Midwestern League Football News

Marshfield, Thurston remain 5A and 6A

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:02:00 +0000

The World newspaper reported that Marshfield and Thurston were denied their requests to move down a classification. Redmond will move down to 5A. Roosevelt moves up to 5A. http://theworldlink.com/sports/article_1d30fb8a-de59-548b-a22c-0b2014b917d0.html

Nov 25 Picks

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:21:00 +0000

My LSU stepdaughter is making gumbo. It's been a two day process. We're taking a break during the LSU-Arkansas game so I can sneak in my picks.

Marist over Mt. View

This might be the best match up of the playoffs. There are a lot of impressive things about Mt. View, but what really catches my eye is the 26 to 1 td to int ratio and the one lost fumble this year. Marist can't expect to be getting freebies from the Cougars. This should finally be a close one, but speed kills and Marist has the speed.

Sherwood over West Albany

Another great matchup. Sherwood is definitely vulnerable, as Ashland proved. But I think Ashland matched up well with Sherwood. The Griz's quickness really helped with the difficult to read Sherwood O. I don't think West Albany can do any better. It's Sherwood's D that wins the day.

Sheldon over Grant.

I think the loss of RB Ryan Land is going to come into play tonight. I'm going with Sheldon because my kids went there, but the scales are even and might even tip towards Grant.

Ducks over the Beavers.

My Beaver son says that the Beaves are a couple of years away from success. My Duck son says the Beaves are an eternity away. I'm concerned about the Ducks being a couple of years away from a USC type loss of scholarships. But I think the Ducks have the right legal team in place, so they'll skate through. In any event, if it wasn't the Civil War, the Ducks should be favored by 35, but it is the Civil War and anything can happen, but it won't this year. My college alma matre prevails.

Quarterfinal thoughts - Ashland and Marist and on to the Grey Cup

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 02:18:00 +0000

For the third straight playoff game, Marist led by over 45 points at the end of the first half which triggered the running clock in the second half. I was pumped as I had just watched Marist's most impressive outing of the year, and the running clock would get me home in time to listen to the last quarter of the Ashland game. Unfortunately, the running clock was stopped several times in the second half for long periods of time and I missed listening to the Grizzlies last chance fourth quarter effort against Sherwood.

Ashland must have been defensive demons. Sherwood had been averaging 345 yards a game on the ground, and yet the Griz held them to 229 yards passing and rushing combined. Sherwood scored twice in the first quarter and looked like they would roll, but Ashland responded with a field goal midway through the second quarter. The two teams slugged it out the rest of the way, with neither team getting anything going on offense. Here's a great article from the Medford Mail Tribune.

Ashland was probably the most fun team to watch in the league, unless you preferred watching the speed scoring machine of Marist. I think what made Ashland so much fun to watch was when they took the field, they didn't look like an imposing team. But they were quicker and stronger than everyone except Marist, which made them pesky.   Add in their slyness and shiftiness and they seemed to have a magic that no one else had. Then toss them into the thrillers against Churchill, Eagle Point, Crescent Valley, Silverton and Sherwood and Ashland fans had to have had a memorable season.

Marist over Wilsonville

Earlier I said that Marist's win over Wilsonville was the Spartans most impressive win of the season. You might ask "Why would another running clock game by the Spartans be any more impressive than the other running clock games?" Well, because Wilsonville was a much better team than the first two playoff opponents and were better than most of our MWL teams. Wilsonville's two star runners were fast, fair sized (Shipley is 6' 2"), and had great moves and knew how to break tackles. Clearly, and Wildcat stats prove it, their RB's ran wild in their league as they would have through most of our league. Wilsonville's line was also quite big, or at least quite tall.

That's what made the Spartan win so impressive. Marist's defensive team speed was incredible. Wilsonville tested the edges probably more than they should have, but rarely got around the corner. When they didn't test the edges, they found rough going up the middle. A few times the Wilsonville backs ran off tackle and found big holes, made it seven yards downfield with the opportunity to juke or run through a Spartan. Didn't happen. I was shooting photos on the Wilsonville sideline during the first half and collected dozens of photos of Spartans sticking the Wildcat runners and lifting them off of the ground. Several bystanders were commenting "I can't believe how well these guys tackle." I turned to one young Wildcat fan who seemed to appreciate what was happening and I asked "What do you think about that tackling technique. Sounds like you guys haven't seen tackling like this."   He said, "Oh, I'm not surprised. I played for Geske at Tigard."

Another key component to Marist's D is their intimidating gang tackling. If I have dozens of pictures of players lifting the Wildcat ball carriers, I have even more of Marist gang tackling ballcarriers with four guys hauling the carrier down with another one to three Spartans on their way.   The crowd was going wild with the sound effects created by all of those pads poppin'.

Marist's offense was the same as it has been since the second half of the Eagle Point game when the Spartan's scored 40 points in a blink of an eye after a seven point first half. The seven point first half brought about my favorite quote of the year. From the Register-Guard, Coach Geske  “It was one of those things where we might as well do what’s working and just try to knock off the dumb stuff...” And they've knocked off the dumb stuff ever since. Marist has scored between 40 and 63 points in the first half of each game since.

Kamerun Smith gets more and more impressive with each game. Wilsonville put more pressure on Smith than most MWL teams. They tackled him three times. (Springfield also got Smith three times, the only MWL team to get him more than once) Even with the pressure, he threw some beautiful long balls and his quick release darts to the sideline to Walcott were always on the money. Which leads me to the best highlight of the night. With enough time to get in one play at the end of the first half, Smith hit Walcott in the flat at the Marist 32. Then Walcott made it look like a sci fi movie when the space ship jumps to warp speed and the special effects guy gives you a six second blur to simulate the speed of light. It looked like about five Wildcats had the angle on Walcott, but when they went to tackle him it was just phhtttt-phhhttttt-phhhtttt, nothing there.   And at the end of the 68 yard blur was a solid Walcott in the endzone.

Before the game I was thinking Wilsonville was going to have a lot of trouble on O because they were overly reliant on their running game and they had thrown 11 interceptions this year. My thinking was Marist could afford to load up a little more against the run and challenge the Wildcats to throw into Marist's speedy db's.   I was a little surprised to see Wilsonville attempt a cross field halfback pass early in the game, but I wasn't surprised when Austin Baird hauled in the floater.

I was thinking the Wildcats could stay within five touchdowns and make the Marist starters play four full quarters, but that would be about as good as they could do without help.. I think the best defensive game plan was to work on a constant downpour from the very beginning of warm ups through the last whistle. Around 9AM as I was looking out my window, I thought that might happen, but it turned out to be a great night, with a couple of early light mists. But mostly it was a night for fireworks put on by the Marist O, with thunder only coming from the Marist D.

CFL and the Grey Cup

My stepson, Alex Brink, tossed a touchdown pass in Winnipeg's 19-3 semifinal win over Hamilton. Alex and the Blue Bombers play for the Grey Cup in Vancouver, BC next weekend.  Alex was the backup today. When he is the backup, he is usually put in for quarterback sneaks (to make sure the starting qb doesn't get hurt on the plunge). We were surprised when he was put in on a first and goal from the three. That's too far to sneak. So they had him toss a shortie to a guy who is a regular defensive tackle, but who came in for a trick play.

Winnipeg was 4-14 last year and didn't make the playoffs. It's been a long road from Sheldon to Washington State to Houston to Winnipeg.   But he's pretty psyched to be playing for Canada's national championship.

Nov 18 Picks

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:34:00 +0000

Nov 18 Picks

Coach Geske was quoted in the paper as moving the Marist playoff games to North Eugene due to ducks using the puddles on the field since October and goose droppings from migrating geese. Seems like if you could get your players to practice in droppings, it would be an incredible home field advantage. I'd even walk a few geese around on leashes when the opponents took the field to warm up.

Marist over Wilsonville.

The easy ride is over for the Spartans. If Wilsonville can get pressure on Smith and there's the pounding rain that I'm seeing out my window right now, we very well could see an upset. The best ball boys in the world won't be able to keep the balls dry if it pours the entire game. Plus the balls pick up weight as they get coated with water, no matter what the ball manufacturer says.

Can the Marist O line do the job against a quality team? This is an amazing stat .... in seven league games, the Marist O line only allowed Smith to be touched SIX times. Springfield tackled Smith three times.... Ashland, Eagle Point and Churchill sacked Smith one time. That's something to ponder. Every opponent knew that Smith was not going to run, but could only get to him six times in seven league games. Thats an incredible job by the Spartan line.

Sherwood over Ashland.

I have been fortunate to be able to listen to Ashland's wild and wooly 4th quarters (and a double OT) the last two weeks. Marist was nice enough to get the running clock going at the beginning of the second half in each of the last two games. The second halves finished quickly and I was able to drive the two miles home and catch some wild Ashland 4th quarters called by some great announcers.

I'm hoping it's wet up in Sherwood. I think Ashland's offensive quickness and the Grizzlies explosiveness will be an advantage for the Grizzlie O. Sherwood is going to score no matter what, so the Griz will need to really turn it on. Sherwood is very good, but not the monster they have had at times. A good Grizzlie game plan and an evening with few offensive errors could advance Ashland to the semis.

Mt. View over Lebanon

Lebanon's style of play should be a huge advantage in what will probably be horrible conditions - wet and very cold. I would think that the Warriors could focus on the QB-WR combo of the Hollister brothers and gamble that Mt. View doesn't go wild on the ground.

It's a home game for Mt. View. The Cougars are good and they can go to the ground if they need to, so I'm going with Mt. View

West Albany over Bend

Good Luck to Bend in trying to stop RB Jake LaCoste. West Albany also has a really good QB in Brandon Myers. Add in West Albany's physical play and the Bulldogs roll.

Bend relies on a passing game, and their QB has thrown for a lot of yards, but has nine interceptions. MWC teams are able to pour on the pressure, so the Bend QB needs to have his best game of the year.

CFL

My stepson, Alex Brink, will likely see a little action in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers semifinal game Sunday. If they win, they go to the Grey Cup in Vancouver. Alex has gotten a lot of playing time this year, including a few starts, but the QB who started the season before falling to injury is going to give it a go this Sunday.

When Alex doesn't start, he gets to go in on 2nd or 3rd and one. The D line in Canada has to play a yard off of the ball. So it's easy to get that first half yard. But all 12 defenders know the QB is going to carry the ball, and all the defenders jump on the two or three spots they think he is going to run. So most CFL teams put in their number two QB to avoid injury to their starting QB. Or restated, they put in Alex to get clobbered.

Go Ashland!! Go Marist!!

Nov 11 picks

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:40:00 +0000

Almost forgot to get my picks in... My wife is home today, and I'm doing even more chores than on my regular Friday Chore Day.

Marist over Sandy.

Do we really need elite programs playing two games against opponents whose only goal is to avoid the 'running clock' during playoffs. I think the OSAA should go to a 24 team playoff format. That means that 13 teams, about one third of the teams, wouldn't have a game after regular season to 'play-in to the playoffs. The bottom third of the teams move on to winter sports or studying.

Give the top 8 RPI teams a bye while the next 16 play each other. That would put #9 against # 24, 10 vs 23, 11 vs 22 ... and finally 16 vs 17.

Personally, I want to see great teams like Marist play as often as possible. But I want at least a modicum of opposition.

Ashland over Silverton.

After last weeks double OT win over a Midwestern Conference foe, Ashland hosts another MWC team. Silverton finished 5-2 in league versus Crescent Valley's 3-4 (CV was Ashland's opponent last week). It'll be a lot tougher, but the Grizzlies have enough offense to handle Silverton. Silverton's strength is, well, their strength. The Silver Foxes are bound to be more physical than Ashland. But Ashland, while not a huge team by any means, is tough pound for pound.

Corvallis over Wilsonville 9 (Winner plays Marist)

This will be a close one. I'm going with Corvallis, just because I want to see a rematch of the Corvallis-Marist season opener. I know Marist's offense has come a long ways. Has Corvallis's offense also improved?

Bend over Liberty

Could be one of the better games of the night. I'm not one for putting too much on home field advantage, but I think teams from the really cold part of the state do have a big advantage during November. Plus, Bend's a good team.

Sherwood over Hermiston (Winner hosts Ashland if Ashland wins)

Sherwood might get a little push from Hermiston. Meaning Hermiston might stay with n 45 of Sherwood.

Beings that there's no school today, you can still vote in the polls. (Note that the Sherwood game is not one of the four game polls)

http://www.mwathletics.com/football/2010/football_weekly_game_polls.htm

My Play In Picks - Giving you a chance

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:47:00 +0000

Before my play in picks, what about those MWL kickers making all league in soccer?
Churchill's Josh Han and Marist's Garrett Holaday made 1st team soccer. Springfield's Ashton Summer made honorable mention. Han and Holaday graduate. Summer? - He'll be BAACK.

My Play-in picks

I'm ahead of MWL fans 20 to 19 correct picks so far. I'm going to give you a chance to catch me this weekend. I'm a softie for the MWL when we go out of league, so I'll go for an upset by a MWL team, which you unfaithful fans wouldn't go for.

Marist over Summit (at North Eugene)
This game will show us how well the Spartans can focus. Marist should easily handle Summit, but will they lollygag because they think Summit will roll over? My thinking is if Summit's low ranking can throw off Spartan focus, other issues might also throw off their focus. Like Sherwood's prowess if Marist is fortunate enough to try to gain revenge on December 3.

Ashland over Crescent Valley at Ashland
I'm a little worried about this one. The MWC is a very physical league and typically keeps their penalties and mental mistakes to a minimum. But I think Ashland is man enough and the Grizzlies O is tough to defend.

Everyone else is on the road

Silverton over Eagle Point
Eagle Point has a great shot at an upset in what just has to be one of the most physical match ups of the night. If the Eagles can control the clock, which they are capable of, and score td's in the red zone, they should be in good shape. If the Eagles let the Silver Foxes score early and often, then it'll be hard for the Eagles to catch off. But scoring often isn't Silverton's MO, so Eagle Point has a great shot at the upset, but I'm picking Silverton because my upset pick is....

Churchill over Corvallis
The Lancer's have the 'O' to beat Corvallis. I have two concerns. My biggest concern is whether Churchill's linemen can match Corvallis's physical intensity. Recent games haven't helped the Lancers get tuned up for a physical match. Churchill won their last two games by a margin of 61 to 18. On the other hand, Corvallis's last three games were against three teams in the top 7 of the RPI rankings. My other concern is if Churchill's D can shut down Corvallis in the first half. The Lancers have been stellar defenders in the second half, but they've let opponents get the jump in the first half. Even with those concerns, I think Churchill can put enough points on the board to overcome an early Corvallis lead. But the Lancer's will be black and blue when the final whistle blows.

Lebanon over Willamette
Willamette will have a big hurdle to overcome if Crownover can't play. But even without him, if the Wolverines can decide not to make delay of game penalties and jump offside on O, especially in the red zone - they will be in the game at the end, when anything can happen. My 400 photos of the Churchill-Willamette game showed the same five guys at the ball on offense and defense on the majority of plays. If the Wolverines can make it 8 to 11 guys to the ball, it's a Willamette win.

West Albany over Springfield
Like the Wolverines, if the Millers play to the level they are capable, they can win. And like the Wolverines, they tend to hurt themselves with penalties and mental mistakes. Hopefully, Springfield has worked on execution the last two weeks because the Millers certainly have the offense to win.

Mt. View over Marshfield
It's supposed to be 37 degrees at kickoff, but no snow. Unless the Pirates fiddled with the Hollister brothers food and the brothers come down with the flu (a common practice in the Tour de France), an upset is a long shot. Mt. View's stats are a lot like Marist's, 1800 yards passing, 1300 rushing, with the QB not running much. If the Pirates can figure out how to get to the qb, there is hope.

Brink to start Canadian Football League Game Saturday
If you want to see up to six players in motion (four allowed to go forward as receivers), 110 yard fields, and two and outs which means lots of passing; watch the Winnipeg at Calgary game tomorrow at 1 PM. Former Sheldon QB, and my stepson, Alex Brink should be starting tomorrow in the last regular season game. A Winnipeg win guarantees the Blue Bombers of a bye in the march to the Grey Cup. Alex has played quite a bit this year and engineered a game winning drive as well as rallied the team from a couple of huge deficits, only to lose by a hair. Saturday, he should get the entire game to himself. I hope he likes snow, there's about a half a foot on the field right now. You have to have access to ESPNWatch. You can catch in on the internet. Winnipeg game

Congratulations to the soccer players for making all league in soccer.

Go MWL.

How I voted in final 5A poll

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:53:00 +0000

Before I go over my final vote, how close was it for Marshfield?

Marshfield had to sit back and wait for Dallas to play Woodburn. Dallas was 1-5 in league versus Woodburn's 2-4. So it was a winnable home game for Dallas. Everything RPI fell Dallas's way as far as their opponents winning percentage and their opponents opponents percentage winning. All Dallas had to do is win and their RPI would have been about 446, ahead of Marshfield's 439. Final score - Woodburn 36 Dallas 16. That was close.

My final 5A poll

My rank - OregonLive Rank - RPI

1 - 1 - 1. Sherwood
2 - 2 - 2. Marist
3 - 3 - 3. Mt. View
4 - 8 - 5. Bend
5 - 5 - 10. Wilsonville
6 - 4 - 4. West Albany
7 - 6 - 9. Silverton
8 - 7 - 7. Corvallis
9 - 9 - 6. Lebanon
10 - 10 - 8. Ashland

OregonLive 5A Poll 6A Poll

The big question is: Are Sherwood and Marist as dominant as they were last year? Last year, Marist's closest playoff game before losing in OT to Sherwood was a 35 point win over Lebanon. Sherwood had a close 20 point win over Mt. View during the playoffs. Well, it was close at halftime with Sherwood up 14-10. Sherwood scored the next four touchdowns for a 42-10 lead.

This year, Marist had a close 2 point win over Corvallis in the opening week, and was up just 7-6 at halftime to Eagle Point before exploding for 40 second half points. Sherwood had a close 5 point win over Wilsonville this year. That shows me Sherwood is vulnerable, but Sherwood also blew out Mt. View 41-18. [thanks for the correction on the EP score]

The only thing we know right now is that Marist and Sherwood will be on opposite sides of the bracket. Let's hope that Ashland makes the playoffs and that Ashland and Marist aren't on the same side of the bracket. Don't want MWL teams knocking each other out of a title run.

Possible MWL upsets

Five of our teams travel this weekend, so they are underdogs. I think a couple of our teams have a very good shot at an upset. If Eagle Point can ram the ball down Silverton's throat and control the clock, the Eagles have a good shot. However, Silverton will be well conditioned to take Eagle Point's pounding running game as the Silver Foxes have been playing in the most physical league in the state - the MWC. This game should be played in a cage like pro wrestling.

Churchill is my other best shot at an upset. I've seen Corvallis, albeit in week one. And I've seen Churchill twice. These two teams can both run and pass. In a way they are mirror images on offense. The question is "Are the Lancers as physically tough as a top MWC team?"

Willamette and Springfield have shots at upsets. It looks like the Wolverines will be without wide out Mitch Crownover. That hurts Willamette on D and makes the Wolverines one dimensional on offense. But that one dimension is Visarraga, and that's a good dimension. Another Wolverine issue is execution. They have to eliminate the penalties. Another thought I have about Willamette is that they have four or five guys who are always near the ball, if they can fire up up the other guys to go to the whistle, they can play smash ball with Lebanon.

Springfield's nemesis can be themselves. Like the Wolverines, too many unnecessary penalties in key situations. But eliminate them and get a hot hand in the passing game and they should be a match for West Albany.

Ashland better be more than leery of Crescent Valley. CV has an incredible running back and is yet another one of those hard nosed MWC teams. Let's hope the Grizzlie O is in gear, as I think the CV offense will be primed and put points on the board.

Marshfield goes in as the last seed in the 'Southern Region.' I'm not even going to look at the weather report. But I'd take some snowshoes and special football shoes if I were the Pirates.

How I voted and will Marshfield make it?

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:18:00 +0000

Here's how I voted in the OregonLive poll this week.

My rank - OregonLive rank - OSAA rank

1 - 1 - 1. Sherwood
2 - 2 - 2. Marist
3 - 3 - 3. Mountain View
4 - 4 - 6. Corvallis
5 - 7 - 4. Bend
6 - 5 - 5. Lebanon
7 - 8 - 9. Wilsonville
8 - 6 - 7. West Albany
9 - 9 - 11. Silverton
10 - 10 - 8. Ashland

Someone commented last week that I should rank Marist number 1. Well, I gave it a lot of thought. But Sherwood clobbered Mountain View and Mountain View destroyed Eagle Point. In any event, I think Sherwood and Marist are the best two teams in state and we won't know which is better unless they play it on the field.

Will Marshfield make the playoffs?

It's a nail biter for the Pirates and they can't do anything about it on the field as the MWL chose to set up byes this week.

Marshfield is 12 RPI points ahead of Dallas. Marshfield's RPI wont' change much because the MWL is idle. The biggest direct impact on Marshfield's RPI will be the outcome of North Bend's game. The Pirates want the Bulldogs to win. That would have never happened when I was a Pirate

A win by Dallas over South Albany isn't worth much for Dallas in the RPI column, but it would push Dallas ahead of Marshfield by four RPI points before everyone's opponents records are adjusted and everyone's opponents' opponents records are adjusted. Dallas's opponents component will probably drop because their league opponents will be .500 for the night, which is below their season average. That's good for Marshfield. But who knows how everyone's opponents' opponents will do. Not even my excel spreadsheet can figure this one out. We'll have to wait until the very last 6A, 5A and 4A scores are entered on Friday night.

Churchill and Willamette fans.

Game photos were posted Wednesday.

Churchill Willamette

Predictions for Oct 21

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:33:00 +0000

I'm ahead of MWL fans in my predictions 20-19 after six weeks of picks. My picks this week are the same as fan picks, so fans won't catch me this week. Maybe, I'll toss up a couple of top non league games next week to give fans a chance.

Two key MWL games this week and they could be good ones.

Churchill at Willamette.
Air Lancer is in full force. QB Mitch Reese, along with Reid, Bennion and Molinski are quite the group. Lancer linemen must be doing some great things on the line. On the opposite side will be QB Dustin, with Leber and Giles. Crownover will probably miss this week's game after missing the Marist game. That was a huge blow for the Wolverines. I think Crownover's absence allows the Lancers to focus on Visarraga. Going with Churchill.

Ashland at Eagle Point.
I had this one penciled in to go watch when I started the season. But two weeks ago I realized this weekend is my wife's birthday weekend. And her owner's manual says husbands don't go out of town for a high school football game. So I'll be at Willamette where Principal Haliski has to 'monitor' her middle school kids. I really wanted to see a battle between two old Southern Conference schools, and especially these two. This game will be the darting swiftness of the Grizzlies versus the pounding of the Eagles. (They should swap mascots based on their types of game) Gotta go with Ashland, but I think this game has the biggest possibility of upset written on it. Eagle Point can control this game on the ground.

Marshfield at Marist
Is this the last Marshfield football game in a 5A league? The Pirates have petitioned the OSAA to move down next year, so this could be their final year in 5A. The outcome isn't in doubt. So perhaps it would be good for Marshfield fans to see the type of Spartan machinery that was on display last week and in the second half of the Marist-Eagle Point game. The Pirates could study game film afterwards and try to copy Marist when the Pirates go 4A. Marist wins this one.

Springfield at North Eugene.
I'm surprised at the lopsided vote in favor of Springfield (88%). The game is at North Eugene and North has some super talented skills guys and plays as hard as anyone, they are just thin in numbers and that takes it's toll in games. Maybe people don't vote for North because we don't have stats on them, but I'd bet Highlander running back Sean Collum would be in the top five running backs in yardage gained. Maybe even second! There is no place like home, so maybe the Highlanders will take this one. But I, too, am going with the Millers.

There are some hot games in state this weekend, and our RPI's are going to be affected by them. Our non league opponents records impact our RPI.

Corvallis, Silverton and South Albany all have key games, with their MWL September 2 opponent.
#6 Corvallis (Marist) plays #4 Lebanon
#7 Silverton (Springfield) plays #10 West Albany
South Albany (Willamette) plays Dallas

Willamette fans want South Albany (0-7) to win, as a Bulldog win will help South Albany's RPI. But North Eugene and Marshfield are entangled with South Albany's RPI by being in the group of schools who might be knocked out of the playoffs based on the lowest RPI's. South Albany's opponent is Dallas (1-6) and is another school trying to avoid playoff elimination.

Willamette at Marist last week

You may have noticed I didn't make any comments about the Marist game, which I attended. I can't think of seeing anything as impressive as Marist's first half (63-0) start. Everybody but Marshfield has seen Marist in a game. Only Willamette and Eagle Point have seen what Marist can do for an entire half if they put their mind to it. It's impossible to describe, you just have to see it. While the lopsided nature of the score took the suspense out of the game; after a while, you just had to sit back and relax, watch and enjoy seeing football played at such a high level. Marist almost made it look effortless. Hopefully, they can repeat that deep into the playoffs.
Maybe I should have seen it coming. A couple of times during last week I did think about the fact that Marist had beat Ashland 49 - zip. And that Ashland beat Willamette 49-12. Logic says that if Marist beat Ashland by 49 and Ashland beat Willamette by 37, then Marist would beat Willamette by..... But I didn't think that would really happen...... It took me awhile to realize that Mitch Crownover, a really good 6' 3" receiver, wasn't on the field for Willamette. Crownover isn't worth 66 Wolverine points against Marist, but not having him really changes the dynamics and strategy of Willamette's offense. And the Wolverines weren't about to have the tall Crownover in the secondary to at least block the view of Walcott, Baird and Paiement.

You can vote here

A final sad (to me) thought.

Tomorrow night might be the last night of tackle football for a few seniors in our league. The end of fall sports for seniors is the start of the wind down to graduation and saying good-bye to each other - sometimes forever.

Who doesn't go to State update and How I Voted

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:58:00 +0000

Last week I updated you on which 3 teams in the OSAA's 'South Region' won't make the state playoffs. According to the OSAA, the three teams with the lowest RPI among the MWL, MWC and IMC won't make the playoffs. No more than two teams from any league can be eliminated. Here's the update after last weeks games.

Eagle Point 477
Dallas 429
South Albany 414
Marshfield 412
North Eugene 402

- Eagle Point is safe from elimination because their RPI shouldn't fall after playing Ashland.

- Marshfield could leapfrog over Dallas this week, even if Marshfield loses to Marist. Marshfield's RPI should jump to around 440. A Dallas win this Friday should put Dallas around 430. If Dallas wins out (beating 0-7 South Albany and 3-4 Woodburn, they will probably be in the 440 range along with Marshfield. I don't think the Pirates will know their playoff status until all scores are in on October 28.

- A win for North would boost their RPI to around 417. If winless South Albany keeps losing, the SA Bulldogs should fall to close to or under 400. Dallas could fall to around 415 or even less if they lost to 0-7 South Albany. But even if North passes South Albany and Dallas, the Highlanders likely will end up behind Marshfield and thus, one of the last three teams in the RPI column for the South Region..

The team with the highest RPI among the group of Dallas, South Albany, Marshfield, North Eugene gets to play Sherwood, Marist or Bend. Marist's RPI should fall to around 650 this week, while Sherwood's RPI will fall towards the 650 mark after their next two opponents. Bend's RPI is likely to go up this week. Here's a devilish thought. Sherwood plays a team on October 28 that will hurt the Bowman's RPI. Bend and Marist have bye's. If Bend and Marist schedule each other, they might both pass Sherwood. I'll do the math next week.

How I voted in the OregonLive Poll

My vote followed by the actual poll results.

1-1. Sherwood

2-2. Marist

3-5 Bend

4-4 Lebanon

5-3 Mt View

6-6 Corvallis

7-9 Wilsonville

8-10 West Albany

9- 7 Silverton

10- 8 Ashland

This weekend

# 3 Mt View is at # 5 Bend
# 4 Lebanon is at #6 Corvallis
# 7 Silverton is at #10 West Albany

Oct 28

Lebanon travels to # 7 Silverton
# 6 Corvallis is at #10 West Albany

OregonLive.com polls 5A 6A

League Stats with a game to go.

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 03:07:00 +0000

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

Oct 13-14 predictions and How I voted in OregonLive Poll

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:20:00 +0000

Playoff Seeding

I've heard a couple of versions of how 5A teams will be seeded for the playoffs, but I'll go with what is on the OSAA site for now.

The MWL is in a 'South Region' with the IMC (3 teams) and MWC (8 teams). That's a total of 19 teams in the South Region
Three teams from the South will not go to the playoffs based on the teams RPI
No more than two teams from a league will be eliminated. Therefore at least six teams in the MWL will go to the playoffs based on RPI

Here are the bottom five teams in the South Region, based on RPI, going into this weeks games.

472 - Churchill
442 -South Albany
425 - Marshfield
422 - Dallas
420 - North Eugene

   Churchill is probably safe, assuming the Lancers beat Marshfield this week on the coast - not an easy task in Coos Bay.
   Marshfield's RPI should go up after their last game against Marist, win or lose. Marshfield might be able to squeak by South Albany's RPI.
   South Albany (0-6) still has to play the three other worst teams in their league. Playing teams with poor records can hurt your RPI. But if South Albany wins one of those games, they might keep their RPI from tanking.
   Dallas is in the same situation as South Albany, so Dallas will probably stay in the bottom three unless they win two or three.
North needs to take one of its games against Eagle Point or Springfield.  Note that nine teams in the North Region are behind North Eugene in RPI.

How I voted in the OregonLive Poll

1-1 Sherwood
2-2 Marist (Marist picked up another first place vote)
3-3. Corvallis
4-5. Mountain View
5-4. Bend (Bend hosts Mt. View Oct 21)
6-6. Lebanon (Lebanon travels to Corvallis Oct 21)
7-7. West Albany
8-9. Wilsonville
9-8. Ashland
10-12. Crescent Valley (Lost to Corvallis, Lebanon & W Alb)

On my watch list: Willamette, Silverton, Hermiston. Note that Willamette closes out the regular season at Marist and hosting Churchill.

Click to see the entire OregonLive.com polls 5A   6A

MWL Oct 13-14 Predictions

Big game - Willamette at Marist on Thursday.
I like the fact that MWL fans are giving Willamette a chance. Currently, the voting is 62-38 in favor of Marist. That compares to the other three games, where MWL fans give the favorites at least 85 percent of the vote.
   I went over this game a lot in yesterday's blog. Willamette can't rely solely on Visarraga. The Wolverines have to be able to go to the air frequently.
    The Willamette line will determine the outcome of this game. Can they improve a lot on offense over their game against Ashland when the Grizzlies lived in the Wolverine backfield and held Visarraga to less than 5 yards a carry and pressured Willamette into two interceptions while not yielding a touchdown? I'm guessing Marist's coach Geske will stop the run first and assume his speedy D backs can track down any escaping receivers.
   The Willamette D line has to deal with a Marist team that just focused on their running game last week and sprung Greg Park loose for 169 yards on 14 carries. The Wolverines can't like that, after giving up 342 yard on the ground to Ashland three weeks ago.
   Spectators - whichever team has the ball, force yourself to watch the guards and tackles for the first second of a play. Plays last about five seconds and you'll be surprised how fast you find the ball after you watch the lineman for a 'one thousand one' count. Plus, you'll already know how successful the play is going to be, because you will have already seen if holes are opening up or if D players are breaking through.
   Gotta go with Marist, but I'm hoping for a game like last week's OT thriller at Springfield.

You can still vote in my MWL fan polls

Two other Thursday games.

Churchill at Marshfield. Churchill was the first team ever in the MWL to score three touchdowns against Marist. It isn't likely that Churchill will overlook Marshfield while thinking about playing Willamette the following week. Have to go with Churchill. But, voters, a landslide vote for Churchill? The game is in Coos Bay and Marshfield put up 36 points against Ashland at home two weeks ago.

North Eugene at Eagle Point. Eagle Point will get back on track after the heart breaking OT loss last week. North is glad to have Marist and Ashland behind them.

Friday game.

Springfield at Ashland. Has Springfield's line improved enough to take on explosive Ashland? Which Ashland defense will show up? The one that held Willamette to 12 points or the one that let Mrshfield score 36? I'm going with Ashland. After Marist, Ashland is the next best team at being consistent throughout a game.

Tweet-Tweet

I'll be tweeting the scores out as they occur from the Willamette-Marist game. If you haven't signed up for my tweets and want to get updated over your phone, sign up at my Twitter page.

You can also sign up for the my MWL Facebook page. It's mostly just for football and baseball.

Photos

Eagle Point and Springfield game photos were added after last weeks games. I got a pretty good handle on using flash last week after a botched attempt the week before. It's tricky trying to fire off multiple shots with flash without burning out the flash unit. The pictures are a lot better than the previous weeks effort. Eagle Point Photos. Springfield Photos.    List of Photo Pages By Team

Willamette - Marist is here and Oh, What a Game

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:47:00 +0000

Willamette at Marist - It's Here!

I've had this game circled on my calendar since before the season began. After last season ended for Willamette, I thought the Wolverines were in good shape for the 2011 season. The Wolverines had a very good running back returning in Jordan Visarraga, some very good receivers in Mitch Crownover, Zach Hatefi and others and had the tall qb who threw a sweet ball - Kamerun Smith. Then the trade rumors started.

My big concern before teams started playing games was whether or not Willamette could find a qb to replace Smith and whether the Willamette line would develop. Of course, Willamette has found their QB in Dustin Leber. He's completing 58 per cent of his league passes, compared to Smiths 60 percent. But, as good as Willamette's receivers are, they haven't been warp speeding their way to the end zone like Marist's Taylor Walcott and Austin Baird. So Leber is averaging 'just' 186 yards a game through the air, compared to Smith's 247. Leber's feet almost closes the gap with Smith. Leber averages 35 yards a game rushing, while Smith is heading the other way, with a minus 9 yards a game rushing. (Smith almost got back to zero yards rushing after a long, juking run in the Springfield game. The long run brought out a cheer from Marist fans, but the play was called back for holding)

Willamette has the advantage in overall rushing with Visarraga's 940 rushing yards in league, more than the entire Marist team's total of 853. The Wolverines are also getting rushing production from Dante Giles (184 yards) along with Leber's 177 yards. Willamette has 1377 rushing yards as a team in league. Greg Park leads Marist with 494 yards with James Banks next on the Spartan list with 102 yards.

You'd think it would be easy to stop Marist's passing game, the Spartans only throw to three receivers - Walcott, Baird and Josh Paiement. The problem is that they average nearly 20 yards a catch. It would be more, but they tend to run out of field as they cross the end zone too often. Willamette counters with Crownover, Giles, Hatefi, Bryce York and Jordan Edris. Can't call it even in the receiving category due to the speed of Marist, but Willamette can cause problems with more options to throw to.

So, it boils down to the line, as it always does. Willamette's line has a little size advantage, but they'll be battling the strong, conditioned, technique freaks at Marist - Spartans Mitch Olive, Paxton Miller, Eric Hammertimesmith, Tony Ford, Dante Castille, Josh White and crew. The Wolverines counter with Trent Waggoner (baseball player , 6' 0 ', 220 lbs), Mitch Wilkens (6' 5", 245), Tyler Johnson (235), Sam Duncan (6' 3", 210), Lane Henderson (6' 2", 285), Drew Clements and crew. For Willamette to have a chance, each lineman will have to be quick to the punch on every play, and then get the secondary block or continue to pursue on defense. Willamette should hire a motivational speaker to pump up the limemen non-stop before and during the game.

Is Marist getting soft on D? Last year Marist gave up just one first half touchdown during league play and just four league touchdowns in total. This year, Marist has given up 3 first half touchdowns and seven altogether, with two league games to go. Is the Spartan armor getting rusty?

MWL fans are voting for Marist 61 to 39 as of Tuesday afternoon. I thinks that's a good reflection. Marist should be solidly favored, but Willamette can win it if they can focus, fire out and play out each play to the very end. Click to vote in MWL polls. I'm going to this game and I hope it's a good one, just like last week's overtime game at Springfield, speaking of which.

Springfield 35 Eagle Point 34 in Overtime.

The first five weeks of the season I try and see each team at least once. After that I try and choose what I think is going to be a great matchup. I chose right the first time out.

Did you see the article in the Register-Guard about Springfield's head coach, Skip Raish, having a heart attack during the Marshfield game and subsequently not coaching in the Churchill game the next week? Did coach Raish get too excited as the Millers beat the Pirates for a second year in a row, becoming the first ever Springield team to win back to back games against Marshfield? What I want to know is how coach Raish survived the Eagle Point game?

The Millers know how to put on a Friday Night Football Show and homecoming and senior night made this one extra special.

I didn't see any articles that gave any kind of justice to the game. I wish I would have taken notes. Strategically , there wasn't any doubt how this game would be played. Eagle Point would try and ram the ball like they did against Marist and Springfield would go through the air.

So it figures that Eagle Point scores first on a pass. Then they ram it down the field to go up 14-0 in the first quarter. It looked like Springfield was enjoying Homecoming a little too much and didn't show up to play. I'm sure the Miller fans were worried, but you can't stop a good passing team and Springfield scored on a 36 yard Auxier to Banks pass. The Millers quickly got the ball back and looked like they were going to take over the game by passing when Eagle Point's #58, Manny Valdovinos picked Auxier and took off with a big lead on a long run to the end zone.... too long of a run to the end zone for a lineman and a Miller caught Manny and stripped the ball deep in Miller territory, and Springfield recovered. No one was giving up in this game.

Eagle Point went into halftime up 14-7 and it was anybody's game. The Millers scored first in the third quarter on a pass to Taylor Travess. Eagle Point kept ramming the ball with Garrett Snow (27 punishing, clock controlling carries for 149 yards), but it was Jakob Combs who ran it in the final 5 yards to make it 20-14 Eagle Point in the third. It seemed like Eagle Point could ball control this game away if they could get the ball back. But Auxier hit Jon Emerald for a 31 yard td and a 21-20 Miller lead. Eagle Point seemed to fade and momentum shifted to the Millers. Coach Raish and the Miller fans behind him must have been feeling confident when Springfield drove past midfield to the 37 and then lined up to punt and pin Eagle Point deep with less than four minutes to go. So I line up in the Eagle Point end zone to get a photo of the Millers converging on the punt returner, but I never take the photo because Eagle Point blocks the punt and Kyle Zerger takes it in 63 yards for a go ahead TD. Snow runs it for a 2 point conversion and a 28-21 lead.

Springfield can't do anything on offense. Eagle Point takes over and gets within field goal range and kicks it with about a minute to go, but the attempt hits the crossbar and bounces off short. Still, Springfield has to go 80 yards in less than a minute. Eagle Point coach Schauffler has to like his chances. But the Millers roar down field with no time outs and Auxier hits Dylan Piquette with a 5 yard td pass. Ashton Summers kick ties the game with ten seconds to go.

I have to think Eagle Point is at a disadvantage in overtime because they don't have the type of passing game that can strike deep if they get stuffed in their running game. Eagle Point goes first and just rams it down Springfield's throat with Snow capping it off with an 8 yard run. But the 2 point conversion attempt gets foiled. Springfield's turn and they can cover ground fast. They do via the air, but it's Auxier who puts it away with his feet on a 5 yard run. Summers has been money all year, and the pressure of overtime doesn't faze him. He kicks it through the goal posts towards the Miller balloon to win the game. The balloon goes wild.

Stats

Just a reminder that the stats on the site are for league games only. For a bunch of quarterbacks who didn't have much varsity experience, the qb's are doing a great job. It's pretty rare to have a season where all but one quarterback have more td's than int's. (I don't have stats for North Eugene and Marshfield) Rushing, we have four backs over or near 100 yards per game. Visarraga is almost 200, at 188, Volz has 103, Snow 99.6 and Park 98.8. Air Lancer is in gear after a slow start. Molinski has taken over the league lead in yardage and teammate Andrew Bennion is fourth. Marist has three of the top 7 receivers. Visarraga is off by his little lonesome self with 19 rushing td's and 114 points. Baird is second with 68 points and qb White is third with 50.

Passing Receiving Rushing Scoring

Predictions tomorrow as well as How I voted in the Oct 11 OregonLive poll and how MWL teams are looking as far as playoffs go - not everybody goes to the playoffs this year. (Marist picked up another first place vote in the OregonLive poll, but is still second behind Sherwood. Ashland is alone in 8th)

Oct 7 Predictions, How I Voted in the OregonLive poll and more

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:06:00 +0000

Games I watched last week.

Eagle Point at Marist

Wow. Eagle Point went into halftime down just 7-6 to Marist. I don't think anyone could believe what they were seeing. The Eagles pounded the ball with some huge backs, namely seniors Garrett Snow (6' 1", 225) and Nick Owens (6' 2", 235), who combined for 141 yards on 26 carries for the game. Eagle junior Jakob Combs (5' 9", 180) added 61 yards. Good strategy - pound the ball and keep it out of Marist's hands for as long as possible.

In the meantime, Eagle Point was handling the Marist O, giving up zero yards on the ground, and somehow giving up just one score while Marist's Kamerun Smith was completing 10 of 14 passes in the first half.. The Spartans had lost their explosiveness.

I don't know what Marist's coach Geske's halftime speech was, but it might have been, "We're not going to try and run the ball the rest of the night." Then it was: Smith to Baird for a TD - Eagle fumble to give Marist the ball - Smith to Baird again for a TD - Eagles throw an interception - Smith to Baird for a 70 yd TD - then Smith to Walcott for a 35 yard TD. Obviously, the Spartans found their explosiveness, and the third quarter ended with Marist up 34-6. One more TD for Walcott in the fourth quarter and Josh Paiement collected a 16 yard TD pass before Combs scored the Eagles second TD.

Smith was 23 for 29 and 435 yards passing. 7 of his completions went for touchdowns.

North Eugene at Willamette

This was my first view of Willamette, Visarraga and crew. It was my second look at North Eugene.

Willamette jumped out quickly and went into the lockerroom at half up 35-0. Visarraga gained 168 yards on 21 carries before taking a seat early. Willamette is in the precarious situation this week of overlooking Marshfield when the Pirates visit Willamette. The Wolverines might just be looking at Marshfield's 1-4 season record and thinking, "This'll be a cakewalk, and we can't wait for the Marist game the following week and our old friend Kamerun Smith."

North Eugene dressed fewer than 30 players, with several young men on the sidelines with injury. It's really too bad there aren't more senior Highlanders on the team. North players have very good technique and are fighting each play. But it's tough on the players when there aren't bodies to come in and spell a player once in a while, or cover for an injured player. The good news is that North has a lot of juniors who are good athletes and can bring it. Kevin Haase (baseball player), Ryan Hodges, Dalton Pachano and Johnny Dawason were all over the place in the Willamette game. North has 17 juniors on the roster including starting QB Tyler Knabe. The juniors and a few sophomores are getting a ton of playing time. If they can bring in some more players in next years junior and sophomore classes, North can move up.

Hoo-ray for high school football

My visit to Springfield two weekends ago and to Willmaette last week reminded me of what is so good about high school football. I don't know that anyone else does as good a job as Springfield in putting on a great evening of entertainment. Silke is a great venue starting with the basics, like an easy to find and easy to use concession stand, easy to find restrooms, etc... to it's covered seating. Then there is the almost always state champion cheer team plus the great Miller marching band. Of course, the football players running through the Miller balloon has to be the best intro in the MWL.

Next up for a great MWL spectator experience might be Willamette. How can you beat the Wolverine mascot?   (WSU has Butch the Coug, but that's a college) While Willamette doesn't have the best scenic stadium, there's something good about the covered seats and the fact that you can actually see each other in the stands. That's because Willamette has a lot of lights over the spectators, unlike some dark stands where grandma is about to tumble and break her hip because she didn't see a toddler in the stair way. But the best part of a Willamette game has to be the students and cheerleaders doing their line dance. Pure, honest fun.

Oct 7 Predictions

Note that all four league games are in the Eugene-Springfield area this week.

I gambled last week and tried to gain a two game lead on MWL fans in the polls. I picked Springfield over Churchill, while MWL fans picked Churchill. I knew that Springfield hasn't put together stellar defensive outings, but I thought I might sneak one by the MWL fans if Air Lancer couldn't click on O. Fat chance. Churchill always comes together the second half of the season. Lancer QB Mitch Reese could have waited one more game for my sake, but, noooo.  Reese completed 17 passes for 315 yards and 4 tds.

Eagle Point at Springfield

I think this one is tougher than MWL fans think. Yes, Springfield is giving up points, but so is Eagle Point. I'm going to this game and I think there's a strong chance that it will be high scoring. Eagle Point will pound the ball and I think the Millers will try the airways. I'll go with home field advantage and Springfield and give MWL fans a chance to go ahead of me. MWL fans are voting for the Eagles by a 2 to 1 margin.

Marshfield at Willamette

Looking for an upset? Look to the Marshfield Pirates. The Pirates have been installing a new offense this year and it looked like money against Ashland last week. The Wolverines are thinking Marist in two weeks. Still, I'm going with the Wolverines.

Marist at Churchill

The Lancer's really clicked last week on offense. Churchill's Mitch Reese is comfortably in second place in league passing yardage and one of his receivers, Tucker Molinski, is in second in receiving yardage.... It will be interesting to see what Marist works on this week on offense after their zero rushing yards in the first half last week against Eagle Point. Marist should be able to handle the Churchill rushing game and the Spartan secondary is too quick for anyone in this league until proven otherwise. Going with Marist.

Ashland at North Eugene

Enjoy this one. Ashland puts an exciting offense on the field and North always tries to pull out all of the stops. Going with Ashland.

You can still vote in the MWL fan polls. Click Here

How I voted in the OregonLive.com poll this week.

My votes followed by the actual poll results for the OregonLive.com 5A poll

1-1. Sherwood
2-2. Marist
3-3. Corvallis
4-4. Mt View
5-5. Bend
6-6. Lebanon
7-7. West Albany
8-T8. Wilsonville
9.-T8 Ashland
10-12. Crescent Valley

Watch List: Willamette, Silverton, Hermiston

Marshfield's Coach Helfrich

Many of you know that Marshfield lost a special coach last month. - Mike Helfrich. This one hit me pretty hard.

I had just seen Mike at the North Eugene game. Mike was one of those people who instantly made you feel great about yourself. What made Mike extra special was that he continued to attend Marshfield events after he retired from coaching, forever encouraging Marshfield youth to improve just by his being present. You could always find him in the northeast bleachers at Hoffine Court with coach Wigle. You could find him anywhere there was a Pirate event. Mike had that old school mix of sending a message that an athlete needs to be really fit and tough, yet players always knew Mike was looking out for the best in his players. They say you can judge a man's character by the company he keeps. Mike was good friends with coach Wigle and another former coach, Bill Lilley. Both Wigle and Lilley shared Mike's ability to instantly make people feel great about themselves.   They must have really felt great when it was just the three of them together. Farewell Mike.

Thursday/Friday Predictions and halfway thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:24:00 +0000

QB's, Intensity, Predictions and How I Voted in the OregonLive.com poll

We are halfway through the regular season and we still don't know which teams are going to fight for the high playoff seeds.

I've seen everyone except Willamette and Eagle Point, so I'm starting to get a feel for the teams. I'll see Willamette Thursday against North Eugene and Eagle Point Friday at Marist.

There were two big questions before the season started. Which quarterbacks would progress the fastest and furthest? And would any teams step up in game intensity and conditioning to match Marsit?

Quarterbacks

Of the quarterbacks I've seen, I'd say that two of our MWL qb's are looking really good. Ashland's Danial White has shown he's special. He's perfectly suited for Ashland's offense. He runs, he passes and he doesn't make bad mistakes. It's flat out fun watching the Grizzlies. Marist's Kamerun Smith is getting dialed in. He's thrown just one interception since the season opener against Corvallis. Smith might have seen his biggest regular season test in the opener against Corvallis, but he'll get some pressure the next three weeks from Eagle Point, Churchill and Willamette. For some reason, I'm thinking Smith will get a lot of pressure from Willamette. Smith's ratio of ten touchdown passes to one interception in league helps give him a college qb rating of 209. He has room for improvement in completion percentage, but there's usually a trade off if you start forcing passes.

Three other quarterbacks seem to be on the verge of breaking through and being consistently good. Springfield's Britton Auxier, Willamette's Dusitn Leber, and Churchill's Mitch Reese. Auxier has a college qb rating of 160.9 in three league games. Considering that Auxier didn't throw any picks against Marist, and that he won't see the Spartans again, if ever, until at least the playoffs; he's probably going to be in the running for second in league passing yardage. Auxier's stats against Marist suffered from several drops by receivers 'in the middle'. I would have dropped them, too, the way Marist's James Banks was clobbering receivers. Leber is completing a good percentage of his passes (58% in league) and racking up the yardage. If he fine tunes his radar and reduces his INT's, we're going to watch the Wolverines explode - as if they aren't scoring enough points. Reese is completing 60 % of his passes in league play and has 4 td's to no interceptions. Can't do much better than that, but the Lancers are one and two in league. Interestingly, Reese has the most completions in league play, but not a lot of td passes to show for it. Air Lancer just hasn't been able to consistently get long gainers our of their passing game..... It takes a combination of a good qb, solid and consistent O-line play, and near perfect qb-receiver timing before a quarterback can settle in. When teams get all three segments working all the time, the teams break out on O. I think you'll see at least two of these three teams put it together by playoffs. Maybe all three.

I don't have much to go on for the other three qb's. I have stats from just two of Eagle Point's games and I won't see Eagle Point qb Jorge Quntero until this Friday. Quintero is one of two sophomore qb's in the MWL. Ashland's White is the other soph. Quintero and Eagle Point have improved their offensive scoring output each game. Marist is up next, so the Eagles will find out if the improvement is long lasting.. Not sure about the Marshfield and North Eugene quarterbacks as I haven't seen any stats from either team. But both quarterbacks ran their offenses well in the game I saw.

So it looks like the MWL are really coming along. And we get to see all but Auxier return next year, along with some of the league's best receivers!

Conditioning & Intensity

I didn't share this with a lot of people last year. But in my pre-season visits, after watching Marist work out in the weight room and on the field, I thought to myself - "It's all over for everyone else." Not only did Marist have some physical beasts, but even the puniest player was doing miraculous things in the weightroom and then they'd be a baby beast on the practice field. The baby beasts really rewarded coach Geske when they stepped up and covered for all of the early Marist injuries last season.

This year, Marist was up to the same old workout and practice routine, minus Mayes, Silver and Deveraux. But I really noticed that other schools had ratcheted up their workouts. Plus, I made my first ever visits to Ashland and Eagle Point, which impressed me. Even with other school's improving their conditioning, Marist still has the edge. What I think I'm seeing this year is that Marist's competitors are stronger than last year. However, the stamina isn't up to Marist's level. I notice the stamina and intensity issue mostly with Marist's defense. From the get go in both Marist games I saw, the D started like they were shot out of canon's and never let up. I think absorbing knock out blows from Marist from the first whistle takes other teams by surprise. Then it becomes a test of Marist's opponent's mental game when the opponents realize that Marist keeps pounding and pounding play after play. (Oddly, Marist's offense has been a little lethargic out of the gates. I find that odd because so many of Marist's players go two ways. Maybe the two way guys love defense more.)

Predictions

Tonight. Willamette over North Eugene.
Tonight will be my first look at Willamette. I'm excited to see what the Leber-Visarraga- Crownover - York- Giles- Hatefi combo can do. I'm particularly interested in the Wolverine line. This will be my second peek at North. I'm expecting them to show a little explosiveness and hopefully as much trickery as in the North-Marshfield game.

Friday with league records

Springfield (1-2) at Churchill 1-2.
58% of MWL fans are going with Churchill.
This is the game of the week. I guess voters are going with home field advantage. But I'm impressed with Auxier, Emerald, Price-Clark and crew from Springfield. It's possible that the Millers don't show up mentally at Churchill after their disappointing loss to Maist, but if the Millers look at the 14 points they laid on Marist as a good thing, then Springfield should come out pumped. Springfield can also think how Marist came out of the locker and blew the hinges off the door at Silke and start the Churchill game the way Marist started the game at Springfield. Churchill will answer with lefty Mitch Reese and his receiving stable of Molinski, Bennion and Reid. Have fun watching this game.
I'm giving MWL fans a chance to catch me on the season. I'm going with Springfield.

Ashland (2-1) at Marshfield (1-2).
Two storied programs. Will Ashland lay an egg on the coast like Eagle Point did in 2010? I don't think so, Ashland's Coach Hall has a lot of respect for the Ashland-Marshfield rivalry. Fun game to watch because Ashland is, well, just fun to watch. And Marshfield's no huddle can score in a hurry. I'm picking Ashland.

Eagle Point (2-1) at Marist (3-0).
This will be my first look at Eagle Point. The Eagles looked pretty physical when I saw them practice in August. It'll be interesting to see how they compare to Marist. This will be my third Marist game. I'm curious to see if the Spartan offense can come out on fire.
Have to go with Marist.

You can vote MWL fan poll

How I voted in the OregonLive.com poll

Here's how I voted followed by the OregonLive.com rank

1-1. Sherwood
2-2. Marist
3-3. Corvallis
4-6. Crescent Valley
5-5. Mountain View
6-4. Bend
7-7. Lebanon
8-8. West Albany
9-tie 9. Wilsonville
10-tie 9. Ashland

Watch list: Silverton, Hermiston, Willamette

Friday Sept 23 MWL Predictions

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:51:00 +0000

Trivia questions:
1) Which school last beat Marist in a regular season game?
2) Which school last beat Marist in a Midwestern League game?
3) Which MWL team scored more than one touchdown against Marist since Marist joined the MWL?

Marist at Springfield.

The Millers made history in Coos Bay last week with the huge 61-13 win over Marshfield. Now they have a chance to make more history when they play Marist.   I'll get to the 'making history' aspect later.

Springfield found an air game last week when Britton Auxier went 16 for 23 and four touchdown passes.  Better yet, the Millers had a nice running game going. Whoever the Millers go with at qb, it'll be a lot tougher this week facing Bennett Chiongbian, Taylor Walcott, James Banks, Levi Yarborough and Austin Baird. Chiongbian, Walcott and Banks each have two picks so far this year.

As far as Marist's offense goes, I think they are still a work in progress. If I'm right, that's not good for opponents as the Spartans scored 49 and 60 points in the last two games. But I have to think the Spartans want to spread their passes to more than Walcott and Baird. Maybe not, but if one of those guys gets injured, it will be much easier to cover the one left playing and then put pressure on Marist's running game.

Bottom line is speed kills, and Marist has speed in spades. Not just in Walcott and Baird, but all through the roster. Have to pick Marist.

I'm looking forward to the Marist-Springfield game, although I wish it could be a few weeks later. I'd like to see Springfield play Marist with a quarterback having more playing time. So far this year, Miller qb time has been split between Auxier and Ty Mannila.  Another issue I'm interested in observing is Springfield's conditioning level. Springfield's coach Raish has done a great job of increasing the turnout for Miller football, and he's got the kids working hard in the weight room. Have the Millers worked hard enough to keep up with Marist for four quarters, or will this years Springfield juniors learn they need to take it up yet another notch?

How can Springfield make history this week? They just need to update the answers to the trivia questions:
1) Springfield is the last team to beat Marist during the regular season, 34-33 in overtime on September 12, 2008.
2) No MWL team has beaten Marist since Marist joined the MWL in the fall of 2010.
3) No MWL team (including Ashland and Eagle Point's 2010 teams) has scored more than 7 points against Marist since Marist joined the MWL.

Willamette at Ashland

MWL fans are leaning towards Willamette by a 60-40 split so far. I'll provide some considerations about Willamette before I pick a winner.

Willamette is 3-0, but their opponents are a combined 2-7. Two games ago, Willamette put several fumbles on the ground, two of which were returned for touchdowns. Expect Ashland to put their helmets on the ball. Visarraga can't score six rushing touchdowns again, can he?

This is the game to watch this week. Someone put it on TV.

Visarraga is trying to establish himself as one of the better MWL backs in the past ten years, while the entire Willamette team is trying to establish itself as a legitimate top tier program.
Ashland QB Danial White is probably the most exciting qb in the league this year. The Ashland team is trying to establish that you don't have to be a huge school to have a great football team.
Willamette's qb, Dustin Leber, is probably the most exciting qb in the league this year. Oops, that's two 'most exciting qb's'. And I"ll be in Springfield wishing I was watching the qb's in Ashland. Darn!
Ashland's receivers are good and unselfish and they don't care who gets the catches - Franlin Lime, Sam Geisslinger, Quaid Walters and Jordan Thompson.
Willamette has reloaded their receiving corp with another stellar group - Mitch Crownover, Zach Hatefi and Bryce York.

Winner? Once again, speed kills. Visarraga has it, and the moves. Willamette should take this one. I'm envisioning a game with a lot of explosive plays by both teams. This will be great game to watch, the AD should double the price of admission.

Marshfield at Eagle Point

Last year, Eagle Point beat Willamette 58-19, then travelled to play Marshfield and lost 41-32. Last week, Eagle Point reversed their fortunes against Willamette and lost 55-22, so the Eagle's will likely reverse their fortunes when they host Marshfield. Both teams are 1-1 in league. Eagle Point was plagued by turnovers last week against Willamette. That's not likely this week at home. I"m going with Eagle Point.

Churchill at North Eugene

Both teams are 0-2 in league. Churchill has lost two heartbreakers against the two southern MWL foes. Lancer junior AB Mitch Reese has completed almost 60% of his passes. Receivers Andrew Bennion, Tucker Molinski and Tyler Reid (out of the backfield) all have at least 10 catches in two league games. The Lancers running game is averaging only 2.3 yards per carry in the two league games. Churchill will want to improve those rushing numbers before they play Springifeld on September 30.

North has put Marist behind them and has three games left at home, including Churchill. Going with Churchill.

Join the voting in the MWL polls.

Twitter and Facebook
You can receive my tweets from the Springfield game and retweets of other games (thanks Chris Park for Marist scores) by following the MWL Twitter ( http://twitter.com/#!/mwlnow ) or the MWL Facebook page. Don't forget to 'like' the MWL Facebook page. You're son can tell you how to set up your phone for tweets or Facebook emails.

Photos
Each team has a photo team on my website. I usually post photos on Monday or Tuesday after the games. I'll be adding game photos for Springfield next Tuesday, and Willamette and Eagle Point the following Tuesday. I usually post eight to ten photos on the page and then set up a gallery on Smug Mug where you can purchase photos. Half of the profit from the photos goes to the schools booster club. Team Photos

Sept 16 Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:10:00 +0000

The two marquee games last Friday went in opposite directions - a cliffhanger and a landslide. Churchill moved into the red zone at the end of the Ashland game, only to let the win slip through their fingers. A couple of miles away, Willamette catapulted themselves into a top 10 ranking with a 55-22 win over Eagle Point.

I attended the Ashland at Churchill game.

The beginning of the game reminded me of last year's Eagle Point at Churchill game early in the 2010 season. Churchill let Ashland score twice in the first quarter for a 13-0 Grizzly lead; just like Eagle Point jumped out ahead 14-0 over Churchill in the first quarter of their 2010 game. The first Ashland score was on a stunning 42 yard keeper by Grizzly soph quarterback, Danial White. That was the start of a 125 yard, three touchdown evening for the Ashland QB. After a Churchill three and out, Ashland put together another drive, capped by another rushing td by White. Churchill followed that with another three and out. At that point it looked like a long night for the Lancers.

Churchill finally woke up when Andrew Bennion hauled in a TD pass with four minutes left in the second quarter to pull Churchill within seven, 13-6. But unlike last year, when Churchill went into the locker room at the half tied 14-14 with Eagle Point, Ashland scored again on a 2 yard run by Jon Volz to give Ashland a 20-6 halftime lead.

Churchill's Tyler Reid played a large part in a quick Lancer score to open the third quarter. Reid returned the kick off 23 yards to the Churchill 43 yard line. Three plays later, Reid bolted 22 yards to take the Lancers to the Ashland 20.  Three plays later, Reid hauled in a 17 yard pass from Mitch Reese to make it 20-13 Ashland with 10:23 left in the third. Plenty of time if you're a Lancer.

Ashland went three and out their next series, and a 39 yard punt by Franklin Lime, who was stellar with his kicking game all night, pushed the Lancers back to their own 19. Churchill was quickly driving upfield when Ashland recovered a fumble after a big Lancer gainer on a pass play. It was Danial White time again. White covered the 40 yards to the end zone by completing a 14 yard pass to Jordan Thompson and then covering the next 26 yards on his own, streaking down the middle of the field all alone for his second long td of the night. That made it 26-13 with 5:22 left in the third.

Churchill's Kyle Salisbury returned it 24 yards to the Lancer 29, but a penalty on a nice gainer for Churchill led to another three and out. Ashland was pretty much done with their offense for the night, but another punt by Lime, this one for 44 yards, pushed Churchill back to their own 4. After quickly trading three and outs, Churchill put together a 14 play drive. Reese was six for eight on the drive, spreading the ball around to Tucker Molinski, Jake DeZarn (baseball player), Reid and Bennion. Reese rewarded himself for his good passing by running it in from the five to make it 26-20 with 7:08 left in the game - plenty of time to score a td.

A great kick off by Josh Han of the Lancers pinned Ashland on their own 10 yard line.  Ashland needed a long drive in order to kill the clock, strengthen their field position and keep the ball out of Churchill's hands. The Grizzlies were able to run nine plays, including a 38 yard punt by Lime which went out on the Lancer 19.

Lancer's last chance
The Lancers had to go 81 yards in just a couple of minutes to win it. So they jump offside. 1st and 15 from their own 14. Grizzly Alec Ralston broke up two passes before Lancer qb Reese ran for 14 yards to make it fourth and one.

Running play? Nope. A 5 yard pass to Molinski.   First and ten at the Lancer 30. Make that the Lancer 29, after a Lancer hold on a nine yard gainer. After a dropped pass, Reese hit Reid twice. Once for a first down and again for a nine yard gain, taking the ball to the Ashland 49. Grizzly soph Mason Montgomery broke up a pass and Griz Conor Morrison tackled Aaron Ingram for a one yard loss on a pass play. Fourth and two for Churchill. A face mask penalty gives the Lancers the ball on the Grizzly 45. On second down, Reid hauls in a pass for 17 yards, but an official throws a flag for clipping on Churchill. After a discussion between officials, the flag is picked up and a 'no penalty' signal is given. A couple of plays later, Churchill picks up a first down on a personal foul penalty, moving the ball to the Ashland 14. Reese scrambles to the ten to make it second and six with 25 seconds remaining. Griz Sam Giessinger breaks up a well thrown ball in the left corner of the end zone. A third down pass then sails through the outstretched arms of an uncovered Lancer, and Griz Alec Ralson breaks up the 4th and six pass by Reese to Reid. Ball goes over Ashland and White takes a knee to end the game.

Can't get any closer than that.

Stat wise, Ashland out gained Churchill 362 to 256 in yards. Two of White's td runs were longer than the longest Churchill play, a 23 yard catch by DeZarn, a baseball player.   White has what you call 'moxie'. Some coaches say 'savvy', but I like the older word, 'moxie'. If you haven't seen White yet, when you see him you'll know what I'm talking about..... Lime's punting was outrageously good...... Penalties almost killed Ashland, which had 10 on the day for 91 yards..... Ashland's offense was more balanced than Churchill's. Four Grizzly receivers had catches of 18 yards or more, and Ashland averaged six yards per carry. Churchill had three receivers with catches of 18 or more yards, but the Lancer running game was throttled. For Churchill, it might be a chicken or egg activity. If the Lancer's backs were more successful, the receivers would have less pressure. But maybe Air Lancer needs to stretch the field more with it's passing game, and the runners won't face a brick wall. Who knows? Questions like that are why I write and don't coach.

Willamette 55 Eagle Point 22.

I scratched in Willamette for a top ten vote after their lopsided win. I'm a little hesitant to give the Wolverines the vote as their opponents are a combined 2-7..... My wife, a principal in the Bethel (Willamette) school district, kept texting me that 'some guy' is going wild and scoring a lot of touchdowns. 'Some Guy', of course is Jordan Visarraga from Willamette, who scored six td's Friday. He ran the ball 26 times for 211 yards. He'd still be going, but he was cut short by crossing the goal line six times. Willamette qb Dustin Leber gained 77 yards rushing on 11 carries and added another 183 through the air. I haven't seen any Eagle Point stats, so I'm don't know if they were stopped on the ground, through the air, or both. Defensivie lineman Trent Waggoner had an almost too long return for a pick six. Waggoner is a baseball player. He needs to run some more poles.

Willamette travels to Ashland this weekend in a big game for both teams. Willamette has given up 38 and 35 points in two road trips. But Ashland might have to do better than 38 if the Grizzlies want to beat Willamette. Willamette's lowest offensive production is 40 points.

Springfield 61 Marshfield 13.

Springfield made history when the Millers win established the Millers first ever win streak against Marshfield. The series has been going since 1951.  The Millers did so in style with back to back 50-6 and 61-13 wins. This may have been the last meeting between the two schools as Marshfield is likely to go 4A next year. Marshfield has about 740 students enrolled in the 9th through 12th grades.

If you looked closely at the stats, you noted that Britton Auxier was 16 for 23 for 230 yards. Auxier hit four different receivers for td's. Six different ball carriers gained 275 yards for the Millers, averaging 6.7 yards per carry.

Springfield hosts Marist Friday. The Millers are the next MWL team to take the Spartan challenge - 'Can you score on us"?' So far it's Marist 109 MWL opponents 0.

Marist 60 North Eugene 0

Smith threw five touchdown passes in twelve passing attempts. Three were to Austin Baird and two to Taylor Walcott.   Eight Spartans carried the ball.

Marist travels to Springfield Friday and North hosts Churchill.

My OregonLive.com poll vote with the actual poll results in parenthesis..

1-1. Sherwood
2-2. Marist
3-3. Corvallis
4-7. Crescent Valley
5-6. Mountain View
6-5. Bend
7-4. Wilsonville
8-10. Lebanon
9-8. West Albany
10-9 Willamette

Watch list is Silverton, Hermiston, and Ashland. Obviously, the Willamette at Ashland game this Friday will say a lot about both teams.

Stats

I haven't found sources for stats for Eagle Point, Marshfield and North Eugene. I get stats from the other teams either directly from the team, via MaxPreps, or from the school's football team website. If you can direct me to a source for those three teams or send me stats, I'll update them. By the way, I corrected some receiving stat errors for Ashland and have uploaded the corrected receiving stats.

MWL players in the pros.
Thanks to a fan for reminding me that there is a seventh Marist player playing football in college. I hadn't seen Logan Silver on the Holy Cross roster, but he's definitely on the roster. If you know of anyone else, let me know. Email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com. Linfield and the U of O have the largest number of MWL athletes - four.

Vote!
You're not to young to vote in my polls. I'm ahead of you folks after two weeks of league games.

Get Tweets or follow on Facebook.
Want to get texted the score of the Marist at Springfield game this Friday? Follow me on Twitter or
'like me' on Facebook and link it to your cell phone. If you're at a game, you can text me the score (after each quarter is fine) at 541-337-1311.

September 23 predictions tomorrow. Looks like MWL fans and I will be on the same page again this week.

MWL Predictions for Sept 16

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:42:00 +0000

Three significant games this week....

   Eagle Point at Willamette. We'll be down to at least three undefeated teams in league play after this game. This game is tough to call. Eagle Point was blown out by #3 ranked Mt. View and then squeaked by Churchill 21-20. Willamette blew out South Albany (what team won't) and then tried to fumble their way to a loss against Springfield before prevailing 40-35.
   I'm going with Willamette. Start with home field advantage for the Wolverines. Add in Visarraga's running and db play and Leber's solid qb play so far.  Willamette can't fumble away two touchdowns again, can they? Defense is a big question for Willamette, but Eagle Point has yet to get their offense going, scoring just 3 touchdowns in 8 quarters of regulation play.  Both teams picked up a few votes in the latest OregonLive poll . (I'll write about that later in this blog) But I can't imagine either team will be overconfident for this game. Bottom line, this is a game of whether Willamette's defense or Eagle Point's offense steps up.

    Ashland and Churchill. Two southpaws will be on the mound. How often do you see that in high school football? Danial White for Ashland and Mitch Reese for Churchill.
    White paid his dues last week against Marist. Reese had a nice day against Eagle Point. Reese was 20-31 for 173 yards, but no td's through the air, although he picked up two with his feet. Even though the Lancer's scored three td's on the ground, Churchill's running game was anemic, averaging just a little over two yards per carry. So I'm thinking Ashland can focus a little more on pass D and give up a few more yards to the Churchill runing game than Eagle Point gave up.
    Ashland couldn't move the ball against Marist last week. But that's going to be the fate of many MWL opponents this year. Grizzlie running back Jon Volz did the most damage against the Spartans, so look for Volz to do well at Churchill. Ashland's receivers were bottled up all night.  If you think they would have to do better against Churchill, remember that Churchill picked off three passes against Eagle Point.
    I'm going with Churchill.

    Springfield at Marshfield. This game is huge for a couple of reasons. The first is historical. The Millers have never beaten Marshfield two years in row. The Millers won last year, 50-6. Secondly, Springfield has high hopes this year. The Millers have a huge line and have a wrecking ball that runs out of the backfield in Daysean Price-Clark. The Millers need this game if they are to work their way into the top two or three spots in the MWL.
    Marshfield looked good out of their no huddle offense last week, but their defense was porous against North. The Pirates also have to tighten up their special teams play.
     This games is a match up of Marshfield's no huddle and running backs against Springfield's size. I think Springfield is going to make some history. I'm going with the Millers.

North Eugene at Marist. David versus Goliath.
    Yesterday, I wrote that coach Geske should put the Marist boys through a refresher course by referencing Samuel I, Chapter 17. Someone emailed me and wrote, "Shouldn't you have said the North coach will use David and Goliath for motivation?." Well, beings that my wife is a principal in a public school and I taught at Marshfield High, I was thinking that North's coach Rivera might get in a little trouble bringing out the bible in a public school.
   Coach Geske could use it to try and not repeat history. While we think of the size and weaponry disparity when we think of the David and Goliath story, it should be noted that Goliath was a real jerk.  Goliath would have earned more than a personal foul for his 'taunting'. I'm sure he would have been ejected.
Have to go with Marist. But enjoy this game. It'll be interesting to see how Marist's qb progresses. Smith certainly had a better game in his second game in a Spartan uniform. And it's always fun to watch the speedy Marist receivers. Hopefully, North will be as sneaky as they were last week against the Pirates. And if the Highlanders can cut down their penalties, they just might be the first MWL team to score on the Spartans this year.

My votes in this week's OregonLive poll. Followed by OregonLive rank.

1-3.      Mt View (Can't believe they crushed our Eagles)
2-1.      Sherwood
3-2.      Marist
4-4.      Corvallis
5-7.      Crescent Valley
6-6.      Bend
7-5.      Wilsonville
8-11.   Lebanon
9-9.     West Albany
10-10. Eagle Point

    I dropped Ashland from my top 10 watch list. I'm watching Willamette, Churchill and Hermiston. I don't have Silverton on my watch list, but they are ranked 8th after beating Springfield 46-14 and Woodburn (by 1 in OT). I consider that I'm peeking at Silverton, not watching.
    Notice I gave Eagle Point a vote, yet I predicted a Willamette win over Eagle Point tomrrow. When I voted, I didn't have Willamette or Eagle Points stats. I still haven't seen any stats on Eagle Point, but I liked the solid stats of Willamette's qb, Leber, and Visarraga's running stats.
   Mountain View and Sherwood play each other this week.

   I just want to remind everyone that there are no MWL quarterbacks who are seniors, and only one qb had starting experience last year. So give them some time to develop.  Each quarterback will improve every time out, but some will get better faster than others. All of the qb's look like very good athletes, so how rapidly they improve probably depends on how good their line is at protection and whether or not their running backs can take some pressure off of the passing game. In any event, the offensive schemes throughout the league are pretty exciting to watch. Don't be surprised if we have several teams who stumble early in the season, yet do well at playoff time because the qb and the team have jelled.
And needless to say. Wait until next year!

Some reminders:
    If you have any comments about my blogs, you can comment directly on the blog page or you can email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com.
    I'll be at the Ashland-Churchill game this Friday. If you're going to be at another game, I'd appreciate it if you'd text me the score. My cell is 541-337-1311.
    You can receive my tweets of the Ashland game and retweets of other games (thanks Chris Park for Marist scores) by following the MWL Twitter or the MWL Facebook page. Don't forget to 'like' the MWL Facebook page.  You're son can tell you how to set up your phone for tweets or Facebook emails.
    Also, if you know of a player who isn't listed on the college or pro pages, please email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com. I've expanded the college list beyond D-1 schools. It now includes Linfield. Marist has at least six kids playing college ball!

Wild League Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:44:00 +0000

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.

Opening Day & QB Review, Plus Sept 9 Predictionss

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:41:00 +0000

Sorry to be cramming so much into one blog. I tried to write up my MWL opening weekend thoughts over labor day weekend, but I couldn't get over my Pirates, Ducks and Winnipeg Blue Bombers losing. So I'm testing your reading patience with:

- Opening day thoughts
- QB update
- 5A football poll
- Sept 9 predictions

The MWL is off to a pretty good start. Much better than 2010 when six teams went 1-5. Last year, Churchill played in a jamboree and North Eugene had a bye. This year's 4-3 record on opening day will be a huge improvement in all team's RPI this season. Even some of the losses could turn out to be good for the RPI if Mountain View and North Bend do well in their respective leagues, which they should.

Marist 16 Corvallis 14 at Corvallis.

I attended this game. My main two thoughts are
1) If you're thinking Marist should have won by more, think again. Corvallis is a very good team with a great offense and a tough defense. Corvallis has four players in the class of 2012 Oregon Top 100 list, while Marist has only Walcott.
Offensively for Corvallis, their QB was 21-33 passing. That's great, but he got too hungry for the big one and tossed two deep bombs into the end zone - to Taylor Walcott of Marist.
Corvallis's D was able to cover the deep pass, only giving up one long pass to Marist's Austin Baird, while picking off three passes. Corvallis also kept the Marist backs in check. Greg Park had a 22 yard run for Marist, but Covallis kept Park and James Banks from doing much damage the rest of the time.
2) If a MWL team is going to beat Marist, they better do it soon, because Marist won't be making as many mistakes in a few weeks. Marist travels to Ashland this Friday, where the Grizzlies could set a man-trap.

What about Marist?

Marist certainly has a different personality than last year. They no longer have the spectacular running threat at quarterback, but they have two backs in Park and Banks who know how to read blocks and are tough to bring down. Neither has break-away speed, but there are plenty of 20 and 30 yard runs in these two backs.
Marist's receivers. Fuhgetaboutit. Kamerun Smith spread his passes evenly among Baird, Walcott and Josh Paiment while sneaking in a nine yard toss to Park. The most fun watching Marist receivers is when Baird is blocking for the other receivers. Baird doesn't care where he is on the field, he hunts down defenders, even if they already have a Marist receiver in their grasp. Baird will slam into the opponent and try and separate the opponent from his teammate. My camera takes 8 shots per second. I know if I don't see Baird in the first frame, I'll see him flying in by the last one. Baird looks like he is having too much fun.
Kamerun Smith at QB. 17 for 30 passing at a little over 11 yards per completion. Not bad for a first outing with his new team. And against a top 10 team. Best thing was that Smith kept his cool after three picks. Corvallis was constantly knocking at the door and had pulled within two with well over 11 minutes in the fourth quarter. A few minutes later, Smith connected with Baird on a bomb to put Marist in a first and goal situation. Marist didn't score on the drive, but the field position Marist gained on this drive is what ultimately won the game. It was good to watch Smith keep his cool. It's going to be fun watching Smith progress.

One personality trait that hasn't changed for Marist is their 'We are one' attitude. Somehow, Marist makes every player feel like a contributor, no matter how big or fast. Last year in the first game, three key players went down with injuries, and some of the replacements were about half the size of the starters. But the replacements played like animals and Marist still won. This year, injuries during the game weren't an issue, but the pressure put on by Corvallis was intense. Corvallis took four turnovers away from Marist and the Corvallis Qb seemingly could complete a pass at will; but when the play had to be made, someone from Marist always stepped up and you never knew who it would be. Everyone covered each others back.

As for the game.... It was very exciting and both lines and linebacker corps were going at it. Four turnovers by both sides on a perfect night. Neither coach could have liked their own number of turnovers. Even though Marist led throughout the game, It felt like Corvallis had gained the momentum when they scored 15 seconds into the fourth quarter to pull within 2. A few minutes later, Marist fumbled the ball away and Corvallis drove it down the field only to fumble it away with 1:56 left. Marist fans were hoping that Marist would put the game away. But Marist couldn't get out of their end of the field, getting pushed backwards to their 21 for a fourth and 14. Marist punted it to their own 40. Corvallis only needed a field goal, but Marist's Bennet Chiongbian picked off a fluttering pass to finally close the door.

I posted a picture of Taylor Walcott doing an Incredible Hulk imitation as Ausitn Baird was being dragged down after a 42 yard pass reception. Walcott had a game. Two picks in the endzone, a td reception and another TD off of an end around. I usually post a picture of a great play as soon as I get home, but there was something about Walcott being so happy for Baird (and the Marist team) that made me think I just had to post the picture. Plus, it's a horrible Incredible Hulk pose. I guess I owe Walcott a good photo.

Other MWL games

The convincing wins by Ashland , Churchill and Willamette didn't surprise me. However, Willamette scoring 67 points is an eye opener. Marshfield and Springfield losing wasn't a shock, but the scores were a little wider than I would have guessed. The big surprise was Eagle Point's 55-6 loss to Mountain View. We can expect every team in the MWL to take a few games to get their offense together as every team is working with a new QB, but I didn't think Mountain View could run up 55 points on the Eagles.

Willamette's Jordan Visarraga has been getting a little pre-season press for his defensive skills. Might want to check him out on O, too, after he gained 270 yards rushing and scored 4 td's. The Wolverines didn't have to go to the air much, but they still scored three times via air mail, including td's by Mitch Crownover and Zach Hatefi.
Springfield certainly had to be disappointed. Their big line was expected to lead the way against a tough Silverton team. We'll never know how good the Miller line could have been that game, though, as the Millers killed themselves with turnovers and drops; including three should-have-been tds.
Churchill's Air Lancer delivered nearly 20 yards per completed pass. But keep your eyes on a potentially much improved running game. Aaron Smith gained nearly 8 yards per carry, and soph Tyler Reid rushed ten times and gained over 12 yards per carry. Benson isn't Corvallis, but the Lancer linemen must have been clearing out some pretty big holes.
I don't have a feel for why Eagle Point struggled mightily against Mountain View. Maybe it's the 6' 3" Mountain View Hollister brothers, a qb-wr combo. Both guys are in the Top 100 list, along with an all world linebacker.
Ashland's qb Danial White was very efficient in his outing against Klamath Falls. The Grizzlies jumped out to a 33-0 lead in the second quarter after three and outs on their first two drives of the game.
Marshfield's loss to the Bulldogs has to hurt all that much more as they lost Tyler Johnson to a broken arm.

Quarterback review

All MWL teams have new QB's this year, with Marist's Kamerun Smith being the only QB who was a regular starter last year (but at Willamette).
Smith was 17-19 for 191 yards. He connected with Walcott for a td, but was picked three times. Earlier in this blog, I noted his fourth quarter poise. I think the Marist line is going to give Smith a lot of time to read the field, and as he learns how, he'll find the open receivers and drill the ball in when he needs to. MWL teams are hoping it's later than sooner.
Ashland's Danial White was 14-22 for 179 yards, threw three tds and ran for one. Add that to his early August performance in the Pacific Rim Bowl against Japan and White is looking good. However, Klamath Falls isn't Marist and Marist is up next for Ashland.
Willamette's Justin Leber was 12-20 for 202 yards with three td passes. Leber will be facing a lot higher competition in the MWL, but he might just do quite well if Willamette's running game stays in super high gear. Leber knows he can go to Crownover and Hatefi through the air if he needs to, but it would take a lot of pressure off of Leber if Visarraga and Dante Giles keep their running game going.
Churchill's southpaw Mitch Reese was 11-18 for 199 yards and two tds. He had a nice distribution of his passes among his wide receivers and rb's. Reese may become the qb surprise of the year.
Springfield split time between Ty Manilla (6-14, 63 yd) and Britton Auxier (4-14, 48 yd). Turnovers killed the Millers, so it's hard to get a read on the QBs. Manilla has a slight edge in passing, but Auxier had the better running game. Looks like things are leaning towards Manilla. Whoever starts Friday against Willamette needs his receiver's to come through.
Eagle Point. Didn't see any stats for Eagle Point. But the Eagles only racked up 86 yards in total offense against Mountain View, so there is probably not a lot of highlight film material for Churchill, the Eagles next opponent.
Marshfield's Jason Sweet was 10-22 for 120 yards and a touchdown pass against North Bend. The game experience should help this Friday, when the Pirates travel to North Eugene. North had a bye last week.

5A football poll

Wow. Four MWL teams received top ten votes and three were in the top 9. Marist took the number two spot, while Ashland and Churchill tied for 8th. Willamette picked up a couple of votes to finish 16th. Most of you know I vote in the OregonLive poll. I flip flopped Mountain View and Sherwood, moving Mountain View into first. I left Marist and Corvallis numbers 3 and 4 after Marist took a 2 point win from Corvallis. After that it was Bend, Wilsonville, Lebanon, Jefferson and West Albany. The two MWL teams I had on the edge of the top ten were Ashland and Churchill, but their opening wins were against some soft competition. Here's the OregonLive.com poll

September 9 Predictions

This might be the biggest weekend of the year. Later in the season, people will will have forgotten about this upcoming Friday; but Friday, September 9th is going to determine a lot of team's postseason fate.
Here's why. The matchups are pretty much even, with the projected top teams meeting each other, and the projected bottom four meeting each other. The top teams may decide their seed tonight and not even know it. On the other hand, the bottom teams could knock themselves out of the playoffs on Friday. That;s because the three lowest ranked teams from the 'Southern Region' will not make the playoffs. The Southern Region consists of the MWL, IMC (think Bend) , MWC (think Corvallis).

#1 Marist at #8 Ashland
Have to go with Marist. They are battle tested against a great team with several horses. Marist also has the speed factor. Unlike last year, though, Ashland has a solid chance. Note that Ashland came closest to beating Marist last year as far as MWL teams go.

#8 Churchill at Eagle Point
Going with Churchill. Churchill clobbered Benson, but Benson was only 1-8 last year, and I think Churchill got their number 8 ranking based on their storied tradition. That said, I really liked what I saw at Churchill's practice this week, so maybe this years Lancers are going to maintain the Air Lancer storyline. I haven't heard a thing about Eagle Point and reasons for the lopsided loss to Mountain View. There's the possibility that Mountain View is just lights out and can tear anyone apart. So we could have the case of Churchill not respecting Eagle Point because they got blown out, while Eagle Point figures out after a play or two that Churchill isn't a Mountain View. Hopefully, both teams will be focused and it will be a great game.

#16 Willamette at Springfield.
Willamette is my pick. Springfield killed themselves with turnovers last week. This week the Millers will stick with one quarterback and hopefully there will be some offensive continuity. On the other hand, Willamette looks like they have their offense well balanced between run and pass.

Marshfield at North Eugene
I'm going with the Pirates even with the loss of Tyler Johnson. North didn't play a game last week, and I think that'll be a disadvantage. The Pirates installed a no huddle offense last week and had some success with it. With a week to improve on their mistakes, that should give Marshfield enough to sneak by North Eugene. Plus, I'm going to the game. So I should give the Pirates good luck. Although, this 'watching the Pirates' hypothesis doesn't seem to work in baseball.

Don't forget to vote in the MWL fan polls. We'll be comparing fans to me, starting with league games.

My final and official league prediction.

I really felt confident about my 'Way to Early' polls until after last week's games. Churchill and Willamette blew out their opponents, but their opponents were soft. Eagle Point and Springfield got blown out, but their opponents are good, maybe excellent. So, I've lost my confidence, but it's time for the final prediction:

Final MWL 2011 League Prediction
1. Marist
2. Churchill
3. Ashland
4. Eagle Point
5. Willamette
6. Springfield
7. Marshfield
8. North Eugene

That's not too far off from my way-too-early poll. I switched up the 2-3-4 spots. I'm betting that Churchill will catch Eagle Point before they get it in gear for the season - game is in Eagle Point. Then Ashland travels to Churchill - a game I won't miss.

You can comment by using the comment icon on the blog or email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com

Pop Quiz - Aaron Ingram

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:02:00 +0000

Pop Quiz for Aaron Ingram, Churchill's returning all league running back.

GH is Gary Halski
AI is Aaron

GH: What have you done to improve yourself in football this summer?
AI: I've been here [Churchill field and weightroom] every day, working with my teammates. Lifting, running and practicing routes. No camps.

GH: Which player on your team has impressed you over the summer?
AI: Nate Parks, he's our Mike backer. Nate's been here every day. He's a senior. He's been on the scout team his sophomore and junior years. He's really worked hard every day.

GH: Which team do you want to beat most this year?
AI: Willamette.  My brother Judah Ingram plays for Willamette.

GH: Who is the meanest coach on the coaching staff?
AI: Coach K and coach Dumar.

GH: What types of music do you listen to on your Ipod or mp3 player.
AI: I don't own one.
GH: Neither does the Willamette player I interviewed.  What do you listen to on the radio?
AI: I don't have a radio.
GH: Do you ever listen to anything?
AI: I guess I've listened to rap, but I know you don't like rap and don't believe it is really music.

GH: What is your routine to get pumped up for a game?
AI: I psych myself out during quiet time, then I yell like crazy when quiet time is over.
GH: What is quiet time?
AI: At five o'clock everyone goes into the wrestling room and no one talks - everyone focus's on what they have to do. After quiet time I yell.
GH: What do you yell?
AI: I yell at the players, I yell down the school hall. I just yell.

GH: What kind of meal do you have the night before a game?
AI: A big one. We eat until we can't eat anymore.  We eat whatever the mom's prepare for us.
GH: What about lunch on game day?
AI: Whatever the school serves.

GH: What is the best thing to do in the summer around Eugene?
AI: Come to football practice. I look forward to it every day.

GH: What's your favorite place to eat?
AI: Papa's Soul Food Kitchen. It's got the best barbecue in town. I love the vibe there. It's really laid back. I really love the bread pudding.   I always have to have it.

GH: What do you consider the ideal place to go on a first date?
AI: Taco Bell, go for a walk, picnic in the park.

GH: What formal restaurant would you take a date to?
AI: Papa's Soul Food Kitchen.
GH: Yikes.
AI: They have great music, nice people, good vibes and are laid back.
GH: I think I'm getting the idea. And you like the bread pudding.

GH: Who is your favorite superhero?
AI: I can't think of one.
GH: Who's your favorite actor?
AI: I can't think of one.
GH: Your favorite character in a movie?
AI: That's easy! The Joker. That would make Heath Ledger my favorite actor. He was great as The Joker and great in another mover. But he's dead now.
GH: I forgot about that.

GH: Thanks for interview.

Churchill - Air Lancer still flying high

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:30:00 +0000

I visited coach Mehl at practice Tuesday, a few days after they handled Benson 60-27. I was wondering if he would want to talk to me after I pocket dialed him during the Benson game last Friday. He texted back, "Can't talk now, I'm in class."  Fortunately, he was in a talking mood at practice. I had stuck my neck out for Churchill in my annual "Way Too Early MWL Football Prediction" and picked them third in league, even though they lost their qb and their experienced receivers and three all league linemen.  After watching Churchill's practice and listening to coach Mehl, I felt much better about my 'Way Too Early Prediction'.

GH: Gary Haliski
DM: Coach Darrel Mehl

GH: How many kids have turned out for football?
DM: We have about 62 kids out for the entire program, including around 13 freshmen.

GH: Offensively, you lost Determan, Savelich, three all league linemen and your quarterback. Who's stepping up and any changes in your offensive scheme?
DM: Colin Smith (6-2, 220) is our only returning starter on the offensive line. But we've got a great line. They've really worked hard in the weight room over the summer. Skyler Phillips (6-3, 315, junior) was injured last year, but attended every practice through the quarterfinals. Will Dawson (6-4, 260, junior) and Isael Huesca (6-3, 215) join those two on the line. We might be putting Gavin Cowles (6-3, 210, junior) at center due to injury.

GH: Looks like your new QB had a great first game. What about your QB and receivers?
DM: Mitch Reese is the QB (6-3, 205, junior). We're really high on him. He's a lefty, tall and is a big kid. He throws the ball and runs really well, so he's perfect for our system. Reese's size and running ability makes him our 'fullback' even though he is our qb. Tyler Molinski (6-3, 205) and Andrew Bennion (5-10, 170, junior) are the wide receivers. Molinski is a track gguy. He's fast and he really hit the weights and has gone from 180 to 205. We return all leaguer Aaron Ingram as a running back. And we've added a great compliment to Ingram with sophomore Tyler Reid (5-9, 165). Reid is quick and shifty. His size is an advantage with our tall, big line; as he can hide behind the blockers as he picks his way upfield. He's only a soph and could develop into something special.

GH: And on defense?
DM: We're really crowded at defensive back. I've got six or seven guys who we put in our punt catching drills. I'm usually lucky if I can find two. They're pretty tough. Peter Estrada (5-10, 170) and Kyle Salisbury (5-10, 175) are at the corners. Bennion and Jake DeZarn (6-0, 185, baseball player) are the safeties. Ingram is our Will linebacker. Weston Lamora (6-2, 190, junior) is also a backer. Pretty much the same guys who are on the O line make up our D line. It's probably the best line I've had in my eight years here.

GH: You ran into a buzzsaw from the old Southern league in the first two games last year. Then you handled everyone else in the MWL, except Marist.  Does anything pop into your mind about last year and are you approaching things differently this year?
DM: Last year we played in a jamboree against 4A teams instead of playing a non league game. It was like taking candy from a baby, but it didn't help us much. So this year we scheduled a game. As far as this year, Eagle Point and Ashland are counting games in the MWL this year. That makes the games more serious. As far as Eagle Point. We get to go to their place. They are big and fast, hit hard and tough to tackle.

GH: With all of the new guys, is anyone stepping up in leadership?
DM:  Last Thursday we talked about naming captains. We don't have a lot of guys who jump out right now.  We have a lot of young leaders, but more the quiet type, who lead by example. We'll learn more about leadership in these next two games as we find out how players react in the heat of the moment.

GH: How is it you keep finding receivers and quarterbacks for Air Lancer? Your offense sure looks like a lot of fun to me. Do you do 7 on 7 tournaments and things like that?
DM: Mosty,the guys lifted like crazy over the summer. We had 25-30 guys who lifted all of the time. We don't spend a lot of time working on passing in the summer or go to a lot of passing tournaments.

GH: Any other comments?
DM: I forgot to mention Josh Han (6-3, 190). He's a soccer player. He put three kickoffs into the endzone last week. That really helps out our defense.

GH: Thanks, coach.

I was intrigued at how coach Mehl had created this year's version of Air Lancer. The new lefty QB, number 15 - by the way, looked sharp in practice. I can see why the coaches are excited about him. But we'll see how Reese does when he has Tyler Holmes from Eagle Point bearing down on him. Eagle Point will be a far tougher opponent than Benson. WR's Molinski and Bennion had good games against Benson. They should maintain the Air Lancer tradition. RB's Ingram and Reid make a nice duo. Ideally for the Lancers, Reid can give a burst of speed to compliment Ingram's hard running. Those big, strong Churchill linemen were pretty aggressive in practice against the tackling dummies. Hopefully, the aggressiveness will increase a level when they face real opponents. All in all, if Churchill can get through the season without many injuries, they should be really good by playoff time.

MWL predictions for September 2

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 01:36:00 +0000

I'm going for the sweep. 7-0!

1. Marist over Corvallis. I think there's too much speed on Marist's team, thus preventing Corvallis from scoring enough to take advantage of Marist getting their new Qb in the groove.

2. Eagle Point upset over Mountain View. Eagle Point has been getting closer each year. Game is at Eagle Point. Going to be a great game, as will the Marist game.

3. Churchill over Benson. Duh.

4. Ashland over Klamath Falls. Coach Hall isn't going to try the Pistol formation this year, so the Grizzlies should get off to a good start.

5. Willamette over South Albany. This would be a bit of an upset. But Willamette seems to have a new attitude this year.

6. Marshfield over North Bend in Coos Bay. If the Pirates lose, there may not be anyone to run this website.

7. Springfield over Silverton. Springfield's line needs to come out and destroy Silverton from the get go. If they don't, then the Silver Foxes are likely to take this one.

MWL fan polls are saying Eagle Point, Willamette and Springfield will lose. All three are evenly matched in their first game. All three have new quarterbacks. Each one could go either way. Certainly, a strong showing by any of these three teams is going to show that their hard work over the summer paid off.

You can still vote in the fan polls.
Marist, Eagle Point and Churchill polls (left side)
Willamette, Marshfield, Ashland and Springfield polls

Springfield Hopes on the line.

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:30:00 +0000

I almost called some of my central Oregon buddies to tell them to bring in the cattle trucks to rustle a few of the blue ribbon heads of beef on the Springfield practice field and skedaddle back to the Redmond cattle auction. Where did coach Raish get all these guys? The Millers are loaded with a lot of experience on the line and, boy, are they big. If they can move those little hooves quick enough, they just might give their backs enough time to develop into a high scoring machine.

Here’s what I gleaned from my talk with coach Raish.

GH is Gary Haliski
SR is coach Skip Raish

GH: What’s your approximate turnout?
SR: We have 124 total, that includes 44 frosh. We’re carrying 43 on our JV’s.

GH: Who do you have as returning starters or returning with significant playing time?
SR: All leaguer offensive guard Clanton Self (6’ 1”, 295), all leaguer center Isias Giron , all league kicker Ashton Summer. Summer is a junior, he plays soccer. He led the league in field goals last year and made 100% of his PAT’s. John Emerald (6’ 1”, 175) returns as an all league defensive back.

GH: On the field you mentioned you were experienced on the line, and the boys looked pretty big to me. Who is filling in the other O line spots.?
SR: Chase Towlerton (6-2, 295) will be the other guard and has college potential. Junior Bryan Stanwood (6’ 2”, 230) will be at tackle. Jordan Haas (6’ 5”, 240) , a soph, has a slight edge at the other tackle spot. He’s fighting it out with another soph, Hunter Hastings (6’ 4”, 235).

GH: Everyone in the league lost their starting quarterback? All of the coaches are concerned. Have you settled on anyone yet?
SR: We haven’t settled on our starting quarterback for league. It’s a competition between Britton Auxier (6’ 2”, 220) and junior Ty Manilla (6’2 230). Manilla will play a little defensive end. Each of them is going to get two quarters in the Silverton game this Friday.

GH: That looks like a fun offense?
SR: Yes, it’s an awful lot of fun.
GH: I couldn’t keep track of all of the formations. And who were those guys in the backfield?
SR: We’re running the spread. You saw us go with an empty backfield, one back, two backs and even three backs.
GH: Who was the bowling ball back?
SR: That’s called a fullback. That’s Elijah Gelman-Price. He’s 6’ 1”, 280 pounds. He’ll also be playing defensive tackle.
GH: Did I see Price under center?
SR: You did, but we were running the scout team and our quarterbacks were doing another drill. But he could play quarterback if he had to. Another running back will be Dylan Piquette. Also, Jevon Garcia (5’ 10”. 180, a junior.

GH: Is Dylan related to Thurston’s coach Piquette?
SR: Coach Doug Piquette is Dylan’s uncle.

GH: Who are your receivers this year?
SR: We have several seniors, Austin Banks (6’ 1”, 170) and Alistar Jorkan (5’ 8”, 160), as well as Emerald.

GH: Offensively, you lost a lot, including Green, Spikes and Davidson. Fortunately, you have a lot back on the line. How do you feel that will come together?
SR: This is probably the best offensive line I have had in 25 years. They’re strong and smart. And there are a lot of them.

GH: The Millers were a high scoring team last year, but the defense had trouble. Any changes to address that area of opportunity?
SR: We have better athletes up front this year. We have four real fine athletes in Stanwood, Codie Jantze (6’2, 310), Price and Manilla. In the secondary we have Blake Taylor, a transfer from Willamette, at rover. Daysean Price-Clark well be in the secondary.
GH: Is Daysean (5’ 10”, 180) related to Elijah (6’ 1”, 280)? They’re not quite built the same.
SR: They’re cousins. Garcia and Jorkan will be at corners. Looks like Jake King and Ben Ogletree will be at linebacker.

GH: Any outstanding leaders or characteristics of the team that stand out?
SR: I think this is a very good football team. They have all phases of the game covered; we don’t fall off in any phase. I think this group has finally got the football team to turn the corner. This summer we had sixty to eighty kids in the weight room on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and then conditioning on Tuesdays and Thursdays. What I really love is the positive attitude. You have to have that. You can have all of the talent in the world, but you have to have a positive attitude. That’s the fun part of coaching these kids. I’m really pleased with this group of athletes. They are always on time. There’s no quarreling, no little hastles. They have a shot at doing some good things. We’ve told them they have to take ownership. We can’t be on the field showing them what to do during a game. They’ve got to do it for themselves.

GH: Anything else?
SR: I think the Midwestern League has always been a fine league. There’s a lot of parity. On any Friday night, anyone can win. The addition of Eagle Point and Ashland has made us a little stronger. The Pac 10 added two and so did we. It made us better. You just can’t overlook anyone. If I had to pick a team to win the league, it would be Marist. It’s Marist until somebody beats them.

That's the end of my discussion with coach Raish.

As I was driving home I was thinking that with all of the unknowns at quarterback throughout the league, it took me six teams to find one who hadn't settled on their starting QB. And it will be the experienced Springfield line that will be buying time for the new Miller QB and running backs to learn their game. I had the sense that the Springfield linemen knew what's on the line for the team, and that all eyes will be on the Springfield linemen. Now that's unusual, putting the pressure on linemen and not the 'skills' guys.. Coach Raish put the line through some 100 yard down and backs. That's not a drill a 300 pound kid wants to be doing. But there they were, lumbering along, like the big beef that they are. And finishing their drills, just like they're going to have to do every Friday if Springfield is going to win. Springfield hopes really are all on the Line.

I'll be tweeting from the Marist - Corvallis game. You can follow the tweets at http://twitter.com/#!/mwlnow

Pop Quiz at Willamette

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:25:00 +0000

Pop Quiz with the Wolverines. I started the quiz with Zach Hatefi, but his X-men teammates soon took over.

GH is Gary Haliski
ZH is Zach Hatefi
X-Men are Hatefi's teammates

Zach Hatefi, back row-far right, and his interrupting ~~pest~~ X-men friends.

GH: What have you worked on over the summer to make yourself a better player?
ZH: Tempo, getting the play calls faster.

GH: Who on the team has impressed you most over the summer?
ZH: Austin Black. This is his first year on varsity. He's working hard as a receiver.

GH: Who do you want to beat the most?
ZH Springfield. Blake Taylor transferred from here to Springfield.
[X-men are screaming Marist]

GH: What's your pregame meal?
ZH: Pasta.
X-men: Whatever they serve in the cafeteria.

GH: What music do you have an your Ipod?
ZH: I don't have one.
GH: MP3 player.
ZH: Nope, but I listen to Credence Clearwater.
GH: Anthing else?
ZH: Nope, just Credence:
X-men in total bewilderment: Nothing else?
ZH: Nothing.

GH: Who are your favorite college and/or pro teams?
ZH: Vanderbuilt.
GH AND X-men: VANDERBUILT?
ZH: Yeah, Vanderbuilt
GH: Pro team?
ZH: Seattle
X-men: That's better.

GH: Who is the toughest, meanest football coach at Willamette?
ZH: Chad Carpenter, I think he graduated from Willamette in 2002.
GH: Does he let you date?
ZH: Yeah.
GH: What do you consider a proper first date?
ZH: That's too personal.
X-men to a man: They pay.
GH: Where would you take a date for a formal dinner?
X-men: Taco Bell
GH: Oh, come on.
X-men: Oregon Electric Station.
GH: What meal would you order?
X-men: Filet Mignon.
GH: What's your favorite restaurant to go to when you're not on a date?
X-men: Roaring Rapids.

GH: What is the best thing to do for fun in Eugene in the summer?
X-men: Go to Fern Ridge Lake with the defensive linemen and the ladies.

GH: I think we better be done.
X-men: Don't you want to know about the X-factor?
GH: Nope, we're done.