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Tigers prepared for state water polo
tourney
Buckaroos end season with a win
NHS runners earn second-team all
state honors
Defense digs GFU out of trouble
Bruins make strides at NWC
championships
NHS
drills Foxes,
head to state |
NHS qualifies for the playoffs as the NO. 3 seed from the
Pac-9 Conference with a 26-6 win over Silverton |
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 held the host Silverton Foxes
scoreless for 47 minutes and 42 seconds Friday as the Tigers scored a 26-6 win at
Silverton.
With the win, Newberg qualified as the Pac-9 Conference’s No. 3 seed and
will head to Jesuit, the Metro Conference’s No. 2 team, in a 7:30 p.m. contest Friday
for the first round of the Class 4A state tournament.
Silverton, which was held to 172 yards of total offense by the Tigers,
notched its lone score with 18 seconds remaining in the game, but NHS coach Eric Carlson
said it didn’t matter much.
“That was ok, though,” he said. “I know the defensive coaches
wanted a shutout but that didn’t mean much. It was nice. It didn’t come down to
the last minute or anything.”
Newberg got on the board on its opening possession of the game. The Tigers
engineered a 68-yard drive that culminated in a 10-yard touchdown by junior Cole Rogers,
who rushed for 153 yards on 24 carries, with 9:10 remaining in the opening quarter. The
extra point kick was missed, but Newberg held a 6-0 advantage.
The quick start set the tone for the game, something the Tigers didn’t
do when a playoff berth was on the line in last season’s game vs. Silverton, who won
28-12.
“That was nice,” Carlson said of the fast start. “The kids
really came to play. They were really into it and they were fired up. They were more
aggressive and that’s the way you want to play in game nine with the playoffs on the
line. We took it to them. ... I thought the coaches did a good job of getting these guys
ready. We had them scouted well.”
After the teams traded possessions, Newberg senior Jeremy Quinby intercepted
a pass that set up another Newberg score. Rogers narrowly claimed a first down conversion
on a fourth-and-one and senior Phil Zahn scored from a yard out with 10:50 left in the
first half. The extra point kick was missed again, but the Tigers held a 12-0 advantage.
On Silverton’s next possession, Austin Casey tracked down a tipped ball
by senior teammate Ian Roholt and intercepted another Silverton pass. Newberg’s
defense was critical for the Tigers Friday.
“The defense has done a really nice job the last couple of weeks,
holding them to six and getting some turnovers and giving the offense the ball back,”
Carlson said. “We were able to kind of jump on them and they never got any
momentum.”
Casely’s interception set up another Newberg score when Rogers went on a 5-yard jaunt
to the left. With 7:27 left in the half, Newberg’s lead ballooned to 19-0.
The Tigers had several more chances to run the score up late in the first
half, but couldn’t convert.
After a scoreless third quarter, sophomore Nick Skaale scored on a 2-yard run
with 10:08 left in the game to put the Tigers up 26-0.
“That’s a good win to go in on their field with the playoffs on the
line, so I thought our team played well,” Carlson said.
The game started getting rough in the final quarter. Silverton’s Eric Kaser was
ejected for throwing a punch before the Foxes’ David Newsom was called for a 15-yard
personal foul penalty.
“I told the kids that we’re not going to get involved in any of
that,” Carlson said. “Let them make the mistakes and get the penalties and they
did and it got a little out of hand. But our kids kept their poise.
“I told the kids that if they get thrown out of this game, they
don’t play in the playoffs. Plus, we’re not like that, really. We just play
football the way it’s supposed to be played — hard, emotional and clean.”
The Tigers went into the night not even knowing if they would make the
playoffs. If Tualatin were to beat Forest Grove, the Tigers would have been given the No.
4 seed for the playoffs and would have traveled to Bend, the Intermountain Conference
champion. But Forest Grove upset Tualatin 17-4, which knocked Tualatin out of the playoffs
entirely and gave Forest Grove the Pac-9 Conference’s fourth spot.
“Most people were picking Tualatin to beat Forest Grove and that would
have put us at No. 4 at Bend and that would have been fine but now we’re third and we
play Jesuit, which is fine,” Carlson said.
Before being hired at Newberg, Carlson formerly was an assistant coach at
Jesuit, so he knows the tendencies of Jesuit head coach Ken Potter.
“I still have a lot of friends there, but there’s nothing I would
like better than to play well and go and beat them,” Carlson said.
Since the game is in the Portland-metro area, Carlson said more fans are
likely to make the trip to Jesuit than Bend.
“This will probably be better for people who want to come to the
game,” he said. “We’ll get some more people who can get over there ... so
it will be fun.”
Even though Jesuit is unranked, its considered one of the premier programs in
the state. Newberg will have to mix its offense up by both running and passing the ball to
win.
“(Jesuit is) physical and we’ll have to do what we’ve done the
last couple of games — not have a have a lot of turnovers, not a lot of penalties,
the defense has to make a lot of plays, the kicking game has to be solid,” Carlson
said. “But we’ll spread the ball around because they’ll probably try to key
in on Cole a little bit, so (we’ll) sometimes use him as a decoy but he’ll still
get his carries.”
Jesuit has several players injured, Carlson said, including a pair of wide
receivers and a fullback.
“They’re banged up but they still have a lot of good players and
they’re physical and tough and they’ve been to the playoffs a lot,” he
said.
In the last two games, Newberg’s passing offense has struggled. Against
McMinnville, the Tigers attempted just four passes. Against Silverton, Newberg attempted
six passes, none of them complete.
“I did not go into that game thinking we were going to throw six times.
but the way the game played out, we just kept grinding the ball and were getting so many
yards on the ground that we never really had to pass much. But we know we have to get our
passing game going,” Carlson said.
Carlson said he would like to throw more when the team isn’t being
forced to, such as on a third-and-long situation.
“I would like to throw on first down a little more and run a little
play-action to Cole,” he said. “We’re going to have to mix it up. We
didn’t have to mix it up the last few games. Our offensive line played well enough
that we were playing ahead the whole time.”
With Jesuit’s receivers out, it could play into Newberg’s favor
because of the strong NHS line.
“(Jesuit is) a running team and we’ve stopped the run and
that’s one of our strengths, so I like that part of it,” he said. |
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From Nov. 5,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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