Starting a football season 2-0 for the first time in 25 years, the Wood River High School varsity football team dominated the Filer Wildcats on both sides of the ball 41-6 Friday in a non-conference game at Filer. Halftime score was 34-0.
Wood River’s six touchdowns were scored by six different players. The Hailey offense had 11 different runners piling up 172 yards on 40 carries. The tight Hailey defense limited Filer’s running game to -6 yards on 18 carries. Yardage favored Wood River 539-217 over 3A Filer (0-1).
Hailey coach Kevin Stilling said, “Holding another team to negative yardage is a great accomplishment for our defense—and we’ve rotated a lot of kids through. Being able to play 18 or 19 kids helps keep our kids fresh.”
At Filer, Wood River dominated ball possession for 29 of the 48 minutes, had a 12-6 edge in first downs and enjoyed balance in offense with 172 rushing yards, 182 passing yards and 185 in return yards.
Champe Kotara’s nine-yard TD romp capped a seven-play, 65-yard opening drive for the visitors. Cade Schott’s interception set up an Alec Nordsieck-to-Owen Gifford 30-yard TD pass for a 14-0 lead just three-and-a-half minutes into the game. A hard tackle by Nordsieck and Hayden Thayer caused a fumble that Chris Lentz returned 60 yards for a 22-0 lead after one period.
Thayer returned a Filer punt 92 yards for Wood River’s fourth touchdown. After a 69-yard pass from Nordsieck to Austin Savaria, Wood River made it 34-0 when Savaria broke two tackles and scored from the one-yard-line. After half, back-up quarterback Schott connected with Gunner Gibson on a 31-yard TD toss.
Jubal Toothman led the Wolverine defense with seven tackles. Hagan Barsch and Gifford added interceptions, and Hans Heaphy had a sack.
One worrisome aspect of Friday’s game was Wood River’s continued tendency to draw penalties—131 yards on 13 flags at Filer, in addition to 120 yards on 11 penalties the week before at Jerome. That makes the two-week comparison 24-for-251 for Wood River, 9-64 for its foes.
At Filer, a holding penalty nullified a 21-yard Ashton Owens touchdown run. The Wolverines have been vulnerable to tougher enforcement of targeting penalties related to contact initiated above the shoulders. “We need to address the number of penalties,” said Stilling about his team’s tendencies over two games.
They’ll have to do it fast, because Wood River (1-0 league) visits reigning Great Basin Conference king Twin Falls on Friday, Sept. 12 for the Bruins Homecoming game.
“Even though Twin Falls is not used to being 0-2, we’ll need to be at our best. We’ll need to be more physical and aggressive in our line. Twin Falls has good fronts on both sides of the ball,” Stilling said.
Twin Falls (0-2, 0-0) lost 60-35 at home to Mountain Home last Friday. But Wood River has never beaten the Bruins in five meetings, and has been outscored 186-55 in those losses.
Wood River’s freshman team hosts Twin Falls on Thursday, Sept. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Hailey’s Phil Homer Field.
NOTES—Wood River football last started 2-0 in varsity games back in 1989 for then-fifth-year coach John Blackman, whose son Jens Blackman is sophomore offensive left tackle on this year’s Wolverine varsity.
In that year, Wood River won 12-7 at Gooding and beat Wendell at home 23-0. Indeed, the Wolverines started 4-1 before settling for Wood River’s first winning season since 1975 with a 5-4 record.
Senior running back Tom Sluder rushed 166 times for 1,002 yards to finish his three-year Hailey rushing career with 1,712 yards. The team’s sophomore quarterback was Christian Nickum…..
Friday at Filer’s LaRell Patterson Field, Wood River’s starting offensive line featured senior Jackson Toothman at center, senior Parker Bingham at left guard, junior Dee Jay McMurdo at right guard, Jens Blackman at left tackle and sophomore Brendan Bingham at right tackle.
On defense, the three down linemen in the starting 3-4 alignment were Bingham, noseguard Hans Heaphy and Caleb Morgan. Linebackers were Gunner Gibson, Jubal Toothman, Travis Swanson and Hagan Barsch. In the secondary were Owen Gifford, Hayden Thayer, Chris Lentz and Alec Nordsieck.
4A Wood River had 47 players including 15 seniors on its roster at Filer, and the 3A Wildcats had 45 including 13 seniors.
WRHS Line Score
Wood River 41, Filer 6
| wood river |
20 |
14 |
0 |
7 |
41 |
| FILER |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
6 |
SCORING
1st half
Wood River—Champe Kotara, 9-yard run (Hunter Kern kick); 8:44 1st (7-0 WR).
Wood River—Owen Gifford, 30-yard pass from Alec Nordsieck (Hunter Kern kick); 8:21 1st (14-0 WR).
Wood River—Chris Lentz, 60-yard fumble return (kick failed); 0:00 1st (20-0 WR).
Wood River—Hayden Thayer, 92-yard punt return (Hunter Kern kick); 4:59 2nd (27-0 WR).
Wood River—Austin Savaria, 1-yard run (Hunter Kern kick); 2:11 2nd (34-0 WR).
2nd half
Wood River—Gunner Gibson, 31-yard pass from Cade Schott (Kyle Weller kick); 8:47 4th (41-0 WR).
Filer—Preston Stoddard, 48-yard pass from Braydon Twitchell (pass failed); 6:41 4th (41-6 WR).
| KEY STATS |
WOOD RIVER |
FILER |
| Offensive plays |
56 |
55 |
| Time of possession |
28:56:00 |
19:04 |
| 1st downs, rush |
9 |
1 |
| 1st downs, pass |
3 |
3 |
| 1st downs, penalty |
0 |
2 |
| 1st downs, total |
12 |
6 |
| Rushes, yards |
40-172 |
18, -6 |
| Yards per carry |
4.3 |
0 |
| Fumbles lost |
1 |
1 |
| Completions, passes |
9-Jun |
26-Nov |
| Completion percentage |
67% |
42% |
| Passing yards |
182 |
165 |
| Yards per completion |
30.3 |
15 |
| Intercepted by |
3 |
0 |
| Sacks by, yards |
6-Jan |
0-0 |
| Returns, yards |
4-185 |
4-64 |
| Total yards gained |
539 |
217 |
| Third down efficiency |
2-9 |
3-11 |
| Fourth down efficiency |
4-5 |
1-3 |
| Penalties |
13-131 |
3-20 |
| Punts, yardage |
2-63 |
4-147 |
| Yards per punt |
31.5 |
36.8 |
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS—Wood River
Rushing—Alec Nordsieck 4-35; Ashton Owens 5-33, 3 1sts; Chris Lentz 5-32, 1 1st; Austin Savaria 4-24, 2 1sts, 1 TD; Ryan Kotiga 2-20, 2 1sts; Owen Gifford 2-19, 1 1st; Champe Kotara 10-15, 1 TD; Ozzi Alberdi 4-7; Izaac Easterday 1, -8; Cade Schott 1, -3; Hayden Thayer 1,- 2.
Passing—Alec Nordsieck 4-7, 133 yards, 3 1sts, 1 TD; Cade Schott 2-2, 49 yards, 1 TD.
Receiving—Austin Savaria 2-86, 2 1sts; Owen Gifford 2-48, 1 TD; Gunner Gibson 1-31, 1 TD; Hayden Thayer 1-17, 1 1st.
Kickoff returns—Owen Gifford 1-21.
Punt returns—Hayden Thayer 1 with a 92-yard TD.
All-purpose yardage—Alec Nordsieck 168, Austin Savaria 110.
Fumble recoveries (1)—Chris Lentz 1 with a 60-yard TD return.
Interceptions (3)—Cade Schott 1 with a 12-yard return; Hagan Barsch 1 with a 2-yard return; Owen Gifford 1.
Sacks (1)—Hans Heaphy 1-6.
Tackles (43)—Jubal Toothman 7, Caleb Morgan 4, Travis Swanson 4, Hayden Thayer 3, Hagan Barsch 3, Ryan Kotiga 2, Champe Kotara 2, Cam Benson 2, Chris Lentz 2, Hans Heaphy 2, Jackson Toothman 2, Taylor Douthit 2, Dee Jay McMurdo 1, Austin Krenz 1, Jacob Bulotti 1, Austin Savaria 1, Bodie Bennett 1, Cade Schott 1, Alec Nordsieck 1, Parker Bingham 1.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS—Filer
Rushing—Jacob Satterwhite 2-2; Jeremy Minick 5-2; Braydon Twitchell 6, -7, 1 1st; Logan Patterson 5, -3.
Passing—Braydon Twitchell 11-26, 165 yards, 3 1sts, 1 TD, 3 interceptions.
Receiving—Preston Stoddard 3-63, 1 TD; Peyton Richardson 4-61, 2 1sts; Chance Koyle 2-37, 1 1st; Bryson Bollar 1-6; Jeremy Minick 1, -2.
Kickoff returns—Preston Stoddard 3-42; Jeremy Minick 1-22.
All-purpose yardage—Braydon Twitchell 158, Preston Stoddard 105.
Fumble recoveries (1)—Tristan Taylor 1.
Tackle leaders—Jacob Satterwhite 6, Bryson Lehman 6, Darrick Sharp 5, Daniel Schliebe 5, Adam Shawver 4, Jeremy Minick 4.
