Homedale remains 3A SRV juggernaut with 24th straight win over league opponent
There’s a new turf field at Homedale High School, but nothing’s changed about the way the Trojans play football.
Homedale cruised to a 42-14 victory over Fruitland on Friday night, simultaneously collecting its 24th consecutive win over a 3A Snake River Valley opponent and a fifth straight regular-season title.
“It’s been a long road. It’s been a lot of work, a lot of dedication community-wise from the ground up,” Homedale coach Matt Holtry said. “It’s our Optimist coaches and our Optimist teams going through. These kids grew up through that program. And it’s been a lot of dads and a lot of support, but the community has been huge. They’ve been supporting it all the way, and this is just a product of it.”
The Trojans weren’t perfect Friday night, committing nine penalties for 95 yards. But they’re strong enough offensively that it didn’t matter. Homedale finished with 314 total yards while holding the Grizzlies to 184.
“Whenever we made mistakes, we didn’t let it get to us and we kept our head up,” Homedale quarterback Jaxon Dines said. “I think that helped a lot, staying together as a team, not like pointing fingers at who did something wrong or anything like that.”
Dines completed 14-of-17 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for 41 yards and another score, while Trenton Fisher led the Trojans on the ground with 51 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries.
It was Fisher who got the Trojans’ offense rolling against the Grizzlies, scoring on a 1-yard run on Homedale’s opening drive. Dines added a TD run of 9 yards in the second quarter and then connected on a 42-yard touchdown pass with Rylan Binford to give Homedale a 21-0 lead at the half.
But the second half got off to a rocky start for the Trojans, as Dines was intercepted by Fruitland’s Theo Jackson on the Homedale 19-yard line. Four plays later, the Grizzlies scored on quarterback Luke Barinaga’s 8-yard keeper to pull within 21-7 with 8:26 on the clock in the third quarter.
As quickly as the Grizzlies seized momentum, they just as swiftly lost it.
Binford returned the ensuing kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown, extending Homedale’s lead to 28-7.
“I kind of bobbled the start and got nervous,” Binford said. “But they had a great wall for me, and I got around the edge and kind of took off and my blockers did a great job.”
Fruitland would score once more in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 14 for a second time, but the Grizzlies would get no closer. Homedale closed the door with two fourth-quarter scores, getting a 12-yard TD run from Fisher and a 2-yard TD reception from Danny Lomeli.
“We keep telling them every week we still haven’t played our best game yet,” Holtry said. “We’ve played a couple quarters really well, but we haven’t played for four quarters of football yet the way we know we can play, so we’re excited that we still have that in us.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 11:09 PM.
