Wild League Week 1

Wild League Week 1
An overtime game, two back and forth high scoring games and well....Marist. I even heard some Eugene TV announcers say Willamette has a chance to knock off Marist in five weeks! That's gung ho for some good football.

Marshfield at North Eugene.

    First Q. The Highlander special teams came ready to play. North Eugene opened the game by successfully executing an onside kick. That was a great statement to the Pirates that North was going to pull out all of the stops. Sean Collum scored on a 12 run run with eight and a half minutes to go to put North up 7-0. We were off and running!  Two minutes later qb Jason Sweet took it in for the Pirates to tie it. Things were just heating up.
    Momentum seemed all in Marshfield's direction as Chase Messerle scored with a little over two minutes left in the first quarter. But North's special teams pulled off another shocker when Brandon Harding took the Kick Off back ALL...THE....WAY. That put North up 15-13 with two minutes left in the first quarter. But we weren't done with the first quarter yet as Marshfield put another TD on the board to go up 20-15.
    Second Q. Speaking of special teams. Marshfield's punt squad pinned the Highlanders on the one with over seven minutes to go in the second period. North barely got it out of the end zone on the first rushing play and then the Pirates buried the Highlanders when the North qb and rb ran into each other on the handoff.... 22-15 Marshfield. Little did anyone know at the time, but those two points were exactly the difference in the final score (42-40).
    Not enough scoring for you? North put up two more TD's in the second quarter to go up 27-22 at half. I was getting cramps in my fingers tweeting out scores. The first half was pretty impressive and not just because of the score. First, there were few, if any, penalties until early in the second quarter. I was especially surprised by the lack of penalties early because this was North's first game of the season. Second, Marshfield's no huddle was being run quite well after the opening week loss to North Bend. Pirate QB Sweet and running backs Ty Cutting and Chase Messerle were running the option without putting the ball on the ground, and Sweet was able to find monstrous tight end Dalton Milburn for a couple of good rumbles down the field. North wasn't having much trouble moving the ball either. Junior quarterback Tyler Kabe was doing a fine job of running the Highlander attack which gets everyone involved. Running backs Collum, Ryan Koth and Dillon Hudson all got the chance to carry the ball.
    Third Quarter. The Pirates did all of the scoring in the third quarter. Josh Osborne returned a punt ALL...THE...WAY with 4:25 left in the third. Then Cutting got his second TD of the day on a 7 yard run which put the Pirates up 35-27 at the end of the third. The clean play by both teams that lasted into the early part of the second quarter was long gone as penalties started nagging both teams, particularly North.
    Fourth Quarter. Marshfield quickly got the ball back and seemed to have taken over the game, when North's Kevin Hasse (baseball player) intercepted the Pirates and returned it 49 yards to pull the Highlanders within two, 33-35. Cutting scored for the third time to put the Pirates up 42-33. North wasn't giving up, though, and they roared down the field and scored to pull with in two with 1:26 left on the clock. Would North pull off another successful onside kick? No. And that was it. 42-40 Pirates.

Summary: The two teams were evenly matched and both ran exciting offenses. North could have used a game under their belts which might have helped them reduce their penalties and a few executional errors on plays. Interestingly, both teams have 17 juniors. That's a good number going into their senior season. If these junior classes can maintain their numbers for their senior year and commit to each other to work hard over the next year, great things can happen.

   Springfield at Willamette. Another absolutely wild one. Springfield got out to a 14-0 lead, only to let Willamette pull within one after the first quarter. Willamette tied it up quickly 21-21, but Springfield put up fourteen more before half to go up 35-21.
    Willamette scored the only touchdown of the third quarter, making the score 35-28 in Springfield's favor after three. Willamette couldn't convert after their first fourth quarter touchdown, so the Millers still had the lead 35-34. Willamette got the game winner on a four yard run by Visaraga.
    Both quarterbacks put up good stats for the game. Willamette's Dustin Leber used five different receivers and was 12-23 for 163 yards with three tds and no interceptions. Miller Ty Mannila also hit five different receivers and was 11-24 for 144 yards, with two tds and one interception in his first full game at qb. Springfield's big Daysean Price-Clark gained 91 yards on 11 carries, Jevon Garcia had 51 yards on eight carries with qb Mannila gaining 55 yards on 10 carries. The big difference in this game was Willamette's Jordan Visarraga, who had 21 carries for 167 yards. Interestingly, Springfield's Johathan Emerald picked up two of three lost Willamette fumbles and returned them for TD's. If the Wolverines hadn't turned the ball over so much, it would have been quite a different game.

    Churchill at Eagle Point. Churchill goes for two in overtime and doesn't make it. Haven't seen any stats for this game other than what was mentioned in the Mail Tribune. Eagle Point went with Jorges Quintero at qb. Quintero was 10-23 for 107 yards, two tds and three interceptions. Based on Eagle Point's Jakob Combs and Garrett Snow gaining a combined 99 yards on 25 carreis, I'm guessing their weren't many fireworks in this game, other than the controversy over whether or not Churchill scored on their two point conversion attempt in overtime. MailTribune article..

    Marist 49 Ashland 0. It was zero-zero after one quarter. Given equal strength and conditioning, speed kills in football. Greg Park, not technically a speedster, scored n a 20 yard run. Austin Baird on a 49 yard punt return. Josh Paiement scored on a 15 yard td pass, Taylor Walcott on a 25 yard reception and Levi Yarborough on a 12 yard run.

QB Review for the first week of league.
Dont' have stats for Churchill, Marshfield and North's qb, so here's a look at the others:
Marist         Kameron Smith 13-25  210 yd  2 td  1 int

Willamette   Dustin Leber     12-23  163 yd  3 td  0 int
                   Plays Marist in five weeks

Springfield   Ty Mannila        11-24  144 yd  2 td  1 int
                   Plays Marist in two weeks

Ashland       Danial White     11-18    44 yd  0 td  2 int

Eagle Point   Jorge Quintero 10-22  107 yd  2 td  3 int
                    Plays Marist in four weeks


All but Smith are first year starters and Smith is getting used to Marist's offense. Three are juniors and two (Quntero and White) are sophomores. The college quarterback rating for Smith, Leber and Mannila are very good as they have positive TD to int ratios and are around the 50% mark in completions.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I'll give my predictions for week 2 of league games. Here's a summary:

Three teams are still in the hunt to give Marist a real toe-to-toe test. Churchill, Eagle Point and Willamette. The big games this Fridat are Ashland at Churchill (I'll be there) and Eagle Point at Willamette. Springfield at Marshfield could be a historical game as Springfield has never beaten Marshfield two years in a row in a rivalry that goes back to 1951. Marshfield could move down to 4A next year, so this could be the Milllers last chance. Then of course, there is the David versus Goliath game. North Eugene at Churchill. Read the 1st book of Samuel, Chapter 17, to find out how that one turned out the first time. I'm sure coach Geske will have the Marist lads take a refresher course.