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SUNNY Temp: 55 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Thursday, November 21, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend September 21, 2002 Grants Pass takes offense in victory over Crater By TIM PYLE Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT — Turns out the world hasn’t caved in on the Grants Pass Cavemen. Embarrassed, 53-13, at Willamette on Aug. 30, the storied Grants Pass football program began its recovery with a 21-0 win over Mt. View in Bend last week. A bigger dose of sanity was secured Friday, as the Cavemen rolled to a 25-8 victory at Crater in the Southern Oregon Conference opener for both teams. Kory Mahr snared a 47-yard touchdown pass from Mark Heater on the game’s first play from scrimmage, and Grants Pass (2-1 overall, 1-0 SOC) took advantage of wonderful field position to score on its first four possessions. "Thing was, we were a young team, and we played zero week," said senior linebacker Dan Eubank, who is well on his way to duplicating his first-team all-SOC performance of last season if Friday’s sideline-to-sideline, seek-and-destroy clinic is any indication. "Then we had a bye the next week and had two weeks (before Mt. View). That helped so much, and now our team’s starting to hit, starting to click." The Comets (1-2, 0-1) continued to show signs of promise under first-year head coach Rich Cable — signs which were evident in a 10-8 loss at Redmond and a 27-6 spanking of Crook County to open the season. But special-teams miscues and missed opportunities plagued Crater, which was 1-6 in SOC action last fall. Cable wasn’t settling for any postgame excuses. "We condition and power the kids in a way that when they get done with a game, especially in a game that we lose like that, they should be done," Cable said. "They should be spent and tired, and they just weren’t. I told them they better go home over the weekend and get a gut check and think about this and how hard are they willing to push, how much are they willing to sacrifice to win a game." Just 18 seconds into Friday’s game, the Comets trailed. Following senior A.J. Schmitke’s 51-yard return of the opening kickoff, Heater executed an enticing play-action fake and found Mahr streaking down the left sideline. The hookup was the first of Mahr’s five receptions for 107 yards and sent Heater, a senior first-year starter, on the way to his best varsity game. He finished 8-of-12 for 168 yards and two touchdowns. "Any time you score on the first play of the game, it kind of lets the air out of (the opponent’s) sails," said third-year Cavemen head coach Jeff Weiss, who guided Grants Pass to a 5-2 mark, good for a tie for second place, in the SOC in 2001. "We had a play-action pass based off of what we saw on film and took care of it right on the first play." Mahr, who led the team with 35 catches for 657 yards and five touchdowns as a junior last year, now has 14 receptions for 152 yards and two scores this fall. "We saw it was man coverage, corner stayed and linebacker bit on the run ... so it was just kind of wide open," the 6-foot-6, 200-pound Mahr said of his tone-setting TD. Crater, implementing its power running game headed by senior fullback Mike Peila, the SOC’s leading rusher entering Friday, tried to immediately answer. A 15-yard connection from junior quarterback Nick Rose to senior Dan Whitehead and Peila’s 19-yard scamper on the next play set up the Comets at GP’s 35-yard line. Two stuffs of the run and one Eubank sack later, however, the Cavemen had forced a punt. After Crater’s first attempt to kick was waved off by an illegal motion penalty, GP broke through to make a block. Eubank and senior lineman Mitch Coe were in the middle of the havoc, which ended with the Cavemen in possession at the Comets’ 41. Six plays later, GP was in the end zone again, with Heater lofting a pretty, 27-yard fade to senior Josh McGowan. The drive was sustained by Mahr’s short catch and fight for 3 yards on a fourth-and-two situation. Schmitke’s 22-yard punt return to the Crater 18 set up the Cavemen’s third score, a 2-yard plunge by junior tailback Spencer Holland at 9:25 of the second quarter. In dire need of momentum entering the halftime break, the Comets marched to GP’s 5 on their ensuing possession. But on fourth-and-goal and with five seconds remaining, senior tailback Tom Hammond was denied on a pitch left. Mahr, a safety on defense, made the first of his two second-half interceptions early in the third quarter. Holland, who amassed 47 yards on 16 carries, went 5 yards to the end zone six plays later for a 25-0 Cavemen cushion. Whitehead’s heady 24-yard TD reception off a tipped pass from Rose with six seconds left in the game, and Peila’s following run conversion, would be Crater’s only points. The Comets, who did post an 11-9 edge in first downs and held GP to 250 yards in total offense compared to their own 174, could not solve a Cavemen defense getting better by the week. "We knew they that were largely dependent on the run, and that’s where the strength of our defense is," said Eubank, who helped limit Crater to 96 yards on 37 rushing attempts, including 92 yards on 20 carries for Peila. "We just love to play the run." Indeed, and all seems to be back to normal for a Grants Pass program believed beleaguered as recently as eight days ago. "We’ve always just taken our losses and ... we don’t forget about them, but we put them behind us," Mahr said. "We need to learn something from them obviously, but we put them behind us and get better." Reach reporter Tim Pyle at 776-4483 or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search M Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy web master feedback A D V E R T I S E R S