Ego. Attention to detail. Stubbornness. They all come into play for a successful coach — and team. Sometimes, however, instinct trumps them all.
Coach Caleb Sperry’s instinct Friday night in an — at times — bizarre high school football game at Redmond High School in breezy Central Oregon helped the fourth-ranked Eagles hold on for their fourth win this season, 44-29. HRV was facing a fourth-and-2 from its own 41-yard line with a little more than five minutes to play. The Eagles led 30-23 at the time, but the game’s momentum was squarely in the hands of the host Panthers, who had scored 16 unanswered points.
“We were going to punt the ball, but when I called punt, the kids seemed disappointed and so I called a timeout,” Sperry, the HRV coach, said. In the timeout, “the players said, ‘We got this’, and so, as you know, this game is all about those guys,” Sperry explained. “So, I thought, let’s put it in the hands of our best player.”
That would be senior Trenton Hughes, who responded — as might be expected — with not only a critical first down, but a game-clinching 59-yard touchdown run. The score and subsequent point-after kick by Robert Rowan gave HRV what proved to be an insurmountable 37-23 lead.
“His work ethic matches his performance,” Sperry said of Hughes. “He comes out every day, he puts in the work and he’s a great leader.”
Hughes was nursing a broken finger he suffered Sept. 24 in the third quarter of the Eagles’ 35-21 home loss to Pendleton. HRV led 21-6 in that contest when the two-way all-league starter was injured and didn’t return.
Hughes showed few ill effects of the injury a week later against Redmond. He rushed 22 times for 209 yards and three TDs, passed for three scores, had an interception, and blocked two Redmond point-after kick attempts. Teammate Shaw Burns had an efficient game in his own right, adding 151 yards rushing on 19 carries.
To be sure, there arguably were plenty of game-changing moments in the 5A District 1 contest. The Eagles (4-1 overall, 2-1 league) needed another Hughes late scoring run and a Redmond fumble in the final seconds of the game to seal the win. After the fourth-down 59-yard TD run, Redmond responded as it had all game by pulling within 37-29 with 2:59 left on Cody Crain’s one-yard run.
Hood River let Redmond’s ensuing onside kick go out of bounds and Hughes sealed the win with a 25-yard TD run less than two minutes later. Despite trailing 44-29, Redmond didn’t quit and came within inches of making it a one-score game again. But HRV recovered a Panther fumble in the end zone with less than a half minute remaining — after a long pass play — to hold on for the win.
“I think our interior guys started to get a little fatigued at the end,” Sperry said. “We had to step up to make some plays. And give credit to Redmond to keep battling.”
Redmond (2-2, 2-1 league) was led by senior quarterback Hayden Parrish, who finished 15-of-20 passing for 308 yards and one touchdown. He was 12-for-14 in the second half, leading the Panther comeback from a 30-7 third-quarter deficit.
“We expected a battle from them,” Sperry said. “(Parrish) he’s a really good runner and the guy can whip it down the field when he has the time. Those routes were kind of developing late (in part due to a lack of a consistent HRV pass rush); give credit to them.”
And give credit, too, to HRV’s senior leaders, who once again took care of the details necessary for a win. Joey Frazier set the edge for the Eagle defense, limiting Redmond’s outside game to just a handful of successful plays. “He keeps teams from getting outside on us and just makes tackles,” Sperry said. “He’s also a great perimeter blocker.”
Ryles Buckley and Mason Spellecy were a couple of others who continue to do the things that don’t show up in the stat sheet, Sperry said. “And Kyle Smiley, he’s another guy who doesn’t get a lot of publicity. He makes blocks for our backs; does the little things that makes them successful.”
Hood River was hurt by two penalties in the second quarter or the Eagles’ 23-7 halftime margin might have been greater. A fumbled exchange between Hughes and Burns stopped a short drive at the Hood River 38. The lost fumble came two plays after Hughes had jumped a pass route and picked off Parrish.
The other turnover was Nathan Wachs’ interception of an overthrown Hughes pass near midfield. Two plays later, Parrish and Wachs hooked up on a 46-yard pass play. The score cut HRV’s lead to 20-7 with 2:37 left in the half. The Eagles pushed their margin to 17 points on a Robert Rowan 27-yard field goal as time expired in half. A 48-yard Hughes run set up the Eagles deep in Redmond territory just prior to the kick.
The Panthers had success moving the ball against HRV in the first half, but Coach Brent Wasche’s team was hurt by two turnovers and eight penalties for 44 yards before the break. HRV was flagged just once in the first quarter, but five penalties for 38 yards slowed the Eagle offense in the second period. Despite those miscues, Hood River amassed 271 yards of total offense in the first two quarters. Hughes accounted for 215 of those yards — 102 on 11 rushes and 133 through the air.
“He’s a special player and I truly believe he’s probably the best offensive player in 5A football right now,” Sperry said of Hughes. “He’s definitely carrying us. Our team goes as he goes.”
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