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Seasons like this don't come along very often.
An undefeated regular season, a conference championship, and an appearance in the Division IV regional semifinals.
Granted, Eastwood is no stranger to the state playoffs, having qualified for the postseason in seven of the last 10 years, but there was something special about this team and this season will stand out.
Sadly, the team saw its season end with a tough loss to the reigning Division IV state champions, and No. 2 ranked team, Columbus Bishop Hartley, 21-7.
“It’s tough to lose when you have such a good group of kids,” said veteran coach Jerry Rutherford. “But I think we did a lot of good things.”
It was a special season for a variety of reasons. The Eagles finished with an 11-1 record and won the inaugural Northern Buckeye Conference title with a perfect 7-0 mark in the league.
The team was dominant for the majority of the season, winning eight of its 12 games by at least 31 points.
When facing elite teams, the Eagles usually came out on top, defeating powerhouse programs Patrick Henry (37-34) and Clyde (35-32) in the season's first two weeks in dramatic fashion.
“We thought we could play with those teams but we just didn’t know how it would turn out,” said Rutherford. “Clyde came here and we beat them in a close game and then things kind of got rolling for us.”
For the next seven weeks, the Eagles were even more dominant, outscoring their opponents by a combined 376-63.
In the season finale against league rival Genoa, the Eagles rallied from a 23-13 deficit midway through the fourth quarter to defeat the Comets, ending Genoa's 48-game regular-season winning streak. The win garnered Eastwood the NBC championship for the Eagles, their first conference title in five years.
“That was a huge win for our program,” said Rutherford. “We finished the (regular) season 10-0 and won the league title.”
The first round of the playoffs saw Eastwood steamroll the Ottawa-Glandorf Titans at home, 31-0.
Rutherford says the team’s success stems from hard work invested in the offseason, from the sessions in the weight room in the offseason, to the 7-on-7 competitions and two-a-days last summer. The season could have taken a turn for the worse when running back Marquise Pitts, who led the team in rushing through the first three games, was let go from the team. However, the Conkle brothers, Zach and Isaiah, stepped in and filled the void without missing a beat, running for a combined 2,346 yards. Isaiah rushed for 1,190 yards on 103 carries (11.6 per-carry) and 23 touchdowns and Zach had 121 carries 1,156 yards and 21 touchdowns.
The offensive line, key to success of the rushing attack, included center Zack Shaffer (5-11, 260 pounds), guards Adam Wolf (5-10, 198) and Kris Hayward (5-11, 204) and tackles Abel Steagall (6-0, 250) and Brandon Shaffer (6-1, 197). Tight end Austin Gottfried (5-11, 194) helped to complement the linemen up front.
While the offense and the rushing attack got much of the accolades, it was the Eastwood defense that was just as, if not more important than the offense.
The defense, led by Hayward, Bobby Brooks, Joe Nauman, Lincoln Peters, Chase Beam, Alex Keyes and Kyle Schlumbohm, forced 37 turnovers on the season, including 26 interceptions.
For Rutherford, who played college football at Mount Union in the late 1970s and early ‘80s and has been at Eastwood’s helm for 30 years, the past decade has been a welcomed change for a program that did not qualify for the playoffs until 2002. Granted, the program had undefeated and state-ranked teams in 1977 and '88, but neither of those teams made it to the postseason. Now, Eastwood is a perennial qualifier.
Despite ending on a sour note, Rutherford says there is plenty the Eagles will take away from their remarkable run.
“Hopefully we can take out some good memories of a great season,” he said. “We’re proud of what we’ve done and what we accomplished.”
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