PREP FOOTBALL PREVIEWS: Smaller Crescent will rely on speed

By Michael Carman

Peninsula Daily News

JOYCE — The Crescent Loggers lost some tall timber to graduation in the form of McCabe Story, Wyatt McNeece and Neil Peppard, all of whom measured out at 6-feet-2 or taller and weighed in at 235 pounds or more.

But eight-man football success isn’t predicated on size alone. And the 2017 Crescent football team returns a host of interchangeable pieces at the skill positions offensively and defensively. This includes senior quarterback/safety KC Spencer, junior running back/middle linebacker Noah Leonard, sophomore running back/wide receiver/linebacker Eric Emery and senior wide receiver/quarterback/defensive back Robert Cox.

“We’re a young team, very young, but we have a lot of our core players back,” third-year Loggers head coach Brian Shimko said.

“I feel good about the season. I think we will compete and I think we will make the playoffs again. We’ve gotten better from year to year and I don’t expect that to change.”

Crescent went 3-7 in Shimko’s first season in charge in 2015 and improved to 5-5 with a playoff victory over Oakville last season.

This season, the Loggers will work out of the pistol formation in a bid to be multi-faceted offensively.

In the pistol the quarterback lines up closer to the center than in a shotgun formation and takes a shorter snap. The quarterback is close enough to the defense to get a read on what it is planning, but far enough back to have a little more time and a better view of the field on passing downs.

“There’s lot of action going on quick with the Pistol,” Shimko said.

“We’ve got athletic, quick kids and things are happening fast in a short window. Defensively, you have to stay home or you can get beat.

“We’ll start out with that, and like we’ve done every year, our playbook starts out thin and ends up pretty thick. We will just try to grow as we go.”

Spencer thinks the switch to the Pistol should help offset the team’s lack of size upfront.

“It’s eight-man football, you have to be fast,” Spencer said. “Size is nice, but if you can bounce it to the outside in eight man and you have a wide open field with speed on your side, size won’t help you catch anybody.”

And Shimko likes the shake-and-bake capabilities of Spencer.

“KC is agile, he’s quick to make decisions and if the play is falling apart he knows how to take off and make something out of nothing,” Shimko said.

Cox, Emery and senior Kyle Buchanan also should see the ball at running back and wide receiver.

“Eric Emery scored seven touchdowns when he was an eighth-grader,” Shimko said. “He had some leg injury issues last year and was bothered by those, but he’s healthy this year and we are expecting a lot from him.”

Spencer also might catch his first pass since his freshman season.

“KC is great at interceptions, but I haven’t put him at wide receiver yet,” Shimko said. “So there’s another aspect of our offense right there. He’s got good hands if we can get the ball to him.”

And the Loggers will have a hard-charging running back to help them pick up tough gains in short yardage situations.

“Losing McCabe Story was tough, but we have another bruiser right behind him who plays the same kind of ball in Noah Leonard, so that’s nice to have,” Spencer said.

Leonard is a throwback type of player who enjoys the physicality of the sport. He led the Loggers in tackles last season.

Mental strides

He’s hoping the team makes strides mentally in 2017.

“I just want to go out and play football and win some games,” he said.

“To do that we need to have a little more fire in our tackling and we need to have more of that ‘Go get it’ mentality. Get some bumps and bruises and get up and keep playing the game. We just need to be a little more stronger mentally.”

Shimko said the team returns one starting lineman, sophomore Timmy Ward who started the entire season at center last year.

“He’s got a high motor and he learned a ton playing center all season,” Shimko said.

“He’s kind of putting in the work now on the line and he should get some carries in the next few seasons.”

Darren Lee and Fischer Hartley should see time on the line and Shimko said junior Kylan Scheid, listed at 285 pounds, will play a big role.

“Kylan Scheid will be a guy that helps us this year. He’s a big lineman, but we might see him run with it.”

Defensively, Leonard will man the middle and Spencer will play some center field at safety.

Spencer picked off 12 passes last year, and holds the state’s eight-man career interception record with 26, four better than previous record holder Eli Harrison of Quilcene (2012-15).

“I played baseball my whole life,” Spencer said. “I played catcher and center field. And you can see everything playing center field. Most safeties play 5 yards off the linebacker but I play 10 to 15 yards away because the chances of having an eight-man QB able to look off a defender is pretty low. So I watch the ball and pursue to it and try to cut it off. And receivers don’t see me coming in, most of my picks have been coming in out of nowhere.”

Leonard said contributing to the team’s steady improvement has been a point of pride.

“We are getting there,” he said. “It’s awesome to be able to build things up and be part of a team that’s working for something now.”

And Buchanan is ready for his last go-round as a Logger football player.

“It will be a lot of fun because our fans get into it,” he said. “I just want to leave knowing that I put out 100 percent effort on the field. It feels amazing because back in eighth grade and freshman year I didn’t know a lot about how to play and these coaches have really taught us a bunch about how to play and we’ve improved every year.”

Crescent Capsule

• Last Year: 5-5 overall, Lost in second round of district playoffs to Tacoma Baptist.

• Offense: Pistol

• Defense: 2-5-1 or 3-4-1 sets.

• Contributors: QB/DB KC Spencer; RB/LB Noah Leonard; RB/DB Kyle Buchanan; RB/WR/DB Eric Emery; WR/DB Robert Cox.

• Key Newcomers: Deep eighth-grade class will add vital depth to the Loggers’ roster.

• Expected team strength: Speed and depth at the skill positions.

• Question mark: Only one starter (Timmy Ward) returns along the offensive and defensive lines. And depth always is a factor for eight-man teams.

• Game to Watch: Loggers open at home with Tacoma Baptist, the team that eliminated Crescent from the playoffs in 2016. Should get a good idea of what to work on going forward against the stout Crusaders.