By RICK SPRUNGER
WOODBURN — Woodlan rode a big first quarter to an easy 50-13 victory over Southern Wells Friday night on the winner’s field.
The Warriors piled up a 36-0 lead after a first quarter that spun wildly out of control for the Raiders.
After that, Southern Wells played its host on roughly even terms.
But that first quarter was a nightmare.
Woodlan scored five touchdowns in the period, three of them on one-play drives, a fourth on a scoop-and-score by the defense, and two after blocked punts.
“We’ve got to make tackles,” said first-year Southern Wells coach Blake Blaker after the game. “I know Drew Fleek is a tough running back. He’s big, and he’s probably going to make all-conference,” he added about the Woodlan senior who rushed for 72 yards on three carries and scored touchdowns on all three with runs of 29, four and 39 yards.
He also had a fumble recovery return for a touchdown and was never tackled all night.
“We had guys in position, and they just didn’t make the stop,” Blaker continued.
But despite the breakdowns on defense, Blaker found plenty that he believes he can build on.
“If we have one takeaway from tonight,” said the new man in charge, “it’s that when we do things the right way, it’s easy. “If we run the right routes and throw smart passes and make tackles, things will work out.”
Although the scoreboard doesn’t show it, Southern Wells moved the ball well.
The Raiders rang up 250 yards in total offense and moved the chains 11 times.
They were also successful on two of three fourth-down conversion attempts, one of them on a fourth-and-11 when quarterback Trey Slusher found Levi Blake for 16 yards.
Slusher completed 17 of 37 passes for 187 yards while rushing for 63 more on 16 carries while Blake had eight catches for 104 yards.
But if Southern Wells had one Achilles heel in its offensive game, it was the turnover.
Seven turnovers, six of them on pass interceptions, killed numerous promising Raider drives.
“We’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the football,” acknowledged Blaker. “We need to fix our route-running, and we need to make better decisions. Sometimes if it’s not there, we need to just throw the ball away.”
Cooper Smith, a 5-9, 135-pound freshman for Woodlan, picked off three passes by himself.
The game started with Southern Wells converting one fourth down but eventually punting.
But Woodlan blocked the punt at the Southern Wells 29, and Fleek needed just one play to take it the distance.
Smith then got the first of his interceptions, and again the Warriors needed just one play.
This time, it was Shaiden Snyder, on his only carry of the night, going up the middle, bursting through the line, then outracing the Southern Wells secondary down the left sideline for 58 yards.
The very next play saw Fleek pick up a bad snap that sailed over Slusher’s head and take it in for a 22-0 lead.
Fleek got his third touchdown of the quarter after a second blocked punt.
Then, when Woodlan took over on downs at the Southern Wells 42, Ty Louden found Carter Fleek for the score on his only pass of the night.
Woodlan got two more scores in the second quarter on a 39-yard run by Drew Fleek and a 43-yard burst by Brandon Stauffer on his only carry of the night for the Warriors’ fourth one-play scoring drive.
But Southern Wells came off the deck in the last five minutes of the first half.
The Raiders recovered back-to-back fumbled snaps from center by freshman backup quarterback Griffin Clear and took advantage of the two short fields to punch in touchdowns after both.
The first resulted in a six-play 42-yard drive highlighted by Slusher’s 15-yard keeper on the first play and his 15-yard scoring flip to Blake.
The second saw the Raiders take over at the Woodlan 21 and then go backwards thanks to a pair of penalties.
But on first-and-25 from the 36, Slusher found Lyrik Maddox for 29 yards and then Blake for six before taking it in himself from the 1.
Maddox finished with seven catches for 55 yards.
The second half was simply a matter of playing out the running clock.
Southern Wells will tee it up next week at home against Bluffton on homecoming night.
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WOODLAN 50, SOUTHERN WELLS 13
at Woodlan
So. Wells 0 13 0 0 — 13
Woodlan 36 14 0 0 — 50
First Quarter
W—Drew Fleek 29 run (Evan Koch kick), 9:16.
W—Shaiden Snyder 58 run (Fleek run), 6:09.
W—Fleek 11 fumble return (Koch kick), 5:54.
W—Fleek 4 run (Koch kick), 2:38.
W—Carter Fleek 42 pass from Ty Louden (Koch kick), 0:38.
Second Quarter
W—Fleek 39 run (Koch kick), 8:56.
W—Brandon Stauffer 43 run (Koch kick), 7:00.
SW—Levi Blake 15 pass from Trey Slusher (Joshua Aubach kick), 2:05.
SW—Slusher 1 run (kick failed), 0:34.
Third Quarter
No scoring.
Fourth Quarter
No scoring.
Team Statistics
SW WL
First Downs 11 8
Rushes-Yards 16-63 28-283
Passing Yards 187 42
Passing (C-A-I) 17-37-6 1-1-0
Penalties-Yards 6-48 2-10
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 3-3
Punts-Average 2-0.0 1-36.0
Time of Possession 28:18 19:42
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Southern Wells-Trey Slusher 15-63; Woodlan-Noah Ames 8-23, Griffin Clear 7-30, Drew Fleek 3-72, Mason Meyers 2-23, Ashton Jacquay 2-17, Jake Ley 2-6, Shaiden Snyder 1-58, Brandon Stauffer 1-43, Ty Louden 1-7, Liam Hertig 1-4.
Passing: Southern Wells-Trey Slusher 17-37-6 187; Woodlan-Ty Louden 1-1-0 42.
Receiving: Southern Wells-Levi Blake 8-104, Lyric Maddox 7-55, Alden Dollar 1-23, Joshua Aubach 1-5; Woodlan-Carter Fleek 1-42.
