Hood River Valley took advantage of turnovers, untimely penalties and its interior line play Sept. 6, en route to winning its 2024 football season opener, 30-6, against visiting Reynolds High.
Turnovers also played a role in the fortunes of the Eagles’ opponent this week, Portland’s Grant High, which lost its opener, 36-14, at Oregon City. The Pioneers had success running the football against the Class 6A Generals, who didn’t help their cause with a first half lost fumble and an interception.
Grant, 5-5 a season ago, should expect to see a steady dose of Hood River’s running attack, which produced 219 yards against Reynolds in the Eagle opener at Henderson Stadium. Coach Caleb Sperry used 10 different ball carriers during the contest. Hood River finished with 374 yards of total offense, as senior quarterback Davis Parr was 10-for-24 passing for 155 yards. Seven Eagle receivers caught passes.
“That was so great that we got so many people involved doing stuff,” Sperry said. “We were really excited about that, too … we got a lot of guys snaps in different places. There was a lot of people looking to contribute.”
The Class 5A Eagles took a 22-0 first-half lead behind two Nick Tuttle touchdowns and another from senior receiver Markeith Harris. Hood River also took advantage of four turnovers from the 6A Raiders. Tuttle was the beneficiary of one of those turnovers — an interception in the second quarter to stop a Reynolds drive in Eagle territory.
Reynolds closed to within 22-6 on a 39-yard pass play midway through the third quarter before HRV closed out the scoring later in the period on a 27-yard counter run from Bam Layna. The touchdown drive was kept alive by a successful fourth-down fake punt. Parr connected with Bodie Stuben on a fourth-and-eight play which advanced the ball to the Reynolds 19-yard line. A couple of HRV penalties moved the ball back to the 27, where Layna benefitted initially from some great blocking by the HRV line before winning a foot race to the end zone.
Hood River was strong in the middle of its defense throughout the win over Reynolds. Both teams freely shuffled players into the game, which was delayed 30 minutes because of excessive Gorge heat.
The contest bogged down a bit after HRV had taken its three-TD lead, in part because of those ample personnel changes, penalties, and the adjustments made by both coaching staffs. Expect the latter to continue this week at the Grant Bowl — where the Generals play most of their home games — as the teams prepare for league play by fine-tuning lineups.
“Guys played hard, played intense, were excited,” Sperry said of the opener. “A lot of up-side (and) a little bit of untapped potential. … We’ve got to play with some more urgency.”
Sperry added that HRV will have to make some simple tweaks in practice this week. “They’re fixable things,” he added. “We’re looking forward to switching those things out and making a big jump in week two.”
Grant is similar to HRV in that it has quick, skill players, and experienced upperclassmen. The Generals finished fourth in the Portland Interscholastic League in 2023.
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