Andrew Mieirs catches receives touchdown passes
OROVILLE – The Oroville Hornets made the long journey to Soap Lake, one of their furthest road games, and returned with a 50-28 victory for their trouble last Friday, Oct. 7.
“The boy’s played well on offense,” said Coach Tam Hutchinson about Friday’s game against the Eagles, adding, “The Defense was a little shaky in the first half, but they settled down and played good defense in the second half.”
The Eagles lost the coin toss and kicked it off to Oroville. Hornet Connor Godwin received the ball and returned it to the Hornet’s 39 yard line on a 13-yard run. Caleb Mills then ran the ball for 11 yards to the Hornet 50 yard line.
Hornet Andrew Mieirs made nine receptions for 159 yards total and four touchdowns in the Friday, Oct. 8 game against Soap Lake.
Oroville continued to march it down field and with eight minutes left on the clock, Quarterback Nathan Hugus fired the ball to Andrew Mieirs for 11 yards and Oroville’s first touchdown of the evening. Mills ran in a two-point conversion and the score stood at eight-zip.
The Hornets weren’t done yet and Hugus went to the air again finding Mieirs for a second time and the receiver went 30 yards for his second touchdown Friday. In was now 16-0.
With just nine-seconds burned in the second quarter Soap Lake completed a pass for 18 yards and their first score. With a successful two-point conversion the Eagles tightened up the game to 16-8.
About two and a half minutes later Hugus dropped back for a pass, finding Mieirs again for a 24-yard touchdown. The QB then fired the ball to Stetson Spears for a successful two-point conversion moving the score up to 24-8.
However, the Eagles pushed the ball down field with six minutes left in the half and scored on a two-yard run. Their two-point conversion follow-up was good and the Eagles score climbed to 24-16.
Ten seconds later Oroville’s Mills took charge of the ball and ran for 54 yards and another TD. The two-point conversion pass attempt by Hugus was unsuccessful and Oroville led by 30-16.
With under a minute in the half QB Hugus made a successful pass to Mieirs for 13 yards and another Hornet touchdown. Godwin ran in the two-point conversion and Oroville was ahead by 20 points, 36-16.
Soap Lake closed the points gap with just 16 seconds remaining in the half on a completed pass for 16 yards. The two-point attempt failed and the score going into the locker rooms was 36-22.
The Eagles were fired up returning to the field for their Homecoming Game. A mere 53 seconds into the second half they scored on a 66 yard run, but missed getting extra points on a two-point conversion try. That would be their last score of the game and it was now 36-28.
Oroville’s Hugus completed a pass to Anthony Jamison for seven yards and another Hornet touchdown. The two-point conversion was good on a run from Mills and Oroville led 44-28.
It was Mills turn again late in the fourth quarter when he ran for three yards and a touchdown. Hugus’ pass to Mieirs failed to bring in another two points and the game ended 50-28.
“Nathan Hugus threw the ball well including four TD passes to Andrew Mieirs. Caleb Mills had another good game racking up 188 yards and two TD’s. Connor Godwin in his first start at Fullback also ran the ball well,” said Coach Hutchinson. “Defensively, Zane Scott, in his first start at Middle Linebacker, led all tacklers with 19 tackles including two for losses. Both the offensive and defensive line played their best game to date.”
Oroville’s total offense was 536 yards on 68 plays to the Eagle’s 390 yards on 62 plays. The Hornet’s dominated the skies with 17 completed passes by Hugus on 28 attempts for 268 yards, averaging 15.8 yards per pass. The Eagles were grounded with only eight completions on 17 attempts, averaging 13.4 yards. Oroville had five touchdown passes and two interceptions and Soap Lake had two touchdown passes and one interception.
While Soap Lake had more rushing attempts, 45 over Oroville’s 40, the Hornets averaged slightly more yardage than the Eagles – 6.7 yards to their 6.3 yards. Each team had five penalties called against it. However, Oroville was dinged for 55 yards compared to Soap Lake’s 30.
Oroville fumbled twice, failing to recover the ball each time, while that only happened to the Soap Lake once. The Hornets had three defensive sacks for a loss to the Eagles of 18 yards, while Soap Lake had none.
Mills again dominated the rushing records with 188 yards on 24 attempts and two touchdowns. He averaged 7.8 yards per attempt. He was followed by Godwin with 36 yards on seven attempts; Hugus, 26 yards on five attempts; Jamison, 16 yards on two attempts and Spears, two yards on one attempt.
Mieirs caught nine passes for 159 yards, averaging 17.7 yards and scoring four touchdowns against the Eagles. Spears caught five passes for 80 yards; Jamison, two passes for 28 yards and Godwin, one for one yard.
Spears had one kickoff return for 28 yards; Mieirs, two for 27 yards and Godwin, one for 13 yards.
On defense, Zane Scott led his team with 14 tackles, nine of them solo and 10 assists. He was followed by Hugus, 13.5; Godwin, 6.5; David Iniguez, 5.0; Spears, 4.5; Jerry Milholland, 4.0; Nicolas Clasé and Jaxon Blackler and Jamison, one each.
The Hornets find themselves facing the Bridgeport Mustangs for their Homecoming Game this Friday, Oct. 14. Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Oroville’s Ben Prince Field.
