Scappoose stumbles against Banks

Indians are even after one half, but fall flat in the second

By John Brewington

The South County Spotlight, Oct 27, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

John Brewington / The South County Spotlight

NICE CATCH—Scappoose’s Max Updike (right) strains for yardage after making a catch in the Indians loss to Banks on Friday.

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Friday night’s football game between Scappoose and Banks might have been one of those high-scoring affairs decided on the last possession, but somewhere along the way the Indians fell out of sync and ended up on the bottom side of a 32-13 loss.

Scappoose is now scrambling to nab the third and last state playoff berth for the Cowapa League.

The Indians may have under estimated Banks, or maybe they were still coming down after the previous week’s high intensity 7-6 loss to Astoria. Whatever it was, the Tribe did not play with the passion they had shown a week earlier and most of the season.

“It was definitely a disappointment to drop that game,” Scappoose Coach Sean McNabb said. “We were excited about going in there and playing, but we weren’t prepared well enough. It’s over and done with and now we’re battling for a playoff spot.”

Scappoose never appeared out of the game until late in the second half, and offensively moved the ball well at times. However, as well as they stopped the run at Astoria, they couldn’t find a way to shut down Banks.

“We were playing a high-end opponent, a good team,” McNabb said. “We may have had a let down (after the Astoria game), but we felt prepared to come and physically dominate the game. When we didn’t the momentum shifted.”

The two clubs traded touchdowns to start the contest. Banks marched from their own 33 straight down the field and scored on a keeper by quarterback John Criswell. The Indians answered quickly in kind. Brandon Bernard returned the kickoff to the Scappoose 48. Quarterback Nick Paxton found Jesse Oblack for 15 yards, Trever Gwin rolled for 11, 3, and 9 yards, and Paxton scrambled in from the 13.

Back came Banks. They took just six plays, including a 27-yard pass to Colby Seyferth and a 17-yard run from Nick Turner to get the ball to the nine. Turner rolled in from there.

Scappoose did find some defense for the next two series, but also had long drives bog down around midfield. Midway through the second quarter, they took over at the Banks 34. A 25-yard pass from Paxton to Jason Sawyer moved them to the seven. Two plays later Gwin took it in from the three. The missed PAT kick left the game tied at 13-all.

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