Outlaws beat Sutherlin in league opener

The Outlaws scored in the final quarter to tally a win over the Lions at Cottage Grove on Friday, October 3, in the league opener.

Sisters scored their lone touchdown on a seven-yard run by Logan Schutte around the left side, and Josh Andrade added the PAT.

Will Luff, foreign exchange student from Australia and dubbed Outback by his teammates, was a huge weapon for Sisters' kicking game. Luff put several kickoffs into the endzone and made several booming punts which helped the Outlaws win the field position battle.

Luff told The Nugget he's enjoying playing football here in the states, although it is much different than the football he plays in Australia.

"Football here is pretty awesome," said Luff. "I really like contact sports and the atmosphere of the game is great. At home I play in the Australian Football League, and it's pretty different from the game here. The field is a lot bigger, everyone kicks the ball, it's very fast-paced and we score a lot more often."

The biggest performance of the night came from the Outlaws defense. The defense stopped the Lions on downs in their own territory three times in the fourth quarter. Sisters had multiple players making huge plays and hits at different positions.

"Getting a shutout is huge, but when you can get it behind a struggling offense is a huge accomplishment and that showed the character of this football team," said Coach Gary Thorson. "On the Lions' last possession, Austin Cantwell and Mitch Gibney stayed home and shut down a reverse-attempt and on fourth-and-five Gibney swatted away their last attempt."

Thorson told The Nugget that Tanner Head is beginning to look more comfortable in his role as starting quarterback and had a big run late in the fourth quarter to gain a first down and seal the game.

Gibney was the Outlaws' leading rusher with 101 yards on 15 carries. Schutte added 64 yards on 12 carries, but according to Thorson, had 80 yards or more called back on penalties.

Tristan Lewis had his best night as a linebacker, registering five solo tackles and four assists. Jacob Gurney recorded five solo tackles and two assists. Rory Petterson made several big plays on a defensive line that showed big improvement from the previous week.

And, according to Thorson, Gladden was an absolute beast at times and came up and made plays from his position at corner.

The Outlaws were plagued with penalties throughout the night and racked up close to 100 yards in penalties on offense, which killed several drives deep in Lion territory.

Thorson stated, "You usually need to win at least two out of the three aspects of the game, and we definitely did that with our kicking game and defense. Once again, our offense showed flashes of what we could be, but we are not even close to firing on all cylinders yet.

"The coaching staff is very pleased with the progress so far, and while we know we have a long way to go as a program I don't think there is any question we are on the right path. We just need to clean some areas up and realize we can not individually afford to make mistakes because it is costing us."

The Outlaws will play at home against Junction City on Friday, October 10.