Football season—week 0 Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Tylin Lutz (left) brings down Newberg's Ryan Wilson in the Pioneers' 37-18 win Aug. 31 in Sandy.

The OSAA football season opened last week with "week 0," a pre-season round of non-conference matchups. The Sandy Pioneers, who finished 2-7 last year, hosted the Newberg Tigers (1-9 in 2006).

I knew that the first quarter would be key to my coverage of the 7 p.m. game, because after that the light would get sketchy.

It was worse than I had expected: the sun was lower than I had hoped for, and there was a line of trees west of the field that created long shadows. The sunny spots on the field had really nice light (see photo at left), but the play kept switching back and forth between the sun and the shade. (The photo that ran in the paper was shot in the shady part of the field.)

By the second quarter, the sun was basically gone, and I had to bring out the flash. I need more practice shooting that way, but at its best, it sucks. You can see an example below.

I left after the beginning of the fourth quarter, but Sandy went on to win 37-18. You can read the complete game story here.

(right) Newberg's Andrew Carlson grabs Chris Brooks' facemask Aug. 31 as Jordan Howell (left) races in for the tackle. The 15-yard penalty continued a Sandy drive in the third quarter.