By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
CROW, Ore– The rushing game of the Falls City Football team was spot on during Saturday’s jamboree at Crow High School to kick off their season.
Against Elkton and Days Creek, their Running Back crew of Avery Burgess, Brayden Graham and Daniel Arismendez illustrated the offensive scheme that Dean Munkers has been trying to develop over the course of his time as Mountaineers Head Coach.
“That’s been the key for us since I took over, developing an offense that even if we don’t have a guy that can throw well we can have an offense that can function and move the ball. The running game with those three is huge for us,” starts Munkers. “We’ll work some RPO’s off of it where that back will be able to throw and that’ll help us set up our passing game better.”
“We’re really pushing on that and working on blocking because that’s kind of an issue right now, but we’re working on it, we’ll have a big run game hopefully,” adds Burgess.
Burgess is one of four seniors on the 1A 6-Man squad this Fall. From starting as a freshman a few short years ago to now, it’s been a fun ride for the Falls City running back as his senior season is about to get underway.
“It’s been pretty fun. My freshman year I started and we had a big senior group and we’ve been building up from there. It’s been a lot of fun. I’m hoping that we’re going to be up there…we learned some things out there today and hopefully move on from there. Progress our lineups and go from there,” said Burgess.
The squad saw where they could improve on entering their Week 1 game against Crow on September 4. Blocking. The little things on defense that they can improve upon this next week as the Mountaineers look to improve upon their 3-6 season from last season.
“Defensively against Elkton I was really impressed with how we did. The secondary is a work in progress, those guys are first year starters, they got to get better with reading their key’s and staying over the top of stuff and not letting guys get behind them. But our young guys back there, they’re picking it up fast so we’re going to get some depth going,” starts Munkers. “Elkton was a Semi-Final team last year and they’re going to be a really good team and we only gave up one score, so I’m really happy about that.
“Days Creek is a fast, physical team and defensively we got to tackle a little bit better and learn to read our key a little bit better and do our jobs and we’ll be alright.”
Falls City will be on the road for the first two weeks of the season, against the Cougars on September 4 and at the Wolves of Days Creek on September 11 before hosting Country Christian on September 18 for their first home game of the season.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
