Posted: Sep 16, 2022
NACC Play Begins with Familiar Foe for Red Devils
EUREKA – The 2022 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference season is nearly upon the Eureka football team.
After two tough non-conference challenges, the Red Devils are ready to embrace familiar foes and find out what new tricks they have up their sleeves. On Saturday at 1 p.m., Eureka will officially start the eight-game NACC league slate with a home matchup against Rockford.
"We're always excited about getting back out on the field," EC head coach Kurt Barth said. "Stepping into conference play, it is a different feeling. You start to get into the heart of the season. You've got the non-conference games out of the way. You're ready to see the improvement from Week 1 to Week 3. We're excited about the opportunity to get going."
In Week 2, the Red Devils took on an experienced Olivet squad that was fast, physical and deep on both sides of the ball. The maroon and gold took their lumps, falling 54-14 and marking an 0-2 start to the season.
"You learn in any situation, whether you lose or win, and I thought that we learned that our guys are going to keep competing," Barth said. "They're going to stay together, even though it would have been easier for them to fold, so I'm proud that they didn't.
"As a coach, sometimes you want to see a quicker fix, but the fact that they have stayed together, they kept their work ethic, they kept battling all the way through, says a lot about them and a lot about the direction that they want to go."
The Red Devils struggled to get anything going in the first half of the game, but the team stuck with it and found more success in the second, outscoring the Comets 14-12.
In the third quarter, fifth-year senior running back Peyton Doughty found the end zone for the first time since his freshman season to put the Red Devils on the board. In the fourth, freshman Leetrez Smith got to show flashes of what he can do, rushing eight times for 40 yards and scoring his first career touchdown.
Many other players had opportunities to step in on the other side of the ball and make the most of them.
"It's all part of the process," Barth said. "It's easy to get down on yourself. It's easy for people to get down on the program when you have a couple tough weeks. But our opinion and my opinion of this team hasn't changed and will not waver. We've got a very talented group. We've got to continue to build and utilize those talents and let those talents come out."
Though Barth saw improvement and better results as the second half progressed, he will be the first to say that there is a lot of work to be done by everyone in the program. The biggest piece to the puzzle, he says, is accountability.
"For any problem to be solved, you have to realize your part in the problem," he said. "To our kids, to our coaches, everybody involved, we have to realize where is our fault in this? When we realize that, then we can be a part of the solution. And that's a tough thing to do, but it has to be done."
Rockford will head to Eureka with a 1-1 record in non-conference play. The Regents opened the season with a 41-14 drubbing of Beloit. Quarterback Jaelen Ray threw for 462 yards and four touchdown passes while completing 32 of 35 passes. His 91.4 percent completion rate broke Rockford's single-game completion percentage record, and the quarterback received NACC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
In Week 2 at Greenville, the Ray and Regents continued to put up big offensive numbers, but the team didn't start piling up points until too late in the game and the Panthers held them off, 40-30.
Ray broke two more RU career passing records, passing yards (4,582) and passing attempts (608). He now holds all of Rockford's career passing records except for passing touchdowns. Ray has now completed 70 percent of his passes (56-for-80) and thrown for a league-high 747 yards and seven touchdowns in two games.
After two straight weeks of facing strong running teams, this will be the Red Devils' first time this fall facing a team that favors the passing game. Barth says that Ray has an impressive ability to complete a pass from various arm angles.
"He never really seems to be in a bad of a spot where he can't get the ball out," he said. "He's very talented with that, and he's got a very talented receiving corps.
"Rockford is a very good football team. They can score a lot of points fast. They're going to be a very challenging team starting off the conference season."
Da'Quan McIntosh leads the Regents with 174 receiving yards and two touchdowns on five receptions. Joey Owens is right behind him with 170 receiving yards on a team-high 15 receptions. Emani Johnson has hauled in six catches for 111 yards and two scores. Five receivers have found the end zone for the Regents.
Running back Jack Carey has rushed for 122 yards on 31 attempts and scored two touchdowns. Defensively, Barth says that they're an improved group as well.
When the Red Devils and the Regents met in Rockford last year, it was a shootout for the ages. At the end of regulation, the score was tied at 51-51 following Donovan Hathaway's clutch, blocked extra point with 35 seconds remaining.
After both teams scored in overtime, it all came to an end with Rockford failing to complete a game-winning two-point conversion and the Red Devils walking away victorious.
The next chapter of this NACC rivalry has promise to be just as competitive.
"I think this conference is always going to be competitive, week-in and week-out," Barth said. "It doesn't matter what happened the week before or two weeks before, or who you played. What matters is showing up on Saturday."
