League Stats with a game to go.

League Stats With A Game To Go

Quarterbacks

    At the beginning of this  year, the big question was, "How would the quarterbacks do?'. No team had a quarterback returning and it looked like there was a possibility that only one qb would be a senior.  When senior Britton Auxier took over Springfield's quarterback helm in the second league game that made it two senior qbs in the MWL, the other being Willamette's  Dustin Leber.  On the other end, Eagle Point's soph, Jorge Quintero, became the Eagle starter, making a total of two soph qbs, the other being Ashland's Danial White.  So we ended up  with two seniors, four juniors and two sophomores getting most of the playing time; with only one quarterback, Smith, returning as a starting varsity quarterback.

Results

    As expected, 6' 5" Kamerun Smith, made the transition to Marist smoothly.  Smith has 27 touchdown passes in league compared to 4 interceptions.  Amazingly, each completed pass has been good for 19.4 yards.
    Churchill junior Mitch Reese has passed Smith in total passing yardage in league games (by 17 yards) with Churchill playing at Willamette Friday, while Marist hosts Marshfield.  Reese has been getting stronger as the season progresses.  He's averaged over 300 yards per games in his last three games against Springfield, Marist and Marshfield.  He's done a nice job of avoiding turnovers and has 14 td passes in league.
    Seniors Auxier and Leber are 3rd and 4th in league passing yardage.  Auxier actually has the best passing yards per game at 265, but didn't play quarterback in Sprinfield's first league game, so he trails Reese and Smith in total league yardage.  Auxier is completing 62 % of his passes and has a 4 to 1 touchdown to interception ratio.

   Leber of course, spends a lot of his time handing the ball to Jordan Visarraga.  But still, Leber has over a thousand  yards passing in six games, while completing 59% of his passes.

   The old Southern Conference has our leagues two sophs.  Danial White has finished his whirling dervish act in the Eugene area and takes his show to Eagle Point.  White has run for nine touchdowns in his last five league games.  That's two more td's than he has thrown.  White completes 67% of his passes, the highest in league, and rarely gets caught in the backfield while averaging 7.9 yards  per carry. White is the sixth leading rusher in league.


   Eagle Point's Quintero must feel like a Marshfield quarterback from the sixties.  The Eagle's have been pounding the ball on the ground.  Quintero has thrown 90 passes while the team has rushed the ball 270 times.

   I don't have Marshfield's or North Eugene's stats.  I'd guess that Pirate junior Jason Sweet is at least fifth out of eight in the league in yardage.  And I'd guess North's Tyler Knabe is sixth or seventh in passing.  If you have a source for these teams stats, let me know via  email  mwlnow@yahoo.com

QB summary so far

    Seniors Auxier and Leber did a great job of taking over in their first year as starting varsity quarterbacks.  They both did a more than solid job passing and they both have solid running games.  Too bad they only got one year as the starter.
    Juniors Smith and Reese.  Smith is the only classic dropback passer in the league.  Hopefully, some colleges will still be dropping back after the Ducks stomped Arizona State and their 6' 8" qb.  In any event, it's been a bonus this year to see Smith link up with Walcott, Baird and Paiement so often.
   Reese had me worried.  Beings that I am a person of Polish descent, I was watching for Reese and Molinski to link up early and often.  But the Lancers had 'only' 173 and 207 yards passing in their first two league games.  Since then, Tucker Molinski alone has had games of 142,161,186 and 186 again.  That put Molinski in the league lead for receiving yards.  The big surprise about Reese is that the first year starter has thrown so many passes with so few interceptions.
   Sophs White and Quintero.  White put a little pressure on himself early by getting a mention in SI's Faces in The Crowd for his performance in the Rim Bowl win over Japan.  He's lived up to expectations with a perfect balance of running and passing.  He compliments running back Jon Volz to a tee.
   As mentioned, Quintero might as well be wearing the old fog grey Marshfield uniform of the 60's.  Quintero wasn't projected to be the Eagle Point starter during the pre-season, but he has the Eagles heading to the playoffs.

Rushing

    With the QB's doing so well, it wasn't likely that we would have a lot of 100 yard rushers this year, but it looks like we may have four.
    Unlike passing, where underclassmen dominated, seniors own three of the four top spots.  Note that the teams down south each have a player in the top five rushers, and both return...

    Jordan Visarraga's stats were clipped back to 161 yards per game after the Marist game.  Still, that's lights out and add in 19 touchdown runs in six league games!!!  Visarraga faces Churchill in the last league game this Friday.  Willamette will likely  go without receiver Mitch Crownover again, thus putting a lot of pressure on Visarraga's (and Leber's) running game.  MWL opponents are glad Jordan is graduating.
   Ashland's Jon Volz likes to run against the big boys.  Volz gained 200 yards against Willamette and 131 against Springfield.  Those two games helped push his average to 108 yards per game.  Eagle Point is pretty big, so maybe this junior will stay above 100 yards per game in league.  He'll be BAAACK.
  One of my favorites, Garrett Snow of Eagle Point, with his light, quick feet and dainty moves, has crushed opponents for over 100 yards per game.  This senior brings back memories when the hash marks were in the middle of the field and turf was real grass.  Coaches looked for big guys who could pound the ball from the fullback position.  Snow is another runner MWL opponents are glad to see out of here.
  Marist's Greg Park has spent the season making me eat my words that he isn't fast and won't have a lot of 20 and 30 yard runs.  What's wrong with this fact... 'Greg Park is averaging 11.7 yard per carry.?'  Maybe he's almost as fast as Walcott and Baird.  For sure, opponents are glad Greg is graduating.
    Holding the number five spot  is another Eagle, junior Jakob Combs.  Remember that the Eagles have rushed 270 times and passed just 90 times in league.  Snow and Combs have 185 of  those carries.  Combs is averaging 93 yards a game.  And Combs -- He'll be BAAACK.

Receiving

The MWL really started producing qb's and receivers en masse when Sheldon started their still going run of qb's and receivers in 2001.  Every year we know we're going to have two  or three good ones return and then we wait for the  newbies to break out.  This year, seniors take the top two spots in receiving yardage, but juniors own spots three through six as of now.



    Churchill's Tucker Molinski, as mentioned above, has exploded the last three games against great competition.  His explosion probably has a lot to do with his own development, and for sure the improvement in qb Mitch Reese.  Molinski is graduating.  Going to be tough to replace him, as is always said about Lancer senior receivers.


   Taylor Walcott is holding down second in yardage and touchdown receptions and leads the league in yards per catch.  Walcott's yardage is certainly diluted by  Marist's other two great receiviers Baird and Paiement.  MWL opponents are saying, "Thank You, Thank You, Thank You." that Walcott is graduating.




   Three of the four junior stud receivers had breakout years and we already knew about the fourth.  Springfield's Jon Emerald, Churchill's Andrew Bennion and Willamette's Mitch Crownover were barely blips on the edge of the radar screen when the season started.  All had 'po' but had to prove themselves.  They have.  All three have put up big time numbers.



Austin Baird is the fourth junior.  Baird leads the league in receiving td's with nine, one ahead of teammate Walcott.



2012 combos

Glancing into next year....

Ashland:  QB White in combination with RB Volz sounds good.  But top receivers Lime, Geisslinger and Humphrey all graduate, with junior Quaid Waters waiting in the wings.  Grizzlies are looking good.

Churchill:  QB Reese, TB Tyler Reid and receiver Andrew Bennion.  Could be a very good year, the Lancer's certainly have the talent at the skills positions.  Any linemen coming up?

Eagle Point:  QB Quintero and RB Jakob Combs return with  Carlos Flores likely to get more balls thrown his way.

Marist:  QB Kamerun Smith, WR Austin Baird and ten running backs fighting for the ball.  If they don't win a RB spot, they become linebackers.  Maybe Marist will graduate too many good linemen....

Springfield:  Auxier graduates at QB, but Ty Mannila returns.  Receivers Jon Emerald, Taylor Travess and Dylan Piquette will be the best returning group of receivers on paper.   Some good RB's return - Daysean Price-Clark and Jevon Garcia.  The Millers can take their game to a higher level with this group.  Will they dedicate themselves in the offseason?

Willamette - Only team in the league who won't bring back a QB with at least two starts.  The Wolverines will be building off of  receivers Mitch Crownover and RB/Receiver Dante Giles.

Marshfield returns their qb and hopes to move to the 4A level next year.   North Eugene had just a few seniors, they played a lot and were great skills guys.  The key skill position where they retain someone is at qb, where Tyler Knabe returns.  Hopefully, the 17  juniors on the North roster will return.

What a great year.  The quarterbacks really came through.  This weekend will finalize the league leaders and then it's off to the playoffs where league stats don't count for anything.  For a full look at stats for league games click here