It was a pretty simple recipe for Covenant on offense Thursday afternoon. With Blue Ridge collapsing and selling out to stop the Eagles between the tackles, Covenant turned to its quarterback in a 49-40 victory over the Barons.
“In a lot of ways Paul (Huemme) put our team on his back and just carried us,” said Covenant coach Dave Hart. “We had a lot of other great individual efforts but you could just tell that he wanted it and he grinded it out and it was awesome.”
Hart wasn’t exaggerating. Huemme rushed for 287 yards and four touchdowns on 24 carries, making the Barons pay for stacking up the middle by torching them on the edge. He even threw in a team-leading six tackles on defense for good measure. Huemme was able to pull it off in part because Covenant’s open-field blocking by its wide receiving corps has improved dramatically since the squad’s opener.
“It was awesome, they’ve been working real hard (on openfield blocking) in practice and they’re executing real well in the game,” Huemme said. “Coach is just having us work that in practice and it’s been helping.”
It also doesn’t hurt that the Eagles’ main dive back, Austin Llera, had exploded for 684 yards in the Eagles’ first five games, forcing opposing defenses to account for him on every play. Llera had 66 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries, but he was most effective as a decoy for Huemme.
“That’s why I love this offense, you can’t just stop one person, you’ve got to stop three,” Hart said.
Quane Washington also got in on the ground attack with 96 yards and a touchdown before a late shoulder injury at the end of a long run sidelined him for the remainder of the game. His 63-yard sprint for an early touchdown helped boost the Eagles to a 21-12 halftime lead.
This is the most impressive start in school history for the Eagles, the first time ever the program has started 5-1 and the first win over the Barons since 2008.
Blue Ridge refused to go away though, with Trevor Eaton throwing for 280 yards to a variety of receivers, including Noah Brooks (121 yards and three touchdowns), Scott Spencer (80 yards) and Malik Johnson (71 yards). The Barons pulled within nine points with 2:09 left, but then Covenant’s Rick Weaver picked up a muffed onsides kick that squashed any realistic hope of a Blue Ridge comeback.
“They keep fighting and we’re proud of them,” “It’s a lot of adversity and that’s part of the lesson — how to handle adversity. But you’ve got to give a lot of credit to Covenant, they’re a good team.”
The Barons, who fell to North Cross Saturday, had a short week to prepare for the Eagles’ mid-line option attack and with so many new faces on defense this year, that was a tall task for the Barons.
Jacob Smith had an interception for the Eagles and also scored a touchdown when he pounced on a fumble in the end zone at the end of an Austin Llera run. Colby Shriver and Matt Kesey each had sacks for Covenant.
Both squads get a sustained break this week now to heal up and prepare for the second half of the regular season. The Barons will play October 11 against Trinity Episocpal at home while Covenant travels to Christchurch October 9.
