McMinnville coach Greg McAnally, right, along with the rest of the Grizzlies’ coaching staff watch as Mac struggles to get its offense going late in a season-opening road loss to Aloha on Friday.
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McMinnville’s Nik Patterson is pushed to the ground by Aloha’s Tevan Woods as he tries for a tackle of the Warriors’ Troy Cardona.
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McMinnville’s Josh Nice tries to get away from an Aloha defender, but is tackled for a loss on the play. The Grizzlies’ line struggled Friday and the team was never able to get into an offensive rhythm.
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ALOHA — Going into Friday’s game, Mac had to be feeling pretty good. After all, it edged out Aloha in last season’s opener, 21-20. But the first-game jitters got the best of the Grizzlies and, in a game marred by the yellow flag, the Grizz lost their 2009 season opener at Aloha, 37-7.

“You’ve gotta give Aloha a lot of credit,” McMinnville coach Greg McAnally said. “They came out and played real well. We didn’t execute real well offensively and that kind of hurts.”

The Grizzlies were never able to get a foothold and even when things started to go their way, couldn’t keep the momentum going in their favor.

Aloha was the first to get on the scoreboard. In the first quarter, Aloha turned an interception off of a Connor White throw into three points. After another unsuccessful Mac possession that ended in a punt, the Warriors started piling it on. On the second snap of their drive, junior running back Cole Rise broke free from the pack, taking the ball 82 yards to the end zone.

The next series proved to be deja vu for Mac. Another fruitless possession gave Aloha the ball on its own 41-yard line. And thanks to a couple of 10-plus-yard carries, Aloha’s Troy Cardona was able to push into the end zone from the 9-yard line to put the Warriors ahead 17-0.

The Grizzlies’ lone touchdown came at the hands of junior defensive back Josh Nice.

Aloha quarterback Caylen Clardy fumbled a lateral and Nice was able to retrieve the loose ball on the bounce and take it into the end zone, making the score 17-7.

But Aloha made sure the wind in Mac’s sails was only a light breeze. On the very next series, the Warriors scored on a 65-yard pass, giving Aloha a 24-7 lead going into halftime.

And the Warriors made sure to crush any hopes of a Mac comeback early on into the second half.

In just over a minute, Aloha’s Johnathan Shaffer turned a 44-yard burst into a touchdown for a 31-7 Aloha lead. The Warriors scored one more time in the third for the final score of 37-7.

Mac’s White finished the game completing 2 of 7 passes for 20 yards. Nice led all rushers, tallying 36 yards on five carries. Senior running back Michael Carillo ran for 24 yards on seven attempts.

But McAnally remained nothing but upbeat following Friday night’s lopsided affair and was able to take some much needed
positives out of the loss. And he said he hopes they can learn from their mistakes.

“One thing I was really pleased with was that our kids played hard,” McAnally said. “We got down there in the fourth quarter and we’re still playing hard. That was a real positive.

“One of the key things we told our guys after the game is most improvement comes from week one to week two. We really need to get into the film room and find out what happened.”

For week two action, McMinnville hosts the Sunset Apollos next Friday in its home opener. Game time is set for 7 p.m.