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--> --> Oct. 5: Grizzlies can't keep up By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings GRANTS PASS - The Ashland High football team didn't go down easy. Hard, spectacularly, and in a knee-high heap of sacks and missed opportunities, but not easy. The Grants Pass Cavemen spotted Ashland a 6-0 lead then rebounded with 34 of their own in a 34-6 Southern Oregon Conference rout of the Grizzlies Friday night at Mel Ingram Field. The Cavemen, who improved to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in the Southern Oregon Conference, scored right before the half to take a 7-6 lead into the break, then added two TDs in the third and two more in a 15-second span of the fourth to avoid a second consecutive SOC defeat. Fresh off a comeback win in which their offense made every big play down the stretch, the Grizzlies (2-3, 1-2 SOC) were held to 185 yards of total offense and converted just 1 of 8 third downs. They were also 1 of 5 on fourth downs, including a critical incompletion late in the third that cost the team a certain touchdown and a chance to get back in the game. "We just didn't execute," Ashland coach Jim Nagel said. "Sometimes we didn't have time to throw the ball, sometimes when we had time (Grizz quarterback) Bryan (Clevenger) just wasn't on, and we can't fault anybody. Sometimes we got beat by better people up front and sometimes, as a quarterback, when you get pressure you have a little clock that goes off in your head and that's hard not to do." Clevenger, a senior, completed 12 of 24 passes for 166 yards, but had one interception returned for a touchdown and was sacked eight times for losses of 45 yards. He was pressured on countless other occasions and rarely had time to set up and throw. Sophomore Steve Jorgensen led the Grizz receiving corps with three catches for 63 yards and senior Dillon Houshour paced Ashland on the ground with six rushes for 32 yards. The loss pushes Ashland that much closer to the ledge they fell off last year for the first time in 18 years. Two more losses and the Grizz almost certainly will miss the playoffs for the second straight season. Next up is third-ranked North Medford, then Eagle Point, then Crater and finally Roseburg in a Nov. 1 season finale that could determine the postseason fate of both teams. For once, the AHS defense wasn't to blame. The Grizz D held Grants Pass in check for the better part of three quarters before finally buckling - allowing two big plays in the final 17 1/2 minutes. Ashland's normally productive offense couldn't hold up its end of the bargain, however, against a Grants Pass defense that entered the game No. 2 in the SOC in both total defense and points allowed. The Grizzlies managed just 185 yards of total offense, 166 of which came through the air, and 10 first downs. More importantly, the Grizzlies failed to crack the end zone when it needed to most. "After halftime, the ball didn't bounce our way and we just kind of came out flat and they came out more intense than us," said AHS junior wideout David Morris, who had two catches for 23 yards. Down 21-6 late in the third, Ashland wasted a chance to cut the deficit in half when it turned the ball over on downs at the Grants Pass 2-yard line. The final play summed up Ashland's day: Clevenger took the snap on fourth-and-one and whipped the ball just beyond the outstretched fingertips of Airin Brown, who was standing all alone in the right side of the end zone. In all, five Ashland drives ended in Grants Pass territory, including four inside the GP 30, as the Grizzlies struggled all night to come up with the big play. "We just got out-physicaled again," Nagel said, "just got beat by guys that were quick, strong and agile." Grants Pass, on the other hand, was a big play machine. Led by shifty running back A.J. Schmitke, who finished with 104 yards rushing, 61 receiving and three touchdowns, the Cavers amassed 363 yards on 49 plays for an average gain of 7.4 yards per play. Schmitke's role as game-breaker came by chance: he replaced Cavers' starting tailback Spencer Holland late in the second when Holland was sidelined with an injury. Schmitke took advantage, running in a two-yard score and a 49-yard touchdown before capping his breakout night with a 61-yard touchdown reception with 9:46 to go that put the game on ice. Ashland took the lead on Clevenger's two-yard dive with 7:37 left in the second quarter, taking advantage of a Holland fumble that David Morris scooped up at the GP 35 and ran back to the 2. The Cavemen blocked Chase Cook's extra point kick, but the Grizzlies had seized the early momentum. "We came out really focused in the first quarter, fired up, and we just kind of lost focus in the second quarter," Grizz senior offensive and defensive lineman Zack Cohen said. "A couple things didn't go our way, a couple fumbles, some broken plays that happened to be big plays for GP, and we just got down on ourselves and we couldn't retaliate and come back." The Cavemen tied it up on Mark Heater's 21-yard touchdown pass to Josh McGowan, who caught the ball at about the 15, shook off Grizz cornerback Jason Coburn, then raced untouched into the endzone with 49 seconds left in the half. "In all of our games so far we can point to certain things and say, `Look at that, that's real positive,'" Nagel said. "What we haven't done yet is put together four quarters of positive. We've had halves of positives - the Gresham second half, KU second half, Grants Pass first half - but against the good teams, you need 48 minutes of positives. We needed to play near error-free ball and we didn't." Email your... 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