Roseburg football aims to end three-game skid at South Eugene
Roseburg’s Corey Kimball (8) throws a pass during a Special District 4 game against Willamette earlier this season. Kimball and his teammates are working to clean things up after turning the ball over four times against the Wolverines. (PHOTO: Nathan Miller/The News-Review)
There are three games left in the regular season for the Roseburg football team and there’s plenty hanging in the balance.
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The Indians visit the South Eugene Axe at 7 p.m. Friday and a win would end a three-game losing streak, surpass last year’s win total and keep Roseburg’s hopes of finishing the season with a winning record alive.
There’s also the hopes of reaching the Class 5A state playoffs. Roseburg is on the bubble for an at-large bid into the the 16-team playoff bracket. Another slip-up could burst that bubble.
“We review some of our beginning of the year goals and winning record, playoffs … all those are things that are on the table that we continue to discuss, but the primary focus is to beat South Eugene,” Watson said.
Roseburg (2-4, 1-4 Special District 4) has faced the most difficult portion of its schedule and will finish the season against three teams that have gone a combined 2-17.
South Eugene (0-6, 0-5) has been outscored by an average of nearly 30 points per game. South, a Class 6A program playing in 5A like Roseburg, is a few years removed from nearly losing its football program.
Interim head coach Derek Brimmer says the team has a young and inexperienced core, and the focus has been on bringing in more kids into the program.
“The kids we have are really passionate about football,” Brimmer said. “This year we’ve had to deal with a lot of injuries and other things that have kind of slowed down the development. But over the past couple of weeks we’ve really kind of come into what we thought we’d look like early in the year and I feel like we’ve been playing much better with our senior leadership.”
The Axe is coming off its best offensive performance of the season, a 40-20 loss to Springfield last week. It was the most points scored all season for South.
“We’ve had problems with consistency and getting all 11 guys on the same page. This week we just started putting those things together. A little bit more focus on little details and kids just started to pick it up,” Brimmer said.
Roseburg will be looking to clean things up after four turnovers against Willamette.
Junior quarterback Corey Kimball made his return to action after missing one game due to injury. He threw two interceptions and lost the ball on a handoff and a pitch to running backs.
Watson said there’s been “an emphasis on protecting the football” this week at practice. “That’s been our goal this week is no turnovers in practice and we’re hitting that mark,” he said.
“We’re working on it a lot,” senior receiver Noah Nelson said. “We’re just trying to get back in motion and get things going again like it was and hopefully get another streak going.”
The SD4 standings will get a bit of a shake-up this week as the top two teams will square off on Friday. Churchill and Willamette are both undefeated in league games and will meet at 7 p.m. in Eugene. The winner will have the upper hand in the league title chase.
In other games, North Eugene hosts Crater and Springfield visits Eagle Point.