Wolverines notch first win in rout
East Mills built a 49-0 lead after three quarters and notched its first win of the season in a 49-12 victory over East Union Friday in Eight-man football in Malvern.
The Wolverines (1-1) piled up 437 total yards behind Michael Schafer’s 19-of-28 passing night for 276 yards and four touchdowns. East Mills also picked up 161 yards rushing, including 90 yards from Jackson Wray and 69 from Schafer.
“We got Wray loose a few times and we had some yards from Michael (Schafer) scrambling, most of those yards weren’t called runs,” said co-head coach Kevin Schafer said. “I think the big thing was we got some other receivers going.”
After leading receiver Nic Duysen’s 14 catch, 265 yard night in the Wolverines’ season-opener, the senior wideout faced a constant double-team against East Union.
With Duysen “limited” to seven catches for 76 yards Friday, Freshman Mason Crouse stepped up and hauled in five passes for 149 yards and three TDs.
“They double-teamed Duysen and he was still able to get seven or eight catches which is pretty good when you get double-teamed,” Coach Schafer said. “Crouse had a really big night and I thought we spread the ball around really well.”
After being limited to 38 yards on 13 carries in the season-opening loss to Audubon, the Wolverines’ averaged better than six yards per carry against East Union.
“Obviously they (East Union) weren’t as good or as physical as Audubon,” Coach Schafer said. “Audubon kind of beat us up and that effected us in the second half. I think we wore them (East Union) down this week, especially with our spread and them having to chase us all around the field. We felt like we tired them out.”
Defensively, the Wolverines stifled East Union all night, surrendering just over 100 yards of total offense through three quarters, when Schafer pulled his started and played the final frame with his junior varsity lineup.
“We really stuffed their run game; it was almost non-existent,” Coach Schafer said. “They got loose a couple teams and that’s going to happen in eight man but I thought we really handled their run game. Most of their yards came in the fourth quarter when we had our junior varsity out there and they left their starters in.”
Schafer said the win – and the balanced offense – was a big step forward that they will need with Lamoni (1-0) coming to town Friday. Lamoni opened the season with a 56-18 win over Stanton.
“We’re going to have our hands full this week,” Coach Schafer said. “Their quarterback last year was a handful and we never really did stop them, we just out-scored them. And at the present time our offense isn’t as potent as it was a year ago. So we’re going to need to take another step forward this week.”
Kick off against Lamoni is set for 7 p.m. Friday in Malvern.