Summit ends drought against Bend on the gridiron

“That’s a really big win for those guys,” Hyatt said.

“They came out and showed what we know that they are capable of.”

Both teams entered the second week of the football season, postponed since September, wanting to avenge blowout losses from the prior week, when neither team could punch the ball into the end zone.

For most of the game, it looked as though the game’s final horn would sound without a team finding paydirt.

When the Storm had the ball in the first quarter, they failed to advance. Meanwhile, the Lava Bears opening drive seemed destined for a touchdown before fumbling inside the 10-yard line. Bend would then fumble again on its next possession.

Moving the ball was a struggle for the two teams that did not find the end zone in the matchups last week. Summit and Bend ran a combined 90 plays for a total of 323 yards (3.5 yards per play). The teams kicked a combined 15 punts after each only converted four of their 23 third-down attempts.

Hyatt hypothesized the slow start for both offenses was due to a combination of injuries at key positions — Bend was without Idaho commit Colt Musgrave while Summit was without all-conference wideout Blake DiTullio — and not having enough practice leading up to the start of the season.

“You are seeing it around the state, defenses are ahead of the offenses,” Hyatt said. “Offenses are going to take some time to come back. Our defense is holding us together right now, and I’ll take it. But I know our offense is going to get going, we just have too much talent on the offensive side of the ball.”

After more than seven quarters this season, Summit finally ended the touchdown drought when junior running back Ryan Powell broke a couple of tackles and scored from 33 yards out in the fourth quarter. With how their defense was playing, the score seemed to put the game on ice for the Storm.

“It makes it really easy on the offense when the defense pitches a shutout,” said Summit sophomore quarterback Hogan Carmichael who finished with 112 passing yards.

After a slow start on offense, the Storm finally found a groove on offense. Even though they did not score, they were able to move the ball and win the field position battle.

“We would have good plays and then we would shoot ourselves in the foot,” said Carmichael. “I feel like coming out of halftime we just had to stop making the mental mistakes and play smart on the field.”

Powell led the Storm with 51 yards rushing and the offense’s lone touchdown, junior wideout Caden Harris finished with five catches for 52 yards and senior linebacker Jake Hendricks scored off a fumble recovery in the game’s final minutes to give the Storm a 17-point advantage.

Lava Bears junior quarterback Seve Castillo finished with 56 passing yards, senior wideout Jacob Winchester had 56 yards rushing on 12 carries and sophomore wideout Blake Groshong caught two passes for 48 yards.

Other Central Oregon games

Elsewhere on the Central Oregon gridiron, Sisters rebounded in a big way with a 42-6 win over Harrisburg where the offense scored six touchdowns. A stark improvement from last week when the Outlaws scored just one.

“We had a lot to improve on from the week before and we did that,” said Outlaws coach Gary Thorson. “We executed better on offense and was more assignment sound on defense.”

Adam Madox-Castle, Hunter Spor, Riley Sellers, Wyatt Maffey and Griffin Gardner all had rushing touchdowns for the Outlaws in the blowout win that featured a running clock after getting ahead by 35 points early in the third quarter. Gardner also passed for a touchdown to Garrett Vohs.

Thorson credited a good week of practice for the team’s improvement from the previous week.

“We are young and inexperienced so our potential for growth is huge. We were dialed in especially later in the week,” said Thorson.

“The biggest part we are looking for is improving every week. I think our kids had a lot of fun.”

In six-man football, Gilchrist got seven total touchdowns from senior Jaekob Spurlock, who threw for five and ran two more in the Grizzlies 44-25 win on the road against Eddyville Charter.

One of the Spurlock’s touchdown passes to Micah Ellis traveled 60 yards in the air, which left his coach in amazement a day later.

“You don’t see that too many times in high school football,” said Gilchrist coach Rick West.

Redmond found itself on the wrong end of a shutout, falling to Hood River Valley 22-0, a week after Redmond shutout Bend. Ridgeview suffered its first loss of the season, losing a close one on the road against Pendleton, 20-12. Crook County won its second game of the season, shutting out Molalla 28-0 at the Cowboys’ home opener.

Madras dropped its second straight game, falling 48-6 to Estacada. Trailing 27-6 entering the fourth quarter, La Pine’s comeback effort fell short in a 27-22 loss to Junction City. Jefferson came up with a late stop on a two-point conversion to beat Culver 201-8.