Council starts strong, wins 30-8

By Ray Rodriguez - Argus Observer
Sunday, August 26, 2007 2:35 AM PDT

Council’s Bubba Zielinski (right) stiff arms Salmon River linebacker Dustin Rinker during Friday’s nonleague football game in Council. The Lumberjacks won the game, 30-8.

Council - Friday marked a marquee matchup between two of the top 1A schools in Idaho.

Salmon River finished as the runner-up in 1A Division II state championship, while the Lumberjacks entered action as the defending Division I state champs.

And the state champs picked up right where they left off as they posted the 30-8 drubbing of the Savages Friday at Lumberjack Field in Council.

“That’s one thing when we play Salmon River, it’s going to be physical,” Council head coach Dan Shumway said. “That’s one of the games we mark down as one where we know it’s going to be a battle. They’re going to come at us and they’re going to play hard the whole game until the final whistle blows.”

Curt Clagg scored two touchdowns and Keith Heil added two touchdown passes and the Council defense did the rest.

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The Lumberjack defense set the tone early as they recovered a fumble on the Savages first possession and forced a punt on Salmon River’s second possession.

In the first half, Salmon River had five possessions, but could only muster four first downs and 72 yards from scrimmage.

“The one thing we have going for us is we have a lot of size up the middle and speed on the outside,” Shumway said. “We got two corners and two linebackers that will come up and hit someone.”

The only first half points allowed were on a fumbled snap by Heil that he recovered in the endzone.

The Lumberjacks struck first blood on their on second possession of the game as they embarked on a 4-play, 33-yard drive. Heil connected with Jesse Green on a 31-yard pass play and three plays later Heil tossed an 8-yard strike to Green. Bubba Zielinski added a conversion run and Council jumped out to an 8-0 lead.

Council extended the lead to 14-0 as Bo Green hit paydirt with a 1-yard plunge, capping an 8-play, 62-yard drive.

On the Savages ensuing possession, they milked 5:19 off the clock and used ten plays to get down to the 4-yard line. But the drive ended without a point as The Savages’ Dustin Rinker was stopped on fourth down.

On the very next play, Heil’s fumbled hand-off and recovery chalked up two points for the Savages and made the score 14-2 at the break.

The game was hanging in the balance and Council needed a spark to start the second half.

Clagg didn’t disappoint.

The senior pumped up the crowd and his teammates as he scampered through the middle of the field, and cut down the right sideline following a wall blockers for an 85-yard kickoff return. The run gave Council a 20-2 cushion.

“I had good blocking in front of me,” Clagg said “I was looking at the goalline, and I had it in my head, ‘I am going to find a hole and run right through it.’ When we get big plays like that, it usually seems to gets our guys fired up.”

Zielinski added the conversion and Council regained control of the game with a 22-2 lead.

Heil connected with Clagg on a 23-yard touchdown pass to make the score 30-2 with 3:17 left in the contest.

Heil went 12-of-18 for 142 and two touchdowns, while Zielinski led the ground game, with a hard-fought 33 yards on 10 carries.

The Savages finally broke through in the fourth quarter on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Charles Jaramillo-Swan to Dylan Rinker with 58 seconds left in the game.

In the second half, the Savages outgained Council 158-58, and 230-220 for the game, but had only two drives into Lumberjack territory.

The Savages were led by Jaramillo-Swan, who went 9-of-16 for 121 yards and teammate Dustin Rinker had 21 carries for 103 yards.

Council put up 78 yards rushing, committed two turnovers and had only three second half first downs, but were still able to come away with the win.

“Against a good team like that in the opening game, that can show weaknesses that we might have thought in practices we didn’t have,” Shumway said. “That’s taking nothing away from them. That’s a great team, a team that was in the championship at Division II last year. They came out to play. They made us look bad at times on offense. Lucky for us our defense showed up and came to play tonight.”

The Lumberjacks (1-0) next host Timberline Friday at 7 p.m.