It was a rematch of last year’s 4A state championship. No. 3 Banks finally had All-State running back Nick Turner healthy and planned on making a statement. Instead, it was then No. 5 Astoria was the first to strike en route to a 30-3 win in the Cowapa League opener.
Banks falls to 4-1 overall and 0-1 in league play.
“I was hoping we would put on a better game,” junior Jim Criswell said. “Not to take anything away from Astoria, but I don’t think we played our best.”
It was a game that was supposed to be Turner’s first healthy shot at Astoria. Banks lost to Astoria, 19-11 in the state championship with Turner playing on a bad ankle. The game before that Turner was battling bronchitis when the Braves lost 46-26 in the regular season. Despite injury, he has run for 187 yards on 47 carries all-time against Astoria.
This time, again, it was all Fisherman.
Astoria amassed nearly 200 yards on the ground in the first half. Senior running back Dane Lund and junior quarterback Jake Davis seemed to find every hole and exploit every weakness all game long. As a team, they finished the game with 368 yards on the ground – 280 yards more than Banks
“We had a bad week at practice,” Banks coach Ben Buchanan said. “I tell these guys there is a correlation between bad practice and how you play on Friday night.”
Turner was looking to take advantage of his health and help his team to victory.
“[Turner] was excited,” Buchanon said. “We could have run it a bit more, but you have to take what they give you. We didn’t give Nick a lot of room to run up front. I thought he did decent, though. He had some good runs.”
Turner finished the game with 119 yards on 16 carries. That brings his lifetime total to 306 yards on 63 carries – good for a balmy 4.8 yards per carry.
Banks tried to slow down the Astoria defense by going to the air. The Fisherman had size and experience on the defensive line and Buchanon was looking for a chance to slow the run-stoppers down. And open up lanes for Turner.
“We tried to sling it around a little bit. When they load the box like that, we can’t just keep trying to hammer it”
The passing game never got off the ground, though. Senior quarterback and first-year starter John Criswell finished the game 12-for-15 with 115 yards through the air. He was under duress for most of the night. The Fisherman ended the game with six sacks.
“It’s [Astoria’s] scheme they are looking to stop [Turner] and screen passes.”
After the game, Buchanon was already looking ahead to next week.
“I’m not worried about [the next game],” he said. “I told out kids, this is a learning experience. We needed to see where we were. We fully expect to get out next week and get after Tillamook and our goal is to win out.”
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