Barlow holds off HRV, 28-21

HOOD RIVER — Class 6A Barlow’s depth wore down 5A Hood River Valley in a non-league football game on Hall of Fame night, Sept. 11 at Henderson Stadium, as the Bruins held off the valiant Eagles for a 28-21 win.

HRV (0-2) had trouble stopping the Bruin ground game in the second half when the visitors built a 28-14 lead in the fourth quarter. Hood River didn’t quit. Coach Caleb Sperry’s team used an 11-yard touchdown pass from Ian Wells to Kase Sietstra and Hugh Huckaby’s point-after kick to pull within a touchdown with seconds remaining.

“Anytime you can get kids to fight all the way through the game, that’s big time,” Sperry said.

Huckaby’s ensuing onside kick was recovered by Sietstra at the Bruin 33 with eight seconds remaining. Wells tried to find receiver Davin Snyder down the left sideline, but his pass was out of bounds. That set up the game’s final play, a bubble screen to Snyder. The senior receiver made his ninth catch of the game and raced to the Barlow 5-yard line before he was tackled out of bounds to end the game.

Snyder had 96 receiving yards, but it was his use as a decoy which enabled HRV to stay with Barlow. The Eagles scored first on a Sietstra 41-yard scamper in the first quarter. Snyder went in motion on the play, drawing attention from the Bruin linebackers. A hole was opened up front by senior linemen Milo Bielen and Reece Reierson which propelled Sietstra into the secondary where he did the rest.

Barlow (1-1), which was hurt by penalties (17 for 153 yards on the night), tied the game on its next possession on a four-yard run by Hood River transfer JR Mendez. Tanner Smith blocked the point-after kick for HRV.

Hood River answered on its opening possession of the third period, when Snyder was again the decoy. Brady Rice got behind Barlow’s secondary and Wells hit him in stride for a 70-yard TD strike.

Barlow scored the next three times it had the ball to build its 28-14 lead. The Bruins went to a tight, double wing set and kept the ball on the ground.

“I definitely think [fatigue is] a factor,” Sperry said. “[A few] guys are playing a lot of football out there. Barlow had more beef than us and it kind of wore on us at the end.”

Sietstra finished with 18 carries for 103 yards rushing. Wells was 13 for 22 for 186 yards. Snyder’s nine catches covered 96 yards. Mendez finished with 89 yards on 17 carries for Barlow.

Despite the 0-2 start, Sperry said there’s no need to hit the reset button. “We just gotta keep the process going,” he said. “We’re so close; we had a couple of missed opportunities there in the end zone. Watching film, we’re so close; we’re just a block away. We’ve just gotta keep grinding, believing in the process, working together. It’s gonna happen.”

Pendleton, this week’s opponent, is in a similar situation to HRV. The Buckaroos are 0-3 and are coming off a heart wrenching, 27-26, loss at Redmond. “We’re both hungry for a win so it’s going to be a fun night,” Sperry said.