Nicholas Campbell is four games into his first and only season on Hudson’s Bay’s football team, has drilled two game-winning field goals in the final seconds, and now, has a nickname from his new teammates.
Iceman.
That’s what happens when you’re as clutch as Campbell, the Eagles’ senior kicker, who in his second season of playing football already relishes a game’s most crucial moments and thrives in the biggest pressure-stake challenges and situations.
In addition to last week’s 19-yard field goal with 9 seconds remaining that gave Bay a 16-15 victory over Woodland to complete Bay’s 10-point comeback, Campbell hit a 38-yarder in the final seconds for a 31-28 season-opening win over La Salle of Milwaukie, Ore.
Two late-game dramatics. Two game-winning field goals in four games, accounting for both the Eagles’ wins entering Friday’s 3A Greater St. Helens League game against Mountain View (2-2 overall) at Kiggins Bowl. Kickoff is at 8 p.m.
Nervous? Not Iceman. More like excited for a chance to put smiles on his new teammates’ faces he now calls brothers.
“There’s no better feeling,” Campbell said. “I want to make them happy. When I succeed at that, it makes me happy.”
It’s like Campbell prepared for these moments his entire life. Well, at least that began last summer. Like many kickers, Campbell’s background is in soccer.
This only is his second year ever playing football. He played a junior-varsity season at Skyview as a sophomore before transferring to better fit his full-time Running Start needs at Clark College.
But last summer, wanting to end his senior year with one final shot at football, he needed the kicking practice. And practice, he did. Daily.
He asked Hudson’s Bay first-year coach Ray Lions to borrow a half-dozen footballs. He said his best distance was a 50-yarder. He kicked a 45-yarder at Bay’s practice Tuesday.
That offseason preparation and current practice regime is why Lions has all the confidence in the world in his kicker. He didn’t hesitate to call timeout with 11 seconds remaining last Friday and his team trailing 15-13 to Woodland and send Campbell out for the game-winner.
Not much was said to Campbell, whose 19-yard attempt came at a tough angle: the far-side hash mark.
Take a delay-of-game penalty and back it up 5 yards? Nah, not Iceman.
“When I know it’s going to come down to me,” he said, “…I have a great amount of confident knowing I’m not going to miss.”
No problem for Lions, either, because Campbell hit far-side field goals from that same distance — and 10 yards beyond it — during that week’s practice, Lions said.
“So practicing those same situations is the key,” he added.
This season, Campbell is 2-for-2 on field goals and 10-for-11 on extra-point tries.
But he knows long snapper Daniel Cantrell and holder AJ Scheifelbein are equally a part of the success.
“Us three are really close compared with anyone else on the team,” Campbell said.
What makes the trio succeed is a number of ingredients, and it starts with a good relationship. Chemistry is important, they say, and the chemistry wouldn’t be there without a friendship. Campbell and Scheifelbein attended middle school at Our Lady of the Lourdes Catholic School together; Cantrell and Campbell met this season.
“If we don’t have that faith or trust in each other, we don’t do our jobs correctly,” Scheifelbein said.
As valuable as Campbell is, he knows the job isn’t a guarantee. That’s because on his heels is last season’s first-team all-3A GSHL kicker, teammate Alfonso Barajas.
Barajas said it’s a healthy competition weekly between him and Campbell to determine the varsity kicker for that week’s game. So far, Campbell’s gotten the nod.
No hard feelings here, said Barajas, a junior, who battled an early-season toe injury.
“His spot is well-earned,” Barajas added.
As for Campbell, he follows the NFL and kickers’ game-day performances closely, and now dreams of kicking for a college program. But not before taking Hudson’s Bay as far as he can — with his leg — this season first.
“I find this so fun,” he said.
