Sports
Eureka Football Team Qualifies for Playoffs
Eureka High varsity football team beats Oakville 48-21 Friday and qualifies for the Class 6 playoffs.
Friday began as a night of celebration at Oakville High School as the Tiger football seniors were recognized in a pre-game ceremony.
But the celebration was short-lived as one of the Tiger standout seniors, Javon Henderson, was injured in the first quarter. He had to miss the rest of the game and the Eureka High School team took advantage, rolling to a 48-21 victory in the regular season finale for both teams.
Thus, Eureka won the district championship and will host De Smet Friday night. Oakville also qualified for the first round of the playoffs, and will travel to St. Louis University high for a game Friday night.
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"Losing Javon early in the game really put a damper on the whole evening," Oakville coach Arlee Conners said. "We knew that it was going to be difficult to run the ball against Eureka and Javon was a very important player in our game plan."
Oakville was still able to throw for 263 yards and Andy Oliver had a pair of touchdown passes. But the loss of a big-play receiver like Henderson was crucial.
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"I think Javon is one of the better receivers in the whole area," Conners said. "I just hope that the injury is not too bad because he has the opportunity to be a big-time football player on the next level."
The injury was a hyperextended knee and Henderson is scheduled for an MRI this week.
Eureka took control of the game from the start as it led 28-0 midway through the second quarter. Spencer Stein had a pair of touchdown runs and Seth Pratt through a pair of touchdown passes for the early lead before Jaron Henderson, who caught 12 passes for 157 yards, caught a 16-yard touchdown pass from Oliver with less than three minutes to go in the half.
But Pratt threw his third touchdown pass of the half to Aaron Schnurbusch in the final minute of the half for the big halftime advantage.
Oakville played evenly with the Wildcats the rest of the way as Oliver added a short touchdown run to go along with his passes for scores to Jaron Henderson and Sam Nelms.
"Eureka is a good team but we had some missed responsibilities on both sides of the ball in addition to the holes we had with personnel," Conners said.