The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Sisters fell 41-18 to the Stayton Eagles at home on Friday, October 25, in their final league game of the season. The Eagles capitalized on the Outlaws’ five turnovers to beat the home team.

The Outlaws celebrated their 13 seniors who played their final game in Outlaw uniform. Seniors included Taylor Fendall, Eli Gurney, Ethan Martin, Garrett Kersavage, Aarron Montanez, Braden Way, Anthony Randolph, Dillon King, Damien King, Logan Curtis, Joe Scholl, Gator Haken, and Brogan Petterson.

“These seniors are a special group,” Coach Neil Fendall said. “I’m going to have a hard time describing the belief they’ve instilled in me, and how much I appreciate their constant effort, and focus, and love of each other. It’s been a learning experience for me. They’ve taught me a lot. They really bought into the C-three (Care, Connect, and Compete), which is really an expansion of principles of marriage, love, home, and brotherhood. We think that these kids are going to spread that.”

The Eagles held the Outlaws to a three-and-out on the opening drive, and then worked their way down the field and scored on fourth-and-four from the Outlaws’ 22-yard line. Most of the damage came at the hands of Eagles’ quarterback Ben Rash, who proved to be too elusive for the Sisters defense.

Martin ended the first quarter with a powerful inside run for 19 yards that had Stayton’s defense focused on the inside run.

Just minutes into the second quarter, inside runs by Martin and Fendall set up a 47-yard toss play by Gurney for a touchdown. Eli broke two tackles at the start of the run and a host of downfield blockers led the way into the endzone. The PAT went just wide of the crossbar, and Sisters trailed by one, 7-6.

The Eagles marched down the field and scored their second TD with four minutes left in the second period. Sisters got the ball on their own 35 and advanced the ball down to the 19-yard line with inside runs from Fendall and Hunter Spor and outside runs from Gurney. Unfortunately, the Outlaws suffered their first fumble with 1:50 left in the half. The Eagles ran down the clock and at the break Sisters trailed 14-6.

Sisters had a rough third quarter and fumbled the ball three times, losing two of them, which both resulted in scores for the Eagles. The Outlaws got their groove back on their third possession of the quarter and went from the 44-yard line down the field with a drive that was capped by a one-yard dive into the endzone by Martin. A highlight in the drive was an uncharacteristic pass from Fendall to Kersavage for a 36-yard gain. At the close of the third, the Eagles had pulled to a 34-12 advantage.

In the fourth, the Eagles drove down near the goal line where Martin tackled the quarterback and forced the ball to pop out and Randolph recovered it. On first down, Gurney ran for 43 yards, and then Fendall completed a pass to Petterson for 21 yards. Spor and Martin ran over the Stayton defense and the Outlaws scored.

Sisters stopped the Eagles, and then took the ball into Stayton territory down to the 29-yard line. Sadly, a pass attempt was picked off and ran back for another score for the visitors. Time ran out and the Outlaws recorded the loss.

Fendall said, “The wheels fell off a little. When you look at the game, everything we’ve done well recently we didn’t do tonight. Sometimes that’s the way it goes. Stayton is a good team and they did a good job.”

Gurney finished the night with six rushes for 143 yards and one touchdown. Fendall had 12 rushes for 50 yards, Martin was 11 for 54 with one TD, and Spor was eight for 39 with one touchdown.

Martin led the defense with eight tackles (four solo), three tackles for loss, two sacks, and one caused fumble. Spor and Randolph tallied seven tackles each, (three and four solo tackles, respectively).

Ethan Martin was a force on both sides of the ball, and Eli Gurney ran several nice chunk plays from his slot back position.

Sisters wrapped up league with a 2-6-0 record.