Heroes were everywhere Friday night when the Carey School Panthers pulled off a hard-fought 34-28 Sawtooth Conference eight-man football victory over the defending state champion Mackay Miners.
Blake Whitby, Connor Rivera, D.J. Simpson, Jesus Ocampo—the list of players who stepped up was almost endless for proud Carey coaches Lane Kirkland, Lee Cook and Lane Durtschi.
Whitby, making his first varsity start a memorable one, rushed 22 times for 195 yards and three touchdowns—including the final two TDs in the fourth quarter that erased a 28-22 Mackay advantage. Whitby also led the Panther defense with nine tackles/three assists.
Kirkland said, "What an incredible performance by Blake in his first varsity start. He was hungry and he put on an outstanding effort."
Another Carey junior, Rivera, was enormous as well. He rushed 23 times for 184 yards and caught a 10-yard TD pass from junior quarterback D.J. Simpson (7-for-12, 102 yards). Rivera made the critical fourth-down tackle in Carey's goal line stand that stopped Mackay at the seven in the 28-28 tie.
Besides his important role as left guard on offense, 190-pound senior Ocampo made seven unassisted tackles—none bigger than his game-saving tackle on Mackay quarterback Kelvin Krosch at the Carey 10-yard-line on the final play.
"It was an outstanding win for our school and our community," said Kirkland about the intense league game played at Carey's Derrick Parke Memorial Field that snapped Mackay's 16-game winning streak.
Carey's offense rushed for 399 yards against a really outstanding team, Kirkland said.
The game meant a lot, especially since host Mackay had crushed Carey 50-14 last October en route to an 11-0 record and a state championship.
First of all, the playoff implications were huge. By winning its fourth straight game, Carey sealed up the regular-season Sawtooth Conference championship and earned the homefield advantage for both the first and second rounds of the eight-team State 1A Division 2 playoffs in November.
Kirkland said, "We've been talking since the start of the season about defending our home field and we did that."
With the win Carey (5-1, 4-0 Sawtooth Conference, 42.3 points per game) moved into second place in the Idahosports.com 1A football standings behind Notus (5-0, 45.6 ppg) and ahead of Mackay (5-1, 3-1 Sawtooth). North Gem of Bancroft (4-2, 3-1) is ranked fifth.
Carey will host North Gem Friday, Oct. 20 and has a score to settle after falling in last year's state playoff first round to the visiting Cowboys 48-44.
Meanwhile, Mackay, North Gem and Dietrich (3-3, 3-1) are battling for second place in the league with three other games likely to settle matters for November's playoffs—Dietrich at Mackay today, North Gem at Camas County Oct. 13 and Dietrich at North Gem Oct. 27.
Carey is sitting pretty, having beaten Dietrich by 22 points and Mackay by six. Kirkland said the first-round state playoff format is the first-place Sawtooth team hosting the #4-seed, with the #2-seeded team hosting #3 seed Nov. 3. Carey will host that game and, with a win, would also host the winner of #2 vs. #3 on Nov. 10.
Mackay was the favorite in everybody's mind except the Carey faithful going into Friday's grudge match. Kirkland said, "I reminded the kids in pre-game that it was two perennial powerhouses meeting tonight on our home field and it was time to get the job done."
Did they ever! But the outcome wasn't decided until the final play of the classic game.
The teams traded touchdowns in the first half, Carey's 16-14 lead based on successful two-point conversions made by Simpson (run) and Whitby (pass). Kirkland said, "D.J. (Simpson) got us kick-started by getting us the early scores."
Kirkland felt Carey should have scored more. He said, "I have to admit there were three or four times during the game I thought we had blown it offensively. The drive just before half should have been six. Two or three others stalled out just as we had them on their heels."
Carey's defense keyed on 6-6, 190-pound senior Krosch all game and did well holding him in check, Kirkland said.
"We hit him hard the whole game," the coach said, adding he thought Krosch suffered a possible ACL (knee) injry during the game but continued to play on offense and defense. "Krosch wasn't effective rushing in the second half."
Rivera's TD reception gave Carey a 22-14 lead in the third quarter—a period in which Carey has outscored opponents 56-20 this season. Indeed, in the middle quarters Carey has a 140-54 advantage in scoring.
Never-say-die Mackay answered with two fourth-quarter scores for a 28-22 lead but Carey made it a 28-28 tie on Whitby's 19-yard run. Again, Mackay swept downfield but Rivera shot through the Miner line and stopped a direct snap attempt on fourth-and-three from the Panther seven-yard-line.
With terrible field position and two minutes left, Carey got some breathing room on runs by Rivera and Whitby, then Rivera caught a 40-yard Simpson pass and rushed for another 14 yards on a direct snap.
At that point, Kirkland called Whitby's number for a 21-trap run. And Whitby busted up the middle for a 24-yard TD gallop behind the blocking of Ocampo, center Tyler Parke and right guard Wulf Lebrecht.
"Our line made some excellent hits to open up a beautiful hole, just as they did on Blake's earlier 19-yard TD run," said Kirkland. "That go-ahead score was a play my dad (former Carey coach Heber Kirkland) picked up at a Missoula eight-man clinic in 1987. It was my favorite play in high school and I got a lot of satisfaction in watching it still work."
Kirkland said Rivera demonstrated leadership and guts on the final drive to help put the game away. But the Panther defense also showed desire and guts to stop Mackay's final drive just short of the goal line.
"Mackay returned the kickoff 40 yards and it wasn't looking good. Krosch put up three long balls. On fourth and long with eight seconds left, Krosch took off on the run and Jesus came all the way over to tackle him at the 10-yard-line.
"We had a lot of fun."
Carey junior Blake Whitby made his first varsity start at running back a memorable one, rushing for 195 yards and three TDs against Mackay. Photo by David N. Seelig
