By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– In a game like this, against a quality team like Willamette, it came down to those little things that decided the game.
And for Sprague, those little hiccups gave the Wolverines opportunities to take advantage of. Something that Willamette did as they turned an early 7-0 deficit into a 21-7 lead before taking a 28-14 lead into the halftime break.
Max Markrenko and Carter Lovell each scored a touchdown in the first half, but both exited the game during the opening 24 minutes due to injury that changed the gameplan up a little bit for the Olympians for the second half.
But despite the adversity of injuries and everything in between, Sprague continued to battle and give themselves a chance. Mason Splonski stepped in at Quarterback, and after a shaky start in the second half that allowed Willamette to capitalize and add some cushion to their lead, had eventually settled in and eventually led the Olys on two scoring drives in the 42-26 defeat to Willamette on Friday night.
“He did awesome. He threw a couple of interceptions, but he did awesome. He executed the offense, and we scored two touchdowns in the second half with him. He came in calmed, cool, and collected. He’s a leader. He can kind of do it all. He’s a great athlete. Multiple skill sets from him. I thought he did very well, I’m really proud of him,” said Sprague Head Coach AJ Robinson. “We’re proud of our kids. They battled hard. We put ourselves in really good situations, and at times, they made some plays, and we made a few mistakes. We’re a couple plays away from a different outcome. Credit to them, they had a good plan, they got a lot of talent and they’re well-coached and you got to play really well to beat a team like. We played well. We just had a little bit too much adversity tonight.”
At 1-3 to start the season, Robinson isn’t too overly concerned with where his team is currently at. A tough schedule that met up with a super young squad. But not entering the last five weeks of the season, he’s hoping that they can continue to develop and grow as a team and see where the rest of the way takes them.
“We had a tough beginning of the schedule. Summit’s a really good team, West (Salem) is good, and Willamette is good. So we really found out a lot about ourselves, and we faced a lot of adversity, and we’ve improved a lot in different areas too, and we’ll continue to improve,” starts Robinson.
“We like where we’re heading. We got a lot of guys who are stepping up and showing that they can play Varsity football. We’re disappointed in the first four games being 1-3, but also at the same time we started this year with a lot of inexperience. So those guys are getting experience, and they’re improving every single week. I like where we’re heading.”
Sprague heads to North Salem next Friday before hosting South Salem on October 3
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
