Eagle football needed a spark. It turned to ‘The Tugboat,’ who delivered a late win
Eagle’s undefeated record stood in danger Friday night, but a sophomore running back known as “The Tugboat” rode to the rescue in the fourth quarter.
Noah Burnham carried the Mustangs to a come-from-behind win at No. 4 Owyhee, pounding the Storm defense over and over again until he scored on a 5-yard touchdown with 58 seconds left for a 21-17 victory.
No. 1-ranked Eagle (4-0, 2-0 5A SIC River Division) turned to Burnham early and often on the game-winning drive. The Mustangs’ called his number on seven of 10 plays, and he turned those touches into 61 yards and the game-winning score to keep Eagle in the driver’s seat for a spot in the conference championship game.
“Noah gets it every time,” Eagle quarterback Davis Harsin said. “You just give him the ball, and he’s going to get it. He always finds a way.”
Eagle got the ball back trailing 17-14 with 6:13 left in the fourth quarter. The Mustangs called just a single passing play on the game-winning drive. Eagle coach James Cluphf said he wanted to burn as much clock as possible, and he had no doubts the Mustangs’ powerful running game would find the end zone.
Burnham ripped off four runs of 10 or more yards on the drive. Owyhee (3-2, 1-2) had kept the sophomore relatively in check up to that point, holding him to 53 yards on his first 12 carries. But Burnham and the Mustangs gashed the Storm defense when it mattered most.
“I had total faith,” Cluphf said. “The last few drives, we had a lot of good push. We put the ball in the air a little bit. But we should have stuck with the ground game a little bit more, a little earlier.”
Burnham first made an impact as a freshman last fall, pressed onto the field after injuries to Eagle’s top two running backs. He impressed in four games as the Mustangs made it to the conference title game and the state playoffs. But this fall, the 5-9 sophomore has emerged as one of the state’s top running backs.
“The Tugboat,” though? The nickname took a little longer to develop.
“It started with ‘Noah Boat,’ after a YouTuber. Then this little kid came up to me and called me ‘Big Boat.’ And I’ve been dragging kids since freshman year, so they call me ‘Tugboat,’” he said.
The win was Eagle’s third over a ranked opponent this season. None of those have come easy, or by more than four points. But the Mustangs keep taking on challengers, and they keep putting up victories.
“We’re 4-0 with a lot of mistakes,” Harsin said. “That’s something that is very good, in my opinion. Because that means our best football is ahead of us.”
OWYHEE LEADERS
The Storm took a 17-14 lead when Timothy Jamerson broke loose for an 18-yard touchdown run with 6:19 left in the fourth quarter. Owyhee struggled to run the ball all night, finishing with just 23 yards on 21 carries. But it stuck to the game plan, and it appeared to pay off as Jamerson put the Storm ahead.
Quarterback Matt Irwin finished 13-of-23 for 174 yards and a touchdown. Any chance of a last-second comeback, though, ended when Eagle’s Seth Brock sacked him on fourth down deep in Owyhee territory.
The Storm, a third-year program, upset No. 3 Mountain View last week. While it came short of knocking off No. 1 Eagle on Friday, Owyhee coach Jason Burton said he was proud of his team.
“We think of ourselves as a top team in the state,” Burton said. “And I think we proved that by taking Eagle, which is a great team, all the way down to the wire.”
UP NEXT
Eagle continues its 5A SIC River Division schedule at Nampa (0-4, 0-3) next Friday.
Owyhee hosts Borah (4-1, 2-1) the same night in another division game. Burton previously led Borah for five seasons, winning two 5A SIC coach of the year awards there.
This story was originally published September 15, 2023 at 11:05 PM.
