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HAZE Temp: 48 °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 October 12, 2002 Eagle Point�s Ricky O�Callahan (9) and Christian Mannenbach (44) converge on Crater running back Mike Peila in Friday night�s game at Eagle Point. The Eagles defense held Peila to just 10 yards on four carries. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Eagles corral Crater Metcalf’s fumble return for a score highlights Eagle Point’s victory By TIM TROWER Mail Tribune EAGLE POINT — The "Calf" took it to the house, and Eagle Point celebrated till the cows came home. Josh Metcalf, a junior defensive lineman, scooped up a fumble 5½ minutes before halftime and hoofed it 67 yards for a touchdown Friday to spark the Eagles to a 31-20 Southern Oregon Conference football win over Crater. "He said he thought he was going to get caught," said Eagle Point coach Harry Hedrick, whose team improved to 2-2 in the SOC and 3-3 overall. "He was surprised. "Now we can promote him to Met-cow. He’s not a Met-calf any longer." His metamorphosis coincides with that of the Eagles. With three games remaining — albeit two of them against upper-echelon SOC teams North Medford and Grants Pass — they’ve discovered they can use the "P" word, playoffs, without fear of reprisal. "This win was very important," said running back Chris Boyd. "If we don’t win this one, we don’t have a chance at the playoffs." To that end, there were contributions from a number of areas. The ground game, with Boyd playing only his third full game because of injury, produced 198 yards and 5.5 per carry. Quarterback Tyson Nelson accounted for another 218 yards through the air. And the defense, aware that Crater would have to pass in the second half as it played catch-up from a deficit that reached 31-12 with 10 minutes to play, used an aggressive pass rush to stymie those plans. Eagle Point wasn’t without its blips: eight penalties for 74 yards, four fumbles, of which only one was lost, and two interceptions. "We did some good things," said Hedrick, "we just shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times." One of the best things it did was let Metcalf roam. Crater had opened the game with a bang, Dan Whitehead finding a seam up the middle on the game’s second play to romp 74 yards for a touchdown. The Comets held the Eagles to a field goal for more than a quarter before Nelson threaded a pass to Scott Snow on a slant pattern for a 65-yard scoring strike. Down 10-6, Crater responded by marching from its 36 to the Eagle Point 11, destined to turn this into the knock-down, drag-out befitting longtime rivals. But Metcalf helped steer things the other way. After an illegal blocking penalty pushed Crater back to its 28, quarterback Nick Rose dropped back to pass, hesitated momentarily, then had the ball stripped from him by hard-charging Dan Rardin. "That was a very nice job by Dan to not only get through, but to strip the ball," said Hedrick. Metcalf, a 5-foot-6, 180-pounder, picked it up on the run, maintained his balance and beat a couple of Comets in hot pursuit to pay dirt. "I couldn’t have done it without Dan," said Metcalf. "I was just looking at the end zone. That’s all I thought about." Metcalf, who threw in a sack and another tackle for loss moments later, pushed the Eagles’ lead to 17-6. "That was a great play to go into the half on," said Hedrick. Crater went in with a different feeling. "All of a sudden, we started getting penalties and we went into kind of a lull all the way to halftime," said Crater coach Rich Cable. At intermission, he implored his Comets to take a gut check. Eagle Point opened the second half with a march from its own 30 that culminated in a 1-yard touchdown run by Boyd to make it 24-6. Cable was encouraged when the Comets responded by moving to the Eagles’ 24 with a steady dose of dive plays. "That showed character," he said. Nevertheless, a fumble ended the drive. Crater pulled within 24-12 on the first play of the fourth quarter when Rose completed three straight passes to move 54 yards, setting up Kyle Gallegos’ 4-yard TD run. Eagle Point came back on the legs of Boyd, who ended up with 113 yards on only 12 carries. He ripped off runs of 4, 17, 13 and 5 yards to help set up Nelson’s 5-yard keeper that put the Eagles in front 31-12 with 10:03 to play. Crater turned around and went 80 yards in 13 plays, Andrew Norum catching a 17-yard TD pass from Rose with 3:04 to play. Norum then recovered an onside kick to keep the Comets in business. But with outside linebacker Chris Mannenbach applying a strong defensive rush, Rose had little chance at bringing Crater back in the last three minutes. Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, 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