Marshfield at Churchill
This game was much closer than the final score. The game was tied at halftime. And a pair of potential picks by the Pirates in the second half could have changed the outcome. One pick was a great defensive play by Marshfield's #10 Kody Crook, but the official ruled the pass incomplete. The other potential pick was a certain pick six by a Pirate who did a great job of reading and jumping a Godfrey pass to the flat. But the pigskin squirted away and the Marshfield crowd and this unbiased photographer let out a collective and very slow "Ohhhhh". It would have taken a near perfect game for Marshfield to win, and they were in it through the third quarter. The Pirates can build on the last two weeks.
Marshfield, which has lost every other game while winning each home game, looked like a very different team than the Pirates I saw at Springfield. Gone were the nine turnovers. And the O linemen stayed with it until the very end. The wildcat proved successful, with Ryan Scoville handling the ball quite a bit. But Churchill could stack up against the run and clog the short passing routes because the Pirates weren't a serious threat to go deep with a pass.
Aaron Ingram returned to the Lancers after missing last week's game against Marist. His return definitely helped. Ingram (19 carries for 108 yards) and Kingsley Nkwanta (10 for 71) are a couple of tough horses to pull down. Having them on the field keeps the opponent's D from sitting on the pass. Plus I think the effort to bring down these two backs helped wear down the Pirate D line in the second half. Godfrey piloted Air Lancer to success once again. Godrey, Determan and crew were just too much for the Pirates to handle. Coach Mehl has to be happy with his offensive balance. The Lancers ran for 204 yards, while picking up 246 through the air.
All in all, I wasn't disappointed that I skipped the Sheldon game. I wanted to take a look at how Sheldon might stack up against Marist. I'll watch Sheldon later. I saw a good game at Churchill.
North Eugene
Another heartbreaker for North Eugene. This time Eagle Point put together a late-in-the-game effort to beat the Highlanders 32-30. North Eugene lost another late-in-the-game match early in the season when Marshfield scored late to steal the win. And finally, North had a very realistic shot against Willamette, but a game tying drive by the Highlanders ended at the Wolverine 14. You have to hand it to the Highlander's for playing hard through all of the adversity. They'll get their final shot at a league victory when they travel to Springfield Friday.
North Eugene coach Eric Johannsen is in a tough and unenviable position of trying to grow the numbers of football players in his program in a school with a small student body for a 5A school. More players mean more depth, fresher players and more competition among Highlanders. He's fortunate to have a senior class that has provided excitement for the program. Dylan Lubonski, Alex Wilson, Jackson Landgreen, and Colin Mender were all exciting on offence and special teams. It's going to be tough to replace these guys and several good linemen and linebackers.
Fun RPI stuff
RPI recap:
Marist won - RPI down 23
Ashland won - RPI up 18
Eagle Point won - RPI down 21
Churchill won - RPI up 19
Springfield lost - RPI up 3
Marshfield lost - RPI down 4
Willamette lost - RPI up 55
North Eugene lost - RPI up 15
- Marshfield's RPI should go up this weekend, win or lose, because they host Marist.
- On the other hand, Marshfield's win-loss record could pull Marist's RPI down even if the Spartans win. But if Marist wins, a win on the road is worth more than a win at home, so maybe Marit will break even. If Marist should lose, would the Spartan RPI go up because Marshfield's record would improve?
- A win by Churchill at home over Willamette might not help the Lancers' RPI. A home win doesn't count as much as an away win, and Willamette's record will drag down Churchill's RPI. Which brings me to....
Marshfield's home town paper, The World, published an on-line article that states that after the Marist game "The Pirates will have a bye...before visiting the runner up in the tough Mid-Willamette League." That makes it sound like there is no dream in Coos Bay of a major upset of Marist. Hopefully, the writer meant to tie that sentence into the previous paragraph which states the 'likely' outcome is that Marshfield will get the fourth seed in the MWL.
In any event, the minor boo-boo made me think of what Marshfield's coach Justin Ainsworth's preparation speeches to his players will be before the Marist game this week now that he has seen the article which basically mailed in the score. "Lads. Our RPI goes up whether or not we beat Marist. So, the outcome is no big deal. Just go out and have fun." My dreamstate speech would be, "We're moving Dalton Milburn to the backfield and lining him up one foot behind our guards. We're putting him in motion as a blocking back, sort of like a puling guard, to pick up a head of steam and see what he can to do to Devereux and Mayes. We're gonna have Scoville running and hiding behind Dalton. Dalton is so huge (especially to the Churchill field announcer last weekend) Marist won't know where Scoville is until he is long gone."
For those of you not at the Churchill game, the announcer was so mesmerized by Dalton Milburn's size that midway through the game he said over the PA system, "For those of you wondering, Dalton Milburn is 6'6" and 260 pounds." You know what? I really was wondering and I forgot to pick up a program. You'll see more of Dalton on the basketball court.
SOC championship game
It's an all animal game in Ashland. Grizzlies and Eagles. The MWL only has one animal, the Wolverines. I really want to sneak down to see this game. I have to believe that there will be a lot more intensity for this local match up than what I have seen out of these two teams when they played up here. Unfortunately, someone in my household turns 39 again this weekend and I would not survive a trip to Ashland without scoring some Shakespeare matinee tickets. More about this game in the previews later this week.
All League Thoughts
The MWL had well over 80 positions filled when we had just six teams. Will we will have over 100 all league spots now that we have eight teams?
Quarterback:
- Silver looks to be a shoo in for first team. In a year with a lot of good quarterbacks, Silver is great. I guess we could discount his performance because he never faced Marist.
- If you had to just stick with two more all league quarterbacks, who would they be? I'm thinking it's among Scarmanich, Godfrey and Green. Their quarterback rating indexes are fairly high for high school quarterbacks.
- Green's touchdown to interception ratio is fantastic. Godfrey's td to int ratio is not nearly as good as Green's. Advantage Green
- Godfrey has almost as many yards as Green, but Churchill has played one less game. Advantage Godfrey.
- That brings us to Scarmanich. Scarmanich is number two in total yardage in the MWL 8, whether or not you include his receiving yards. Advantage Scarmanich.
- Scarmanich has delivered five wins in a row against MWL 6 teams. Big advantage Scarmanich.
- That leaves out Kamerun Smith, the league's leading passer in yards, Shane Bluhm third in league and state in total yardage (among teams reporting to MaxPreps) and Dylan Lubonski. It was a very good year for quarterbacks. (Marshfield is now running the wildcat and spreads it's qb touches around a lot.)
By the way, only one regularly starting qb returns next year. That's the league leader in yardage - Willamette's sophomore, Kamerun Smith.
Receiver:
If there were so many hot quarterbacks this year, there had to be a lot of top receivers. I don't know where you draw the line:
- Springfield's John Davidson leads the league with 604 yards
- Marist has two players with over 500 yards, Junior Taylor Walcott and sophomore Austin Baird. They'll be back.
- Willamette has two stellar receivers in Cameron Koehler and Deaunte Brown, both in the top 5 of the MWL in yards.
- Churchill's Brandon Determan is right behind Davidson in total yardage at 598.
A couple of North Eugene receivers had some solid stats. North played one less game than most teams, plus I'm missing one game of stats. The Highlander's Colin Mender and junior Ryan Koth put up nice stats. Marshfield's Evan Griffen might have been a giant force on any other team in the league. The Pirates just didn't pass much this year . (Evan was injured for several games, so you may not have seen him)
Running Backs
I think they should have two running back categories. Feature Back for the lucky guys who get all the carries. Pounding Back for the guys who do the dirty work of lead blocking and get the ball on the goal line.
Feature Backs (Minimum 50 Carries - about 7 a game)
Thomas Spikes, Aaron Foster, Greg Park, Aaron Ingram. Ryan Scoville
Pounding Backs ( Minimum 30 carries - about 4 a game):
Garrett Snow, Tyler Davidson, Jackson Volz, Skyler Mohr
Snow and Ingram will be back next year.
Linemen:
I have no idea how anyone can choose all star linemen. Who's keeping track of offensive stats? I think they should give all of the starting linemen in the league ballots that have the names of all of the starting linemen in the league. Players couldn't vote for their own teammates. DB's the same way, but just backs and receivers get to vote on the DB's. All offensive players could vote on linebackers.
Any ball handlers I forgot to mention who are as good as or better than the players I mentioned? Please respond via the comment section of this blog or email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment