play, junior
running back Cole Rogers went up the middle and then darted left to score from 21 yards
out with 8:29 remaining. Bryce Campbell’s extra point gave the Tigers a 7-0
advantage.
After another Dallas drive stalled, the Tigers got the ball at the
Dragons’ 41 with 6:58 left. On the first play, Rogers bolted 19 yards to put the
Tigers at the 22. After a five-yard penalty, Rogers rumbled 22 more yards to put Newberg
at the 4. A play later, Rogers scored from 4 yards out with 6:06 to go.
After the Tigers recovered a Dallas fumble, Newberg junior quarterback Brad
Johnson lofted a 29-yard touchdown catch to senior Ian Roholt for Newberg’s third
score with 4:34 left in the first quarter. Up 21-0, the Tigers were in full command.
Although Dallas was able to control possession of the ball for much of the
second quarter, it failed to score.
Up 21-0 at halftime, Rogers scored his third touchdown of the game on a
65-yard sprint to the left with 4:26 to go in the third. The Tigers added one final
touchdown in the fourth quarter when Johnson hit senior Justin Burger with a 10-yard
touchdown catch with 6:53 left in the game.
The big key for the Tigers was the way the team started, both offensively and
defensively, the coach said.
“I liked the way we came out and dominated them early,” Carlson
said. “We went up 21-0 and then kind of let up in the second quarter. They got some
first downs and made some nice plays and we didn’t really get anything going, but we
scored two times in the second half and that was just about right.”
Newberg committed fewer penalties than the dozen they were penalized for in
last week’s 13-7 win at Forest Grove. Carlson lambasted the refereeing as
“horrid” last week. On Thursday, penalties weren’t much of a factor,
although Carlson said he sees room for improvement.
“We have to do a better job,” Carlson said. “It’s not
always the refs. We’ve got to be smarter and we talk about keeping your hands in and
not grabbing but it seems like we have a tendency to do that. In a big game that will
hurt.”
Rogers ran for more than 200 yards in the win to go along with his three
touchdowns. A big part of the ability of Rogers to rack up such big numbers is the
offensive line, Carlson said.
“I still like the way way our offensive line is continuing to play and
the way Cole is running and obviously, when our defense gets a shutout, that’s
nice,” he said. “They gave up some first downs, but they made a lot of plays.
Our defense is playing pretty well so that gives you a chance to win every game.”
Next week Newberg will face a team at the opposite end of the football
spectrum from Dallas, namely Canby. The Tigers will head to Canby to take on the No.
2-ranked Cougars, a team that made it to the semifinals of the state playoffs last season
and has dominated its opponents this season.
“We know Canby’s a good team and they’ll be tough, but
we’ve still got to win some games,” Carlson said. “We’ve got to win at
least two of our last three. We’d like to go over there and compete and see what we
can do against them.”
Canby has a variety of weapons, including running back Kenny Scharmotta and
quarterback Sam Doman. But the Cougars don’t get it done simply with offense,
Canby’s defense is strong, too. In Canby’s 35-7 victory over Tualatin, the
Cougar defense tallied four interceptions.
“They can run or pass and they have good athletes everywhere,”
Carlson said of the Cougars. “But we’re going to have to not give up the big
play. If they’re just better than you, that’s one thing. But if you’re
giving them big plays, not tackling and things like that, that’s not what we want to
be about. We want to make them earn everything.”
In order to be successful against the Cougars, Carlson said the Tigers will
have to pay meticulous attention to the game films of the Cougars’ recent contests.
“Our (linebackers) are going to have to get their reads and there’s
so much misdirection, if you go one step the wrong way, they’re past you,” he
said.
Despite some already counting Canby as the conference champion, the Tigers
can’t be intimidated and play scared.
“We have to be physical and go over there and not turn the ball over and
have penalties because they’ll just be like a shark,” Carlson said. “We
have to play a good, all-around game.” |
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From Oct. 11,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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