Unheralded unit carries Eagle football to its sixth straight win and a playoff victory
The Eagle High football team has made headlines all season with its offense.
A bounty of weapons allowed the Mustangs to post gaudy numbers week after week. But as Eagle opened the 5A state playoffs, the Mustangs’ defense carried them to a 31-15 win over Borah.
Eagle (8-2) forced three turnovers and held the Lions (5-5) in check in key moments, rolling to its sixth straight win and advancing to the quarterfinals for the 14th straight season.
Eagle will travel to Coeur d’Alene (6-2) in next week’s quarterfinal round.
“I would say it was never a situation where I felt totally comfortable, because I felt like they just kept moving the ball,” Eagle coach John Hartz said. “We just came up big on certain plays where we really had to. And when we came up big on those plays, it made the difference in the game.”
Borah opened the night with a 15-play, 80-yard drive that saw the Lions run the ball down Eagle’s throat before a 3-yard Parker Rushton touchdown scamper. Borah drained more than seven minutes off the clock, establishing a plan to shorten the game and keep Eagle’s explosive offense on the sideline.
But Eagle answered the call, matching Borah’s physicality and holding the Lions out of the end zone the rest of the way, until a trick play with 1:16 left, when the outcome was settled.
“In practice, we emphasize physicality all the time,” said Eagle senior defensive back Gage Jones, who recovered a fumble and had an interception. “Our linebackers are physical. Our D-line is physical. Our defensive backs, it makes it easy for us.”
Eagle didn’t post its normal video game-like numbers offensively. But it strung together 31 unanswered points with its depth, which proved crucial after starting running back Deeghan Martinho went down with a knee injury just before halftime.
Backup Roy Hull didn’t miss a beat, breaking free for a 71-yard run on the opening play of the second half. He finished with a game-high 95 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. Martinho and Brandon Reese each ran for a score. And Ian Duarte put the Mustangs on the board with a 26-yard TD catch from Jack Benson.
Hartz said that depth is the key behind Eagle’s six-game winning streak, after a young team started 2-2 against a front-loaded schedule. And it’s that depth that makes the Mustangs a dangerous team heading deeper into the playoffs.
“We really believe in ourselves,” Jones said. “We believe in our coaches, and we believe that we can make a run.”
While Eagle has reached the quarterfinals 14 years in a row, it hasn’t advanced to the semifinals since 2016. It beat Coeur d’Alene in the Treasure Valley that year. But now the Mustangs must take the long bus ride to North Idaho.
“Coeur d’Alene is a heck of a program,” Hartz said. “They are always a bear. There will be nothing easy about that win.
“But at the same time, our team will go up with the mentality of, ‘Let’s get it on.’ That’s the type of mentality that our kids always have. … This is a special group that will take on the challenge.”
BORAH’S SEASON ENDS WITH LOSS
The Lions’ opening drive put the smell of an upset in the air. But three turnovers and two failed attempts at fourth-down conversions doomed Borah.
Rushton, the second-leading rusher in 5A, also missed a large part of the second half after an injury late in the second quarter, putting a damper on the Lions’ comeback chances.
Rushton still finished with 75 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. Quarterback Korbin McCarney was 21-of-27 for 214 yards.
This story was originally published October 29, 2021 at 10:46 PM.
