Coaches Aid - Long Day for West Albany

Long Day for West Albany

By: Luke Andrews • 9/5/2009 12:00:00 AM

By LUKE ANDREWS

Coachesaid.com Oregon content coordinator

SHERWOOD – Sherwood’s Steven Long was so nervous the night prior to the No. 2 Bowmen’s season-opening game against No. 1 West Albany that the sophomore running back placed a call to coach Greg Lawrence.

“I was like, ‘Hey Law (Lawrence), I’m really nervous to be starting,” Long said. “He really talked me down and said, ‘Go play your game. Relax. The line is going to do great. All you’ve got to do is when you have an open hole, go break one.”

The message appeared to get through.

Long, listed at 5-foot-5 and 150-pounds, rushed for 233 yards on 17 carries Friday as Sherwood ended West Albany’s 28-game winning streak and handed the Bulldogs their first regular-season loss since 2005 with a 22-20 win.

West Albany is the two-time defending Class 5A champion and had not lost since a 17-14 triple overtime thriller against Corvallis in the 2006 state title game.

Sherwood's Steven Long breaks to the outside for another long run during the Bowemen's 22-20 victory against top-ranked West Albany. (Photo by Blake Thiess)

“This is a statement game,” Long said. “It feels great. Our fans came out, even though it’s Labor Day weekend, and I told our team from the get-go, ‘We’ve been working our butts off this summer. I know West Albany hasn’t been working harder than us.’ I knew we had a better team.”

Long continually gashed the young West Albany defense, which featured eight new starters.

With a mixture of inside reverses and counters, Long had 188 yards rushing and 200 total yards of offense by halftime.

In five consecutive carries in the first half, he went for 34, 52, 19, 40 and 35 yards, respectively. Each of the carries came on Sherwood scoring drives except the final one, which occurred near halftime as Sherwood took a 16-7 lead.

Many of Long’s run came on a play dubbed “14 Counter Criss Cross.” In it, Long jabs outside but cuts back inside behind the line from his Wing-T position before receiving an inside handoff and seeking a crease.

“He’s fun to watch,” Sherwood coach Greg Lawrence said. “He’s one of those kids who doesn’t go down easy, and he’s just shifty. (His size) is a key because when he runs the counters and traps, they don’t see him coming.”

As for his message to Long the night before?

“He was pretty much terrified,” Lawrence said. “He was really, really nervous and just worried about getting hurt…just a sophomore thing. I said, ‘Steven, you’ve got tremendous skills. Go out and play football and don’t worry about the rest.’ He did that tonight.”

Indeed, he did.

Long’s run of 34 yards keyed the drive that ended with Sherwood’s first score, a 4-yard touchdown run by junior Michael Balfour early in the second quarter. Long’s 52-yard run on the same play the next possession set up Julien Ehrlich’s 31-yard field goal. Balfour scored from 1-yard out late in the second quarter to give Sherwood a 16-7 lead. That drive started with Long’s 19-yard run and his 40-yard scamper put the Bowmen with a first-and-goal at the 1.

“I knew how good he was,” West Albany coach Randy Nyquist said of Long. “I was pretty fearful when we came in because I knew he had good speed and they do good job running that counter. They executed well and had some big plays on us.”

West Albany’s offense, working behind an entirely new offensive line, found the yards difficult to come by against the Sherwood defense.

The Bulldogs were limited to 162 total yards and all-state running back Anthony LaCoste was held to just 31 yards on 17 carries.

“They just executed better than we did,” LaCoste said. “We’ve got a lot of stuff to work on. That’s what we came into this game for.

West Albany's Anthony LaCoste speaks with the media following his team's 22-20 loss to Sherwood on Friday, Sept. 4. (Photo by Blake Thiess)

“Sometimes you can tell a lot more about yourself from a loss than a win. We got a lot of good stuff out of this.”

After two three-and-outs and failing to take advantage of prime field position following a botched snap, the Bulldogs finally mounted a scoring drive late in the second quarter.

The drive included a 16-yard pass from first-year quarterback Nick Orsborn to Jackson Ruckert and LaCoste’s 13-yard pass to Ruckert on fourth-and-eight.

LaCoste capped the drive with a nine-yard touchdown.

Following West Albany’s score that made it 16-7, Ruckert returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown to make it 16-14 at the half.

“Sherwood is very good defensively,” Nyquist said. “I feel very fortunate that we were able to stay in the game with the defense they have. I don’t think there’s going to be too many people who score 20 on them. I love the way we fought and competed tonight.”

Long’s seven-yard touchdown run on a toss in the third gave Sherwood a 22-14 lead, but West Albany closed the gap once again in the fourth with a six-play drive highlighted by a sensational individual effort by Ruckert. He outdueled Sherwood defender Josh Patterson as both players arrived at the ball at the same time on a short pass. Ruckert collected the ball and turned it into a 62-yard completion, leading to LaCoste’s three-yard run.

But LaCoste was bottled up for a loss on the two-point conversion attempt as Sherwood preserved the lead.

“I gave the ball to my best back behind my best blocker, and they stopped it,” Nyquist said. “We scored on that play, and I thought we had an opportunity to score again. I feel confident in that and I would do it again.”

Sherwood's Nathan Potter picks up a key first down late in the game during the Bowmen's 22-20 victory over top-ranked West Albany. (Photo by Blake Thiess)

The Sherwood defense had to make one more stand late in the contest. West Albany took the ball from its own 35, but on third-and-12 from the 33, Orsborn was sacked by Tanner Balderee, forcing a punt with under four minutes to play.

“That was amazing,” Balderee said. “I’ve never had a sack like that.

“This is a real big win. We’ve been talking about this all summer.”

With West Albany out of timeouts, Sherwood received a critical first down on Nathan Potter’s 10-yard run with just less than two minutes to play and was able to run out the clock after Balfour’s nine-yard run on fourth-and-one with less than one minute to play.

“It’s a huge win for us,” Lawrence said. “This game has been our focus. We wanted to end the streak.”