Eagles claim outright NBC championship, beat Otsego 42-7

PEMBERVILLE — Otsego got a steady case of Case Boos Friday at Jerry Rutherford Stadium, and the Knights knew it was coming.

Eastwood senior quarterback Case Boos ran for 241 yards on 24 carries with five touchdowns to lead the Eagles to a 42-7 Northern Buckeye Conference victory over the Knights.

The Eagles’ win over Otsego — a team they had lost to four times over the past two years — cements a perfect 10-0 season for Eastwood, including a 7-0 league record to earn an undisputed NBC championship.

For coach Craig Rutherford, it’s been months of work by his players to get to this point.

“Think back to all the work we put in. We go back all the way to the summer and that is a lot of practices, a lot of lifting weights, and then you’ve got to put together 10 weeks in a row,” Rutherford said.

“We never talked about, never thought about what it would be like. Now that we are here, it is special,” Rutherford continued. “It’s hard, obviously, to come out and win them all. This is a pretty special group, I’m proud of them and I’m happy they were able to finish it off tonight.”

Boos scored on TD runs of 6, 2, 28, 6, and 64 yards, averaging 10 yards per carry.

Boos is going to credit his offensive line, especially the starters — 6-foot, 204-pound senior Shayne O’Brien, 5-8, 178-pound senior Anthony Molina, 5-9, 232-pound senior Joey Grzegorczyk, 6-0, 200-pound senior Jaleel Rayford and 5-9, 190-pound senior Jordan Pickerel.

The Eagles ran 42 offensive plays, and all but five were on the ground.

VIDEO: Eagles claim outright NBC championship, beat Otsego 42-7

“Everybody knows what is coming. Those guys on the line, they are some of my best friends in school, too, so we’ve got a great bond,” Boos said.

“I know they’ll have my back every time. Every time they block, I know they are going to have an opening for me and I’m going to try to make something happen with all my heart.”

On his final TD run of 64 yards, once Boos got past the Knights’ secondary, his speed was on display for all to see.

“Originally, it was supposed to go to the left, but the comeback lane is always there, and my guys on the right side, they got to the linebackers — they did a good job,” Boos said.

“I just broke a few tackles, and I turned on the jets and was in the end zone, and that is all I saw.”

Rutherford said it has been that way all season — the Eagles run on almost every down. Yet 10 opponents were unable to stop Eastwood’s offense with any consistency.

“We thought our line was going to get a good push up front and they did,” Rutherford said. “Case is hard to bring down in the open field, and once we were able to get him out there, we knew that he would break off some runs for us.

“The offensive line really blocked well for us tonight and we asked a lot of the other three backs to throw their weight around and they made it look good.”

Boos also completed 4-of-5 passes for 56 yards, including two to senior Bryce Hesselbart for 32 yards, one to senior Isaac Reynolds for 18 yards, and one to senior Jackson Bauer for six yards.

The Eagles went to its three-headed backfield from time to time, too. Senior Bryce DeFalco ran 20 yards on six carries, Reynolds had 17 yards on three carries, including a six-yard TD run, and Hesselbart had eight yards on three carries.

Otsego’s lone TD came on a 26-yard bubble screen from junior quarterback Devin Farley to junior receiver Kenton Wallace, who showed off a little of his own speed when he found his way into the end zone.

Farley completed 15-of-28 passes for 144 yards, but had one pass intercepted, and he ran for 30 yards on seven carries. Sophomore Kaidyn Hutton threw one pass for nine yards.

Senior back Blake Steele ran for 23 yards on six carries and sophomore back Jordyn-Lee Barnett ran for 12 yards on seven carries.

Junior Owen Atkinson caught five passes for 48 yards, Wallace had two catches for 34 yards, junior Jack Simpson caught three passes for 29 yards, Steele had three catches for 18 yards, sophomore Jake Limes had two catches for 15 yards, and sophomore Owen Kasza had a nine-yard reception.

Eastwood outgained Otsego in total yards, 366-218, and the Eagles had 20 first downs to the Knights’ 12.

Senior defensive back Brady Nicely led the Knights defensively with six tackles and two assists.

For Otsego, finishing 6-4 overall and 4-3 in the NBC will not be good enough to get them into the playoffs.

Eastwood is guaranteed to host a first-round Division V playoff game next Friday on Freedom Field at Rutherford Stadium.

“It’s amazing. Seeing the guys put in all the work with me, and side by side,” Boos said. “It’s unbelievable because they fight harder than anybody. It’s crazy to me.”

In the playoffs, where being more multi-dimensional on offense is often a better recipe, coach Rutherford is counting on all phases of his team’s game to be clicking, including the defense which has shown signs of vulnerability this season.

“The best part was the way our defense stepped up. I thought we put together a good gameplan for our guys. They’ve given up some yards the past two weeks and they were frustrated,” Rutherford said.

“Coach (Denton) Saunders did a good job of putting together a good plan and our guys came out and hit, and they looked faster than we’ve looked in a few weeks,” Rutherford continued.

“The defensive effort and, also, the push that we get from the offensive line — if we get that kind of push with any of our backs, we are going to make some plays. If we can keep that going, we should be able to win a couple games.”