Always dangerous, the Camas County Mushers are coming to Carey Friday—and the defending Sawtooth Conference West champions from Carey High School will be looking to build upon their strong defensive effort in last week's 26-12 road loss to Raft River in Malta.
Game time for the first Sawtooth West league game of the 2006 season is 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8, at Derrick Parke Memorial Field.
Carey is 1-1 and Camas County is 0-1.
"It's a big game against a conference rival," said Carey coach Lane Kirkland about the Camas County visit. "I think they're a lot faster than last year in the backfield, although I don't know if they have a lot of experience."
Carey and Camas County have been the top dogs in the Sawtooth Conference West for several years, and it appears Friday's game will go a long way towards determining the West champ for the 2006 campaign. Camas dropped its season opener 44-20 at Sho-Ban Friday, a week after Carey won on the same field 50-0.
Last year Carey won a 60-32 barnburner over Camas in Fairfield on a day when there were 13 touchdowns scored and 1,344 total yards. Prior to 2005, coach Randy Jewett's Mushers had won three of the last four meetings, including 52-6 and 48-0 mercy-rule beatings in 2004 at Carey and in 2003 at Fairfield.
Kirkland was impressed with his team's effort against the perennially strong Raft River squad last week.
"The boys played outstanding defense. We stuffed the middle and got some penetration. The game was tied 12-12 with only 10 minutes left. We didn't let Raft River score on a long eight-minute drive starting the second half, and we only allowed 26 points against a team that usually scores a lot more," Kirkland said.
On offense, "our kids executed very well," he said. "I think it all came down to a few dropped passes on third-down conversions and the same from some penalties on good drives in the second half. I really thought we had an upset in the making. It was fun."
Senior Cody Baird was a star on both sides of the ball with 91 yards rushing on 12 carries and two pass receptions for 56 yards including a 30-yard TD reception from quarterback D.J. Simpson (6-for-19, 108 yards). Baird (13 solo tackles, 8 assists) also led the defense.
Brad Hunt (5 solo tackles, 3 assists) also caught a 17-yard TD pass from Simpson. In total yardage, Carey had 122 rushing yards and 128 through the air.
Other defenders were Blake Whitby (5 solos/5 assists plus a fumble recovery), James Carlson (5/3), Jesus Ocampo (2/4), Kade Peterson (2/4), Allen Peck 2/3) and Wulf Lebrecht (1/4).
Meanwhile, Carey won Friday's junior varsity game 28-0 over Raft River.
Kirkland was optimistic about the coming games, despite last week's varsity loss.
"I hope the game against Raft River is a good sign of what we're made of," he said. "We need to have a swagger when we play on our home field, and hopefully it gave us that."
The Panthers have three of their next four games at home, including the Sept. 15 homecoming game against Rockland.
Carey High School football coaches Lane Kirkland (left) and Lee Cook Photo by David N. Seelig
