The South Wasco County High Redsides (3-4) concluded the Special District 4 Class 1A six-man football season with a 53-16 road win over the Huntington Locomotives (1-6) Oct. 15 at Huntington High School. It marked the highest scoring game of the season for the Redsides.
South Wasco, guided by Coach Mike Waine, traveled to La Grande on Oct. 14, and stayed in a hotel there Thursday night and then traveled to Huntington (near Ontario) to conclude a six-hour road trip for the 2 p.m. contest last Friday.
“It was a good way to conclude the season by getting a big win,” said Waine. “We were able to rotate a lot of our young guys into the game and give them a chance to play and see how well they could perform, so that was good. We controlled the game pretty much on both sides of the ball.”
The contest marked the final game of his South Wasco High football career for senior running back Remington Anderson-Sheer, who had four touchdown runs. Anderson-Sheer is the only senior on the Redsides’ 12-man roster.
“Remington went out in style; he had fun and it was one of his best games of the season,” said Waine. “We’re really looking forward to next season and seeing the growth of our freshmen will be good, too. Coming off this win over Huntington, it will give us momentum going into next year and we should be a pretty darn good competitive team as everybody on the team will continue to grow bigger and stronger. We’ll gain four freshmen next year, so we’ll still be a young team again.”
The Redsides played all seven of their games this year on the road and didn’t have any home games because of construction of a new sports facility at South Wasco High in Maupin. South Wasco had a total roundtrip mileage of more than 2,600 miles for their seven road games this year — that’s equal to traveling from Maupin across the country to Pittsburgh, Penn.
Shorthanded Dufur loses
Playing their fourth consecutive game away from home, the road weary Dufur High Rangers were also shorthanded with 11 players, which was a contributing factor in a 46-6 loss to the Ione/Arlington Cardinals (4-2 SD2, 4-3 overall) in Special District 2 Class 1A eight-man football Oct. 15 at Ione High School.
The Rangers will try to turn things around before the upcoming playoffs in a homecoming celebration Friday at 7 p.m., when they meet the No. 11-ranked Imbler Panthers (3-2 SD2, 4-3 overall) at Dufur High School. It’s the Rangers first home game since Sept. 17.
The No. 8 ranked Rangers (4-1 SD2, 4-3 overall) got off to a good start versus the No. 14 ranked Cardinals (4-2 SD2, 4-3 overall). The Rangers capped a nine-play, 66-yard scoring drive, with a seven-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back/linebacker Cody Phillips (19 carries, 132 yards rushing) for a 6-0 lead midway through the first quarter. Phillips also led the Ranger defense, finishing with five solo tackles and eight assisted tackles.
“We were without five starters and since we’re a really young team, this can make games very difficult for us sometimes,” said Henderson. “We had just eight kids practicing for most of the week, so that makes it kind of tough, too. Jacob Kent did a nice job at quarterback, but we just have a difficult time protecting him and getting our receivers open to make a play. That’s the biggest challenge right now for us. The young kids are getting good experience and they’re playing hard, which is all we can really ask for at this point.”
The Cardinals came back strong in the second period, outscoring Dufur 16-0 to take a 16-6 halftime lead. The Cardinals maintained their momentum in the second half, outscoring the Rangers 30-0 to get the lopsided victory. It marked the Rangers’ lowest scoring game this season and it was also their most lopsided defeat of the year. The Cardinals outgained the Rangers in total offense, 434 yards to 273.
Senior running back Jacob Jones led the Rangers’ ground game with 16 carries for 142 yards. Junior defensive tackle/center August Harvey had a team-high five tackles to help lead Dufur’s defense. The Rangers played without several starters, most of whom are out for the remainder of the season with injuries. Junior starting quarterback Josh Taylor missed his second straight game because of a separated shoulder, but he might be able to play on Friday, Henderson said. Kent, a freshman quarterback, started his second straight game and was 3-for-9 passing for 13 yards.
Sherman forfeits to Enterprise
Due to COVID health and safety protocols, the Sherman/Condon Huskies forfeited in Special District 2 Class 1A eight-man football to the Enterprise Outlaws (3-2 SD2, 4-3 overall) Friday. The Huskies’ (0-5 SD2, 0-6 overall) quarantine ended Monday and they’ll play their final game of the season at home Friday at 7 p.m. against the Pilot Rock Rockets (1-4 SD2, 2-4 overall) at Sherman High School in Moro.
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