Staff report
Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER — Crook County took advantage of two fumble recoveries to build a 17-0 halftime lead Oct. 30 en route to a 23-13 Class 5A football win over visiting Hood River Valley on a cool, crisp night in Prineville.
The Cowboys (3-5) scored a touchdown on their opening drive and kicked a field goal on their second possession to take a 10-0 lead. Late in the second quarter, Hood River (6-4) had a first-and-goal at the 6-yard line but fumbled the ball away. HRV fumbled again on the first play of its next possession and the hosts scored two plays later to take their halftime lead.
HRV Coach Caleb Sperry said: “We’re disappointed obviously that we didn’t come out on top on Friday. We started out too slow; [we] spotted them too many points.”
Three rulings on the field went against HRV and arguably affected the outcome of the game. On a long pass completion by Crook County, the Cowboy receiver appeared to have stepped out of bounds en route but was ruled inbounds and the play stood. An official, who ruled a Hood River ball carrier was down before he fumbled, was overruled by another official and the home team gained possession. And an apparent safety, where a Crook County ball carrier was tackled in the Cowboys’ end zone, was nullified by forward progress.
Take nothing away from Crook County. The Cowboy defense was stingy up front against the HRV run game, and the host team’s offense enjoyed a 170 to 58 total yardage advantage in the first half — which set the tone for the game.
Despite the breaks not going their way, the young Eagles battled back in the second half - spurred on by their senior leaders.
Sperry said: “We went back in the locker room, and we decided as a group … we were just going to go take control of what we had control over and play better, and we did that to a certain degree.
“We had a great group of seniors. I can’t remember the last time we had a group of seniors like this [where] every single one of ‘em just offered a lot of great leadership to the rest of the team.”
One of those seniors, Davin Snyder, capped the Eagles’ best drive of the game, scoring on a two-yard run to give Hood River new life in the third period. A big play in the 10-play drive was Ian Wells’ 29-yard completion to Snyder.
Crook County answered with a 10-play, 58-yard scoring drive to go ahead 23-7. Snyder added a three-yard TD run early in the fourth period, but those proved to be the final points of the game.
Jayce Myers jarred the ball away with a blind-side tackle of Crook County quarterback Brodie Nash as the Eagles recovered the fumble to regain possession. But HRV fumbled the ball back to the Cowboys two plays later and Crook County took advantage of its third takeaway and chewed up the final four minutes of the clock to end the game.
Snyder, Hood River’s all-time leader in receptions, finished with five catches for 58 yards. He also completed a pass to quarterback Wells, who was 8-for-12 passing for 70 yards. Crook County’s Nash was 9-for-13 for 120 yards.
Sperry said, in retrospect, there were plenty of positives during the season – the first in six years where HRV will not play in the 5A state playoffs. “Our team bought in this year; showed up every day and worked hard and got better and better each week,” the coach said. “I’m super proud of ‘em.”
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