By BEN MCCARTY,
News staff writer
October 19, 2007
On its first possession of Friday's game against Central
Catholic, the Hood River Valley offense looked like it has been
expected to all season. The Eagles went 75 yards in four plays
for a quick touchdown and an early lead on the Rams. Things
quickly went downhill for the Eagles from there. Central
Catholic scored on the first play of its ensuing possession and
rolled to an easy 48-6 win on a drizzly night at Portland's PGE
Park.
The victory allowed the Rams to bounce back
from a loss to Reynolds last week, and sent Hood River Valley to
its fifth consecutive loss.
For the Eagles it was another game filled
with critical mistakes and missed opportunities, against a Ram
team that was clearly not as dominant has it has been in recent
years.
“That's what poor teams do,” Hood River
Coach Tracy Jackson said of his team's collapse after taking a
quick 6-0 lead. “They get a lead, then they back off and bad
things start happening.”
Taking over on their own 25-yard line after
a Central Catholic punt, the Eagles opened the game with an
unconventional play call - an end around to tight end Adam
Coerper - that netted 15 yards.
A 29-yard connection from Travis Carratt to
Ian Bohince then put the Eagles at the Ram's 35 yard line. The
Eagles finished the drive two plays later when Bohince stretched
around a Central Catholic defender to make an acrobatic catch
for a touchdown. However, as soon as the Rams got the ball back,
Central Catholic's Nick Green began what would prove to be a
long night for the HRV defense trying to contain the
multi-threat Ram quarterback. On the Rams' first play, Green ran
a play action bootleg to the left and did not stop running until
he crossed the end zone 63 yards later.
It would be the first of three touchdowns
for Green in the quarter.
“Thankfully we've got a couple of kids who
can make plays like Nick Green and Seth Downes,” he said. “We've
just got to keep improving.”
Even though the Rams made plenty of
mistakes, the Eagles made more, much to chagrin of Jackson.
“We just have not coached them out of their
mistakes,” he said.
After finishing among the top team's in the
state in rushing last season, the Eagles continued to struggle
to get anything going in the ground game, managing only two
rushes of more than 10 yards - the 15-yarder by Coerper and an
11-yard run by Erick Lujano - and both of those came in the
first quarter. Jackson said his team's inability to physically
outperform a team is an indication of the need for more training
during the summer months.
“You've got to train in the summer,” he
said. “You can't not put your work in and expect things to go
right.”
For Hood River Valley, the team's final two
games are now about pride, with the Eagles essentially out of
the state playoff chase.
“I want to see if we can eliminate our
mistakes,” Jackson said of his goals for the team as the season
winds down. “I don't want us to give up.”
The Eagles take on David Douglas next
Friday at Henderson Community Stadium in HRV's homecoming game.
For more football coverage see the Oct. 24
issue of the Hood River News. |
