Great Orange North Comes To Play
There is only one thing we know for sure about the McNally Composite Tigers - they’re colorful.
The Edmonton, Alberta, team will be dressed in orange from head to toe when it takes on Gonzaga Prep in a non-league football game at 5 p.m. tonight at Albi Stadium.
The teams didn’t exchange films. Heck, Prep coach Don Anderson doesn’t even know how McNally coach Doug Smith came to call the Bullpups for a game.
Smith has tried to expand the horizons of his players, expose them to the American game and to recruiters. A trip to Las Vegas two years ago was scratched for financial reasons. This time around, Smith talked to Washington State and found out UCLA was visiting the Cougars this weekend. WSU officials also let Smith know what area team had a bye this weekend.
A perfect opportunity, ‘eh?
“Obviously it’s a learning experience for the athletes,” Smith said. “It gives us a chance to improve the program playing against this level of competition.”
The Tigers are successful in the Edmonton city league, but in truth, when other league teams have played American teams, they’ve gotten “killed.”
“Compared to football down here, I don’t know (how good the Tigers will be),” Smith said. “We hope to be competitive. We hope Gonzaga Prep knows they’ve been in a football game.”
They will play American rules, meaning the Tigers have to eliminate one player. Defensively, a linebacker will go, which shouldn’t be a major adjustment since Canadian teams play on a field 65 yards wide and now they’ll be on a 50-yard wide field.
Offensively, it’s a different story.
“This is new to us,” Smith said. “It depends on what play we run. We’ll eliminate the one less likely to be involved in the play.”
The four McNally coaches are golfing Indian Canyon on Friday morning and the team hopes to take in another high school game Friday night. They ate lunch and attended a class with the Prep players after arriving Wednesday morning.
Besides the color scheme (Prep will wear its all Navy blue uniform), another oddity will be the completely empty visiting side grandstands. Unless area Canadians decide to adopt a team for a day.
The numbers game
The opening weekend of GSL football sent retired Spokesman-Revie staff writer, long-time observer and stat guru Merle Derrick rushing for the record books.
First, Ferris’ Tim Benton piled up 257 yards on just 13 carries and then Georgio Usai of Central Valley went for 285 yards.
Benton’s average of nearly 20 yards per carry caught Derrick’s eye. He figured that might be a record. Well, it’s not.
The best average is 41 - Wally Gaskins raced for 246 yards on just six carries for LC in 1960. Gaskins scored on runs of 46, 65 and 84 yards.
Next comes a 23.3 average by Tom Sprague of Gonzaga Prep. He gained 233 yards on 10 carries in a 1949 game. That average allowed him to beat his brother, Dick, who had 241 on 11 carries (21.9) a year earlier.
Usai’s total was the third-highest in league history, trailing only the 331 of Archie Grant (Ferris) in 1970 and the 290 of Robert Barlow (Lewis and Clark) in 1993.
Among those Usai passed is his coach, Rick Giampietri, who had 255 yards on 16 carries for North Central in 1965. Giampietri only gained 286 yards in eight other games that year, but he was only tackled once behind the line of scrimmage, losing just 1 yard.
The first 200-yard game on record was turned in by Bob Codd of Gonzaga in 1947. He had 201 yards on 22 carries.
However …
After all these games, Doc (for his initials M.D.) is allowed to misplace a comma. He did that and messed up Usai’s second-week numbers. His rushing total was 40 yards off. Usai gained 147 yards against Mead, about 40 less than reported.
That also pushed Doc into the musty archives to find the best back-to-back games considering all the 200-yard men. The best? Robert Barlow had 534 in consecutive games of 290 and 244 to end the 1993 season.
By the way, Doc also fixed some original errors in the GSL receiving stats. We appreciate the help we get from coaches if we miss a number. It has nothing to do with age - some of the uniform numbers are darn hard to read from the press box.
In the excellent-average department, Maurice Chambers, a 5-8, 160-pound senior for Bethel, carried 11 times for 260 yards in a 36-28 win against Federal Way last weekend. Amazingly, Chambers only scored two touchdowns.
And in the Frontier
Cheney’s Abdul Odood has made the most of economy in topping even Gaskins.
The senior receiver has carried the football just four times on flanker reverses and gained 171 yards, an average of 42.7 yards per rush, and scored once.
He’s also averaged nearly 20 yards per reception (four catches, 78 yards and two touchdowns) for the 2-0 Blackhawks.
Friday marks the beginning of Frontier League competition and Riverside (2-0) hosts Pullman (0-2) in its first game at the Class AA level.
In two wins over former Northeast A League foes, quarterback Joel Schurtz has completed 15 of 21 passes for 206 yards and three TDs.
Jared Hanson has rushed for 217 yards. But he’s well behind East Valley’s Jesse Ewell, who gained 340 yards in his first two games.
The Knights (2-0) are in Clarkston (0-2) and Cheney hosts Colville (1-1) in other league openers.
Rookie
Ian Hughes, a plebe - also known as a freshman - is, or was, the starting punter for the Army varsity football team. The Cadets play at Washington on Saturday. Hughes, a Central Valley graduate, wears No. 98. He reported to his family he shanked a punt against Duke last weekend that cost Army the game.
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: GSL 300-YARD PASSING GAMES Player, school Year Yards Josh Rataezyk, Ferris 1991 381 Mike Pfeifer, Ferris 1987 338 Brian Sherick, University 1992 333 Brian Sherick, University 1992 330 Matt Mikesell, University 1985 328 Mark Rypien, Shadle Park 1979 326 Griffin Garske, Mead 1994 324 Jim Dorr, Rogers 1977 323 R.J. Del Mese, Central Valley 1994 323 Chris Lewis, Central Valley 1985 309 Justin Bursch, Ferris 1995 303 Ryne Sandberg, North Central 1976 301 Paul Mencke, Lewis and Clark 1995 300