2nd year, 2nd place: Nelson Hawks show just how far they’ve come with resilient win over Sandy

“Literally no one believed that we’d be here in this position right now. It just shows how much we’ve worked.”

By René Ferrán | Photos by Taylor Balkom 

SANDY — The Nelson players agreed that if they’d played a first half last season like they did Thursday night against Sandy, they would not have won. 

Not with the way the Pioneers were running the ball. 

Not with the way Sandy got after Hawks quarterback Avirey Durdahl, hardly giving him a chance to breathe and sacking him four times.

“I think in a game like that last year, it maybe would have broken our spirits a little bit,” said junior receiver Reid Gray.

This season’s Hawks, however, have a year of experience under their belts. They’re bigger, stronger and more resilient, and they could lean on their run game until the pass protection shored up.

And once it did, the Hawks soared to a 28-16 victory that spoiled Senior Night for the Pioneers and locked up second place in the Mt. Hood Conference for the second-year program.

“This year, we’re just competing as a team,” said junior lineman Boone Standley. “We’re just going strong.”

Gray caught two touchdown passes, both with all zeroes showing on the clock to end the second and third quarters, and Durdahl finished 13 of 22 for 268 yards and three touchdowns as the Hawks (6-1, 5-1 MHC) won their fourth consecutive game.

More important, the victory boosted Nelson’s OSAA ranking to No. 10 with one week left in the regular season, putting the team in great shape to qualify for the inaugural 16-team Class 6A championship bracket.

“Literally no one believed that we’d be here in this position right now,” said Gray, who caught six passes for 130 yards. “It just shows how much we’ve worked. I mean, our team’s come together as just a brotherhood. We’ve been working hard for this.”

The Pioneers (4-4, 4-2) still can lock up the MHC’s third automatic playoff berth by beating Barlow next week, and at No. 22 in the OSAA rankings, they likely would earn an at-large berth even if they were to lose to the Bruins.

They played Thursday’s game without fourth-year coach Josh Dill in attendance because of illness. While they wouldn’t use his absence as an excuse, fill-in coach Wade Lockett acknowledged not having “the heart and soul of this team” on Senior Night eventually wore on the team.

“When you lose your head coach, the guy who’s guided this team for the last couple of years and really built a family with this group, that’s a huge emotional blow,” Lockett said.

At first, the Pioneers fed off the Senior Night emotions. They recorded three quick sacks of Durdahl — but the last came after a muffed punt gave the Hawks the ball back at the Sandy 35-yard line.

After that third sack, Nelson turned to the ground game to drive for the game’s first touchdown — a 13-yard run by senior Jaidon Siler with 6:43 before halftime.

“Last year, if we couldn’t throw verticals and slants, we weren’t going to move the ball,” Hawks coach Aaron Hazel said. “So, it’s nice to be able to rely on just going, hey, we need to take some time off the clock. We need to move the ball, get the defense off the field a little bit.

“So, we pounded the ball there, Jaidon got that touchdown, and that brought their coverage down a little bit. They had to put an extra guy in the box, so it was helpful.”

The Hawks also struggled from the effects of the poor air conditions that caused so many postponements this week. They couldn’t practice outdoors the previous two days, and Hazel and his staff could tell.

The Pioneers also threw some wrinkles in the pass rush that required in-game adjustments to the pass protection.

“The looks that they gave us kind of messed with us a little bit,” Hazel said. “It took us a while to understand the speed and tempo and get back to game speed, but we made a couple changes at halftime and started picking it up, and you know, you give Avirey a little bit time, and he’s pretty deadly back there.”

It started coming together for the Hawks after Sandy tied the score at 7-7 on Garrett Willenberg’s 6-yard run with 1:31 before halftime. 

The Hawks moved 75 yards in seven plays, taking advantage of a pass interference call in the end zone to get an extra untimed down. Durdahl hit Gray in stride on a seam route from 18 yards to take a 14-7 lead to the locker room.

“We saw that the safety was playing outside the hash, so (Avirey) just told me to bend it really hard, because it was wide open,” Gray said.

The Pioneers took the second-half kickoff and drove to the Nelson 1-yard line before a fumble and a tripping penalty left them to settle for a 35-yard field goal by Marco Torres.

The Hawks then hit for a couple of quick strikes from Durdahl — a 6-yarder to Lucas Womack and a 38-yarder to Gray — to push the lead to 28-10.

“We would have liked to have put that one in the end zone, tie the game up at that point and see how you feel from there on out,” Lockett said. “Even putting the three on the board, we certainly felt that we’re in pretty good position, but for a couple of series there, we just weren’t able to contain them. They were able to isolate their guy (Gray) a couple times. He’s pretty shifty, pretty fast, and he was able to find some creases on us.”

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Nelson 28, Sandy 16

Nelson – 0 – 14 – 14 – 0 — 28

Sandy – 0 – 7 – 3 – 6 — 16

Second quarter

N — Jaidon Siler 13 run (Henry Nelson kick), 6:43

S — Garrett Willenberg 6 run (Marco Torres kick), 1:31

N — Reid Gray 18 pass from Avirey Durdahl (Nelson kick), 0:00

Third quarter

S — FG Torres 35, 7:05

N — Lucas Womack 6 pass from Durdahl (Nelson kick), 4:23

N — Gray 38 pass from Durdahl (Nelson kick), 0:00

Fourth quarter

S — Payton Giusto 4 pass from Billy Lucas (kick failed), 7:18

STATISTICS

RUSHING—Nelson: Siler 15-49, Durdahl 7-(minus 27), Charlie Engelgau 8-45. Total 32-61. Sandy: Willenberg 11-26, Cole Rotzien 11-59, Lucas 4-9. Total 34-111.

PASSING—Nelson: Durdahl 13-22-0-268. Sandy: Lucas 10-21-0-140.

RECEIVING—Nelson: Gray 6-130, Womack 4-65, Siler 2-41. Sandy: Leithan Thompson 4-63, Riley McVicar 2-47, Giusto 2-9.

DEFENSE—Nelson: Alex Leontyuk 10 tackles, 5 for loss, sack, forced fumble, fumble recovery; Boone Standley 3 tackles, 2 for loss; Max Kirsch 6 tackles, forced fumble; Owen Hunt 5 tackles, 2 for loss, sack. Sandy: Gabe Tammad 5 tackles; Rotzien 2 sacks; Thompson 4 tackles, sack; Jared Mayo 4 tackles, 1.5 for loss, sack, pass breakup.

FIRST DOWNS—Nelson 18, Sandy 15. FUMBLES-LOST—Nelson 0-0, Sandy 3-2. PENALTIES-YARDS—Nelson 7-75, Sandy 3-46.

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