Eaton eyes league title to assure state berth

Friday night’s Homecoming game shaped up to be anything but pleasent for the Pinnacle Timberwolves. In front of a packed student and fan section, the Eaton Reds walked away with an easy    50-0 victory on Oct. 6. Scoring six touchdowns and performing 28 tackles, the Reds destroyed the Timberwolves and held Pinnacle from even scoring a single touchdown.

Scoring six touchdowns throughout the game, the Reds plowed through the Timberwolves defensive line.

Austin Coalson (18) passed a total of 31 yards and completed 75 percent of the four passes hemade. Backup quarterback, Ty Garnhart (19) stepped in to seal up the victory for the
night. Jt Baughman (19) rushed for 85 yards in 11 carries. Playing their last homecoming game, Jake Sandau (18) rushed 66 yards and received 17 yards while Travis Cunningham (18) rushed a total of 68 yards. Each senior was able to score a touchdown on their last Homecoming football game. The team totalled 322 all purpose yards.

On the defensive side of the ball, Mason Koehn (18) led the team with four tackles, three of which were tackles for a loss, and two sacks that pushed Pinnacle’s offense back 15 yards. With 57 rushing yards and a touchdown, Koehn was the spark in the Reds offense and defense. Koehn said, “For who we were playing, we had to focus more on what we were doing rather than what they were doing.” Jackson Contreras (19) completed an interception, returning the ball back to the Reds. According to Maxpreps, Trenton Kramer (18) is 20th in the tackle stat leaders for the 2A division, while Koehn is 14th in the 2A division in the sack leader stats.

The Reds are ready for the next five games of the season, and are striving to become league champions this season. Lemon said the process for determining league standings is a complicated one. “Once the last game is completed they [CHSAA] use the RPI, which is a computer formula based on your winning percentage, the opponent’s winning percentage and your opponents opponent’s winning percentage,” Lemon said. “And then you get a score and then the top 16 teams based on that score get in.” For this reason, Lemon says he hopes his team simply does its job and wins the league. “League champions are all guaranteed to be in the playoffs. If we win the league it doesn’t matter what our RPI score is,” Lemon said. But if the Reds don’t win league, Lemon said that the
team will be at the mercy of RPI. The next three games Eaton plays will be league games, and Lemon said that a lot is riding on the outcomes. “As of now,” Lemon said, “We have to win our next three games to guarantee we are the league champions. So, it will most likely come down to our game against Resurrection Christian, and we will probably be league champions.”

Up next, the Eaton Reds will play the Resurrection Christian Eagles at home on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.