ROSEBURG – The final score Friday night makes it look like the Sheldon Irish handled the Roseburg football team in an expectedly comfortable manner. Yet, for three quarters of action the Irish struggled to separate themselves from a resilient Roseburg squad that kept the game within two scores until midway through the fourth quarter.

Despite the 41-15 final score, the Roseburg Indians were a thorn in the side of the Sheldon Irish on Friday. The Indians forced a turnover on Sheldon’s opening drive of the game and turned it into points for a 6-0 lead. Junior Garrett Russell picked off Sheldon quarterback Zach Diehl and returned it to the Roseburg 45 yard line. Roseburg’s Zack Mandera would eventually find the end zone on an 11-yard run to put the Indians on top.

Sheldon scored it’s first of six touchdowns as the first quarter came to an end. Senior running back Tanner Zenke ran in from five yards out as the buzzer sounded and the extra point by Campbell Sheidow gave the Irish a 7-6 lead.

Sheldon never surrendered the lead to Roseburg, but the Indians managed to keep the game within eight points until late in the third quarter. A 66-yard pass play from Diehl to Jared Brabham made the score 28-13 with less than four minutes to play in the third and the Irish managed to keep extending their lead in the fourth quarter.

The Indians may look back on the game and cringe because of numerous empty trips into the redzone. On three occasions Roseburg worked the ball inside the 10 yard line, but turned it over on downs. In the second quarter Roseburg was stuffed on a pitch play on 4th & goal from the one yard line. In the third quarter the Indians were stop twice inside the 10. The first was a 4th & 1 from the six yard line and the other was a 4th & goal from the five.

Back-up quarterback Collin Warmouth had a strong first start to his career. Filling in for injured senior Sam Tibbets, the sophomore completed 10 of 13 passes for 137 yards. His favorite target was junior Brandon Jeffers, who had three catches for 68 yards.

Kyle Rackley led the Indians’ ground game with 133 yards on 24 carries. Zack Mandera had 15 carries for 55 yards and a touchdown. Warmouth also added a rushing touchdown for the Indians on a well executed six-yard quarterback scramble out of the pocket.

Sheldon quarterback Zach Diehl was held somewhat in-check through the air. The senior was averaging 238 yards passing per game, but managed only 189 against the Indians. He did, however, throw for two scores and one interception. Tanner Zenke rushed for 101 yards and three touchdowns.

Roseburg’s defense continues to play strong. One surprising fact was that the Indians forced Sheldon to punt twice in the first half. Prior to Friday’s game against Roseburg, Sheldon had only punted four times combined through its first four games.

The Indians will try to build off the strong showing against Sheldon when they face South Medford on October 7. Roseburg travels south to take on the Panthers. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.

SCORING
Sheldon 7; 7; 14; 13 – 41
Roseburg 6; 7; 2; 0 – 15

SCORING PLAYS
1st Quarter:
R – Mandera 11 yard run (Hunt kick fail)
S – Zenke 5 yard run (Sheidow kick good)

2nd Quarter:
S – Zenke 21 yard run (Sheidow kick good)
R – Warmouth 6 yard run (Hunt kick good)

3rd Quarter:
S – Zenke 1 yard run (Sheidow kick good)
S – Diehl 66 yard pass to Brabham (Sheidow kick good)
R – Safety

4th Quarter:
S – Diehl 16 yard run (Sheidow kick fail)
S – Diehl 12 yard pass to Quade (Sheidow kick goo)