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For the first time since 1993, the Jasper Eagles are 3-0.
Not a bad start to the season, no?
The Eagles used a balanced offensive attack, coupled with an aggressive, stingy defense, to beat Appleton City for the first time since 2001 Friday night in their home opener.
Jasper, which garnered more than 400 yards of total offense, relied heavily on senior Austin Spencer, who generated 222 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. A performance like that is exactly what Josh Dirks, Jasper’s first-year coach, was looking for.
“Our main goal this week was to get the ground game going,” said Dirks, after the Eagles handed Appleton City a 32-0 loss at Jasper High School. “I challenged the boys all week on that. We’d been lacking (a running game) the last two weeks, and we needed to get it going. I’m happy that we did.”
Offsetting Spencer on the ground was the Newman-to-Piepenbrink air attack.
Quarterback Matt Newman was eerily accurate for the second week in a row, completing 15 of 22 passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns. Seven of Newman’s passes were caught by senior wide receiver Jeff Piepenbrink, for 112 yards and a touchdown. Garrett Greenlee added five catches for 34 yards.
Newman and Piepenbrink added a new wrinkle to their pitch-and-catch attack this week with the jump ball. Three times Newman lofted the ball to Piepenbrink, who is listed at 6-foot-4, in heavy traffic, and each time the receiver out-jumped the defenders and came down with the ball.
Defensively, Jasper held the Bulldogs to under 150 yards of total offense. They allowed Appleton City only one sustained drive. Led by senior defensive tackle Preston Storm, with two sacks, Jasper got to Appleton City quarterback Brennan Minks four times, and hurried him nearly every time he dropped back to pass.
But the defense’s biggest test came midway through the first period when the Bulldogs lined up in a spread formation. Where recent editions of the Jasper Eagles would have crumbled, not knowing how to react to an offense they weren’t used to seeing, they didn’t blink.
Jasper allowed no completions deep, and prevented any long runs after the catch on the Bulldogs’ slants and passes across the middle. Dinks and dunks they allowed, but it’s hard to consistently make a drive out of those, as shown by Minks’ numbers after the game. He completed 9 of 20 passes, but for only 65 yards. In fact, Appleton City junked the spread offense midway through the third quarter, relying on the I-formation the rest of the way.
For the first time since 1993, the Jasper Eagles are 3-0.
Not a bad start to the season, no?
The Eagles used a balanced offensive attack, coupled with an aggressive, stingy defense, to beat Appleton City for the first time since 2001 Friday night in their home opener.
Jasper, which garnered more than 400 yards of total offense, relied heavily on senior Austin Spencer, who generated 222 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. A performance like that is exactly what Josh Dirks, Jasper’s first-year coach, was looking for.
“Our main goal this week was to get the ground game going,” said Dirks, after the Eagles handed Appleton City a 32-0 loss at Jasper High School. “I challenged the boys all week on that. We’d been lacking (a running game) the last two weeks, and we needed to get it going. I’m happy that we did.”
Offsetting Spencer on the ground was the Newman-to-Piepenbrink air attack.
Quarterback Matt Newman was eerily accurate for the second week in a row, completing 15 of 22 passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns. Seven of Newman’s passes were caught by senior wide receiver Jeff Piepenbrink, for 112 yards and a touchdown. Garrett Greenlee added five catches for 34 yards.
Newman and Piepenbrink added a new wrinkle to their pitch-and-catch attack this week with the jump ball. Three times Newman lofted the ball to Piepenbrink, who is listed at 6-foot-4, in heavy traffic, and each time the receiver out-jumped the defenders and came down with the ball.
Defensively, Jasper held the Bulldogs to under 150 yards of total offense. They allowed Appleton City only one sustained drive. Led by senior defensive tackle Preston Storm, with two sacks, Jasper got to Appleton City quarterback Brennan Minks four times, and hurried him nearly every time he dropped back to pass.
But the defense’s biggest test came midway through the first period when the Bulldogs lined up in a spread formation. Where recent editions of the Jasper Eagles would have crumbled, not knowing how to react to an offense they weren’t used to seeing, they didn’t blink.
Jasper allowed no completions deep, and prevented any long runs after the catch on the Bulldogs’ slants and passes across the middle. Dinks and dunks they allowed, but it’s hard to consistently make a drive out of those, as shown by Minks’ numbers after the game. He completed 9 of 20 passes, but for only 65 yards. In fact, Appleton City junked the spread offense midway through the third quarter, relying on the I-formation the rest of the way.
“Defensively, we came out and played well,” said Dirks. “We made adjustments during the week to be ready for the four wide receiver formation. The boys stepped up to that challenge, and took that aspect of the game away from them.”
The Eagles produced their first special teams score of the year against the Bulldogs. It came with 7:21 left in the game, with Jasper leading 25-0. Appleton City’s Trent Lewis-Porter punt went, which nearly straight up in the air, caromed downfield when Piepenbrink swooped in, grabbed the ball, and was 10 yards downfield before Appleton City realized what he was doing, ending up with a 51 yard touchdown.
Seniors Logan Stump and Greenlee scored for the fist time this season. Greenlee scored on a 2-yard run to end the first half and Stump caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Newman midway through the third quarter.
Although Dirks was pleased with the win, he saw some areas for improvement.
“We’ve got some things to work on,” he said. “We need to lower our turnovers and our penalties.” (Jasper turned the ball over four times, and was penalized seven times for 65 yards).
Jeff Long, Appleton City head coach, was much less sanguine about his team’s performance.
“I’ve never had a team play as soft as this team did tonight. Our (junior varsity) has played harder than our varsity. I’ve been coaching a long time, and never had a team play anything close to this."
The next three games, without a doubt, will be a challenge for the Eagles, and by the time it’s all said and done, there should be a clear favorite to win the Spring River Valley Conference.
Jasper travels to Miller, which lost its first game of the year to Greenfield, next week at 7 p.m. Friday at Miller High School.
