By Kevin Cederstrom
Jason Burg's performance Friday against Osakis may turn out to be pretty expensive. The senior running back ran wild for 327 yards and six touchdowns in a 49-14 thrashing of Osakis during the Eagles' home opener at Smith Park in New York Mills. Burg owes much of his success against the Silverstreaks to his offensive line, which opened up huge holes all night. Buying dinner for the big boys in appreciation of his record-setting performance could get spendy for Burg.
Burg had touchdown runs of 26, 26, 32 and 1 yard in the first half alone. In the second half he found the end zone from 61 yards and 65 yards out. Although the school doesn't keep individual records for football, Burg's 327 yards on the ground is the most head coach Matt Radniecki has seen in his 18 years and is most likely the most in Eagles football history.
"Jason had an outstanding night," Radniecki said. "We are a rushing football team first and tonight the line got off the ball and did their job."
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Burg finished with 327 yards on 22 carries, with six touchdowns and one 2-point conversion.
"Jason is capable of putting up big numbers and he owes his quarterback and offensive linemen a dinner," Radniecki commented. "They did an outstanding job blocking and Grant (Cameron) did a much better job of making the correct reads in the veer offense this week."
Radniecki said the coaches this week stressed improvement coming off the loss to Browerville last week when the Eagles turned the ball over five times.
With Burg and the Eagles' dominating offensive performance the defense did its part to set the tone early. The Eagles stopped the Silverstreaks fourth down and short in the game's first possession.
"That was the big play we needed to get going," Radniecki said. "We seemed to feed off that big stop and it gave us confidence that we could get the job done."
After the fourth down stop, the Eagles put together nice drive, capped off by a 26-yard TD run by Burg. Early in the second quarter, Burg again scored from 26 yards out for a 14-0 Eagles lead. Then came TD runs of 32 yards and 1-yard later in the second quarter for a 28-0 lead after the first half.
Defensively for the Eagles, Alex Helmeke had 11 tackles and Burg and Terrel Flanigan each had 8.
New York Mills' 9-10 grade team also beat Osakis last week, 28-16. The JV were victorious over Browerville, 26-0.
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The Eagles play this Friday at Sebeka against United North Central (Sebeka-Menahga).
