Pacific
Edgren steps in for Perry to take on Kinnick
Stars and Stripes
November 1, 2018
Nile C. Kinnick will face a different opponent for its homecoming football game Friday than the one originally scheduled.
Citing too many injuries and too few available players, Matthew C. Perry asked not to play and has been replaced by Robert D. Edgren.
The Eagles’ season was scheduled to be over last Friday when they beat Perry 34-6, but they were offered to replace the Samurai and they accepted, DODEA officials said.
“We’re so happy the Edgren players and coaches have committed to fill the void in our schedule,” Red Devils coach Dan Joley said. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday.
This is Kinnick’s last regular-season game before hosting the Far East Division I football final for the second straight season against defending champion Kadena.
Edgren (3-1) gets a fifth game in its schedule, eight weeks after it appeared the Eagles might not have a season at all. They barely beat an Aug. 31 deadline to find at least 18 players to suit up and they played what was to be a four-game schedule starting Oct. 6.
Coach Jeremy Sanders said it was “more the players” wanting to play the extra game. He put it to a vote and it was unanimous. “If they wanted to, then I wasn’t going to deny them,” Sanders said.
“Our team has come so far this season and I’m just happy that we got another chance to play,” said senior Bradleigh McCollum.
“Being a senior, it means a lot,” senior quarterback Raphael Lykins said. “Most aren’t expecting us to compete, but we’re going to go out there and play our best ball, regardless of the outcome.”
Kinnick is 6-0 and is third in both scoring offense (37 points per game) and scoring defense (14-2) among DODEA-Pacific teams this season.
The Samurai will finish their season 1-4, after having played in the Far East Division II final three of the previous four seasons. Perry won the 2016 D-II title and lost at Humphreys for the title last season, then fell into full rebuild mode for 2018.
“Way too many injuries,” coach Frank Macias said of a squad that had been reduced to 14 available players. “We were pretty much a JV team playing a varsity schedule.”
This is the fall regular season’s final weekend before Far East tournament week, which begins Monday with the Divisions I and II cross-country meet at Edgren.
On the gridiron, Yokota visits American School In Japan and Humphreys’ junior varsity unit plays at Osan on Friday.
Rain is forecast for Saturday on Okinawa, where Guam High travels to Kadena for the first meeting between those teams in eight years. Later Saturday, Humphreys’ varsity plays at Kubasaki.