Fruitland steps out of SRV action for road trip
By Scott Ford
Argus Observer
Thursday, October 2, 2008 10:46 AM PDT
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| Fruitland running back Nick Varriale eludes a pair of McCall-Donnelly defenders during Friday’s Snake River Valley contest in McCall. Varriale and the Grizzlies hit the road for a non-league test in Baker City. |
Fruitland — Last week, the Fruitland Grizzly football team posted a 39-2 beat down over the McCall Vandals to improve to a perfect 4-0 on the season and 1-0 in the Snake River Valley Conference.
Friday, the Grizzlies will give the other SRV teams a break as they travel to Baker City to take on the Bulldogs (4-1 overall, 0-0 GOL).
Baker City has scored 135 points in five games this season, which averages to 27 points a game, and the Baker defense has only given up a stingy 10.2 points a game, but those numbers don’t compare to what the Grizzlies have done in 2008. Fruitland is scoring 30 points a game and giving up only 2.2 points a contest.
The Griz opened the year with a 39-7 win over La Grande, and followed that with a 21-0 shutout over Emmett in week two.
Playing on the road is something the Grizzlies have had to contend with this season, with three of their four games being road games.
In week three, Fruitland traveled to Columbia and brought back a 21-0 win.
Last Friday, coming off the bye week, the Griz beat McCall.
Fruitland has only two more home games on it schedule along with two road games.
The home games are against Homedale on Oct 10 and Weiser in the regular season finale Oct. 24.
The Grizzlies have a four-man attack coming out of the back field with Nick Varriale averaging 123 yards per game and 12.95 yards per carry. Tommy Macfarlane has rushed for 398 yards in four games and is good for 10.72 yards per carry, and that is only two of the four-player attack.
Rounding out the potent back field is Caleb Crim with 335 yards in four games.
Fruitland head coach Bruce Schlaich said with the offense he runs, the wing-T, it gives him plenty of options.
“Teams will try to stop Crim in the inside and it opens up the outside running for Varriale,” he said. “Having backs of that quality, defenses can’t just try to stop one.”
As for the passing game for Fruitland, Schlaich said he is happy with what RJ Edwards and Dillon Stringfield are doing, but added the passing game needs some stability.
“We are healthy and excited to get back on the field,” Fruitland head coach Bruce Schlaich said.
Having a non-conference game mixed in the conference schedule does not concern the Fruitland coach.
“We just take every game one at a time. It does not matter if its league game or a regular game,” Schlaich said. “They (Baker) have been having some success and we are looking at this game as another test to see where we are at.”
The Bulldogs are no strangers to the teams in the Treasure Valley with all five of their games coming against teams from this area.
Baker opened its season with a 20-12 win over Parma, and then fell to Weiser 20-6 in week two. Since then the Bulldogs have posted wins over Nyssa (33-6) and Vale (14-13).
Their most recent win was over Burns this past Friday where they won 62-0.
Schlaich said Baker’s quarter can throw the football well, and the Bulldogs will show different fronts on defense.
“Defensively they have some pretty good players,” Schlaich said.
Friday’s game will kick off at 8 p.m. MDT and will be carried by KSRV 1380AM.
