Photos by JANEEN STARBUCK

Junior Ty Taylor completes the catch.

The Crane Mustangs opened the OSAA shortened football season Friday at home against the Powder Valley Badgers. 

On an unusually warm early March day, with a limited number of spectators allowed to watch because of the COVID-19 restrictions still in place, the rescheduled fall football season finally began.  

Crane received the opening kickoff and could not get a first down before giving the ball up inside their 40 yard line. On Powder Valleys’ very first offensive play, they fumbled the ball back to Crane, but the Mustang offense still couldn’t get untracked. 

Defense by both teams appeared to be the strong point throughout most of the game.  Powder Valley eventually scored two touchdowns in the first half, and the Mustangs were down 12-0 at halftime. 

Crane finally got a touchdown through the air in the 3rd quarter on a 35-yard pass from Mitch Clark to Ty Taylor. The pair repeated the effort on the 2-point conversion pass, and Crane only trailed 12-8.  

The Badgers scored another touchdown in the 4th quarter, as Crane wasn’t able to capitalize on some offensive opportunities. As a result, Powder Valley ended up winning 18-8.  

Coach Stub Travis stated, “I was really pleased with the defensive effort today. Defensively, I thought Logan Defenbaugh played good. We did a good job containing their QB.  We also committed four turnovers on offense that didn’t help us out on the day.”

Travis also mentioned that overall team conditioning wasn’t what he wanted, but said he knew the past few weeks of snow and ice would be a factor.  

Crane will travel to Dufur next Friday with kickoff scheduled for 2 p.m. Dufur opened their season with a 60-14 victory over Pilot Rock.