It was a great evening for high school football last Friday. And it was entertaining to watch the Eagles fly into town and put on quite a show at Churchill.
Every team has a personality, but I hadn't seen Eagle Point under 3rd year coach Jacob Schauffler. I'd say as of right now, Eagle Point is an Oregon O and an MWL D. Eagle QB Shane Bluhm (pronounced Bloom as the Eagle fans noted during the starting lineup announcements) ran a hurry up quick strike passing game the first two Eagle possessions to put his team up 14-0. Eagle Point's spread option looked pretty much like just a passing offense after the first two drives.
Churchill answered with 14 points to tie it at 14 all. But the Eagles put it away in the second half by taking advantage of the spread option. Bluhm ran, passed and mixed in 5-10, 210 pound running back Garrett Snow. Snow looked like a giant snowball rolling downhill, crunching Lancers.
Stat wise, Blumn threw for 256 yards and 2 tds while rushing for 50. Snow had a well earned 100 yards on 20 timeclock burning runs. Snow even snagged a couple of passes for 31 yards. But Bluhm's (who stands at 6' 2") primary receivers were 6' 1" Aaron Foster (7 for 109 yd), 6' 1" junior Loren Nesberg (5-86 yds) and Jake Shaffer (3-50 yd). The Eagles totalled 426 yards on offense.
Defensively, the Eagles gave up 21 points. It's hard to tell what Churchill would have scored had the Lancers not had several bad center-qb exchanges in the shotgun formation. They must have had at least five or six poor exchanges, sometimes twice in a series. QB Derek Godrey hooked up with his center often enough to go 19-34 for 201 yards and 2 td's. Churchill's run game didn't materialize. The Lancers had less than 70 yards on the ground. Aaron Ingram had 43 yards on 11 carries. Kingsley Nkwanta (6' 1", 215 lbs) was held to 22 yards on 8 carries. My hat is off to wide receiver Brandon Determan. With nothing working for the Lancer O, it was more and more obvious that Determan was going to be getting the ball thrown his way. He caught 13 passes for 159 yards. So far, I'm thinking Determan and Blaine Austin from Marist are the most exciting receivers in the league. But I haven't seen Springfield's or Willamette's aerial shows.
Can Eagle Point beat Marist, Willamette and Springfield? The Eagle's home game against Willamette is a huge game as it will test their ability to play well week in and week out. I'd like to see the Eagles keep improving and move into the upper echelon of 5A. They have the talent and size, but it takes a lot of work. Looking ahead three weeks, I don't think the Eagle's will stop Marist' offense when they meet in Eagle Point. But if Coach Schauffler can get the offense to stay focused for an entire game, they might be good enough on O to give the Spartans a scare.
From a league fan's point of view. It's great having Eagle Point in the unofficial MWL/SO league. They are fun to watch on O and I'm sure you'll recognize their overall potential.
Friday's games:
Marshfield at Springfield. I believe Marshfield's winning streak stands at 22. Will the Millers pick up their first win over the Pirates this century?
Willamette at Eagle Point. Fireworks on both sides. Fun, Fun, Fun!
Churchill at Ashland. With Ashlnad having Marist behind them, this game should also be an aerial show. More fun!
Marist at North Eugene. North will have to make huge strides from last week's game.
RPI Thoughts
Have you noticed that Eagle Point, with one loss, has an RPI of 775, while 2-0 Marist has an RPI of 688? That means Eagle Point would be seeded higher in the round of 16 during the playoffs if the round of 16 games were this weekend. Marist can fix all of that by beating Eagle Point in three weeks.
As a mental excercise, it's interesting to think what Marist's RPI would be if they sweep their regular season. One of the parts of the calculation is opponents record. All MWL and SO teams lost their first game, so Marist wouldn't get any help from the MWL/SO team's records. But that's putting the cart before the horse. If Springfield or Eagle Point can figure out how to go to the whistle for 48 minutes, they both have a shot. We'll find out over the next three weeks.
QB's around the league
Sophomore Kamerun Smith of Willamette is averaging 342 yards per game, with a very decent 5:2 touchdown to int ratio.
But Levi Green from Springfield probably feels better right now. He's averaging 248 yards per game, and has an 8:1 td to int ratio. Most importantly, Green has a win over Smith's Millers.
Marist's Logan Silver is averaging 222 yards with a 5:3 int-td ration.
Eagle Point's Shane Bluhm is averaging 199 yards through the air and 45 yards on the ground. Watch out for Bluhm if he improves each game.
North Eugene's Dylan Lubonski opened the season with a 200 plus yard game and two td passes.
As mentioned, Derek Godfrey was also at the 200 mark with two td's in his first outing.
Running Backs
Marist's Greg Park rushed for 212 yards and two td's to give him a two game average of 118 yds per game. Teammate Logan Silver has averaged 95 yards from the qb position.
Springfield's Thomas Spikes ripped off 146 yards on 20 carries in the Millers win over Willamette. He's averaging 116 YPG.
Marshfield's Tyler Davidson got the Pirate game going with 131 yards on 22 carries against North.
Eagle Point will be hoping that Garrett Snow continues his pounding of opponents after his 100 yard game against Churchill.
Recievers
Austin Baird from Marist didn't get the big yards this week, but he did put on a couple of circus acts. He still leads the league with 267 yards.
Churchill's Brandon Determan was spectacular Friday as I already mentioned. Marist can charge an extra buck in four weeks for the Churchill-Marist game. Baird vs Determan and Silver vs Smith.
Springfield's John Davidson is second in league with 253 yards on 14 catches. That's 16 yards per catch.
Willamette has two receivers over 100 yards per game. Duante Brown has 237 yards on 16 catches. Cameron Koehler has 232 yards on 9 catches. That's 26 yards per catch for Koehler.
Eagle Point's Aaron Foster cracked 100 yards receiving against Churchill. That's likely to be a trend as Eagle Point gets better and better on offense.
The Register Guard reported that Kameron Bates and Danny Granillo suffered knee injuries. My heart goes out to those guys and their parents.
If you'd like to comment or make corrections, please use the comment feature on this blog or email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com
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