Loebach dominates offensively and defensively in Eagles win

By Ben Murphy

Engadine saw Coleman Loebach score three times on offense and once on defense, topping Cedarville-DeTour thanks in large part to that impressive performance on Friday, September 18. The Eagles won the Bridge Alliance Valley division game 36-18.

“I thought our team played a lot better this week, tackling wise,” head coach Howard Hood said. “All the stuff we did in this game was a big positive for the team, and obviously, the outcome was really good for us.”

Loebach has been “banged up”, Hood said, but felt better this week.

Loebach scored the game’s first points about 6 minutes in on a 33-yard touchdown run, and he also ran in the ensuing two-pointer to make it 8-0. The Islanders responded with a touchdown of their own to make it 8-6, but Loebach added another scoring jaunt, this time from 18 yards away to extend their lead to 14-6 after one.

The Islanders closed within 14-12 thanks to their second touchdown, and they were driving late in the half to possibly take the lead.

Loebach had other ideas though, hauling in an interception and running it all the way back for a 75-yard pick-six and 22-12 lead at the half.

“That was a really big play; they were down to our 40 and driving,” Hood said. “We were playing decoy defense on the play, Coleman had been blitzing on the edge, he faked it on that one, the quarterback went to throw it over him and he picked it off, zigged down the field and that was a big thing for us going into the half. That gave us a lot of momentum going into halftime. That got the team pumped up.”

Loebach added a 26-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, and the Eagles led 30-18 entering the fourth. Jaydon Pollaski wrapped up the scoring with a 19-yard scoring run in that frame.
“We went in with a good scheme on defense and we wanted to hold their quarterback down,” Hood said. “He broke loose [on the first touchdown]; he’s a pretty good athlete but defensively we had some guys that had a heck of a game.”

Loebach finished with 154 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries and Pollaski ran 14 times for 86 yards and one touchdown. Beau Briggs carried the ball five times for 13 yards and Ian Edwards ran once for 11 yards.

Karter Ehn was also making his first start of the year at quarterback, filling in for an injured Gavin Maki.

“Karter had played quarterback a couple years ago, I thought he did a good job, slowed the game down like we told him to,” Hood said. “Overall, with the big plays and stuff we did a good job controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and anytime you can do that it is a big positive for your team. Pollaski is doing a good job at running back, too.”

The Eagles were led on defense by Archer Nelson, who had 11 tackles and Loebach finished with 10 tackles to go along with the pick-six. Ehn took down seven, Kaiden Boone had six tackles and getting three tackles apiece was Aiden Hall, Briggs, Pollaski and Edwards. Sawyer Swan added one tackle.