Steve Mims article in The Register-Guard captured the highlights of the game. Logan Silver throwing for 5 td's. Receivers Walcott and Baird going wild. Marist recovered three fumbles and had two picks. And coach Geske saying Marist needs to clean things up on O and D.
Some items you didn't read about.
- Running back Greg Park scored early in the game, but left the game during the first half and came out on crutches after halftime.....
- Marist punter Colton Bowden had two key punts in the game. The first gem was a 50 yarder from his endzone. The second was a kick from the Eagle Point side of the field that Bowden neatly punched down the left sideline, pinning the Eagles deep rather than giving the Eagles the ball on the 20 by kicking through the end zone. Little things make a great team.....
- Eagle Point racked up a lot of rushing yardage, mostly on quarterback Shane Bluhm's 161 yards on 14 carries. Most of the yardage was on an 80 yarder that displayed Bluhm's speed. That still leaves 81 yards on 13 carries, a 6.2 average for those 13 carries. That's not a good sign if Marist should eventually meet Sherwood. Sherwood averages 9.6 yards per carry!!!!....
- Silver's passing stats were impressive, but seeing him in person, he was more impressive than typical gawdy high school stats. I've seen Marist three times this season. Silver was throwing darts when he needed to and he was hitting his deep receivers in stride. But his best pass might have been a second half pass when he threw a pass with just enough loft to get over the linebackers and yet dropped in on his receiver and not into the DB's hands.
- Silver's fielding was excellent. He scooped up several mis-snaps and either prevented the turnover or made something out of the play. Silver was a first team all league baseballer last spring. (Can't wait til baseball. There are a ton of good players locally.)
- Coach Geske said his Spartans were outhit. I don't know if it was because I was up in the stands rather than on the sidelines, but I did feel that there wasn't the intensity I saw in the other two Marist games I attended. Even some of the Marist fans around me were mentioning that they thought the Spartans were out of tune and lacking intensity. I said I agreed, but pointed out that the scoreboard said 30-6 during halftime.
- Had the Eagles passing game clicked, Marist might have been under some pressure. Eagle Point had a lot of wide open receivers and a lot of time to pass. But often times when Bluhm hit his receivers, they dropped the ball. And on other times the receiver was open and the ball was off just a little.
Marist hosts Parkrose
Ashland travels to Sherwood
Churchill travels to Wilsonville
Marist, Sherwood and Wilsonville are three of the four elite teams this year. Mountain View is the fourth. Jefferson always is ranked high, but they just aren't consistent enough to make it to the top of the mountain. (Although, Jeff made it to the finals last year.) In theory, Marist will crush Parkrose, Sherwood will crush Ashland and Wilsonville will crush Churchill.
- I think Marist will win easily, although Parkrose likes to score early and often.
- If either Ashland or Churchill is going to pull off the upset, I think it would be Churchill. I think Ashland is a better team than Churchill, but the Grizzlies are going to play a team that is simply amazing in their running game. Sherwood brings emotional tears to my 1950's eyes by jamming the ball down the opponents throats on the ground.
- Churchill gets to play Wilsonville, a team that is a little more balanced than Sherwood. Churchill should be able to put together a plan with hopes of slowing down Wilsonville. And Wilsonville is much more likely than Sherwood to give up points.
Final RPI humor
I like the RPI and seeding. It helps avoid matchups of clearly top teams until the quarters or even semis. There is still some fine tuning to do, but I think it is a big winner. Nevertheless:
Keep in mind these are playoff games and things are serious now:
W by 44 Marist RPI + 4
W by 35 Ashland -13
W by 15 Churchill + 8
L by 44 Eagle Point +13
L by 21 Springfield + 1
L by 31 Marshfield +14
L by 42 North Eugene +17
All teams that lost, gained in the RPI, although it doesn't matter to them. All losing teams were eliminated from the playoffs, so increasing their RPI doesn't matter. Ashland's loss of 13 RPI points really changed their playoff pairing. Had Ashland just broke even in RPI points, the Grizzlies would be rated 9th, not 13th.
Teams with hopes of going deep in the playoffs need to schedule tough non-league games during the regular season, knowing that a loss to a tough team is worth more RPI points than a win over a wimpy team. They also need to schedule a tough game during the first play-in week. The way the RPI works, a loss against a top team may increase your RPI.
Watch a Play Off game
If you've got a kid who will be returning next year, take him to a playoff game. Marist and Sheldon games would be great games to watch. If I were a coach of team that has been knocked out of the playoffs, I'd try and gather as many returning players as I could and go to a playoff game. I'll probably go to the Marist game this week. But I'm tempted to see Ashland at Sherwood. I saw Sherwood last year. They have the same great backs. I think the only way you beat Sherwood is by outscoring them. And I know Sherwood is going to be sitting on Scarmanich.
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