Reed holds Douglas to 64 yards of offense out of locker room
Reed senior running back Josiah Schmidt may ask to compete with senior quarterback Cameron Emerson for his job next week in practice.
Schmidt threw a pair of touchdown passes on Friday night (he also threw one in last week’s win over Clayton Valley Charter) and added a score on the ground as Reed (2-0, 0-0) overcame a slow start to handle Douglas, 34-6, in a home non-league win on Friday night.
The Tigers dropped to 0-2, 0-0.
“I guess that’s our run-pass option. That’s a new version,” Reed first-year coach Tony Amantia said with a grin. “We’ve added a new wrinkle to the spread.”
Schmidt finished with 162 total yards of offense (53 rushing, 90 receiving, and 19 passing), but the typically electric Reed offense sputtered for much of the first three quarters. The Raiders 7-6 halftime lead persisted until Schmidt threw a three-yard jump pass to Eric Schmitz on fourth down with 57 seconds left in the third.
His second touchdown of the night started a run of four-straight scoring drives that put the game away.
“He (Schmidt) is a good player, man,” Amantia said.
While the offense took three quarters to break Douglas down, the defense did it all night. Reed held Douglas to just 152 yards of offense on 63 plays (2.4 yards/play), including 64 in the second half. The Tigers didn’t move the chains in the second half until their sixth drive out the of the locker room with less than five minutes remaining.
Douglas scored its lone touchdown with eight minutes remaining in the first half on an eight-yard fade from Hunter Hickey to Devon Ryan. The drive started at Reed’s 42 when a low long snap on a punt forced Schmidt’s knee to the surface.
“We put a little bit more focus on that (defense), because that’s my side of the ball,” Amantia said. “There’s areas we can still improve on that side of the ball, but that’s obviously our strong suit right now. We’ll see if we can keep it going that way.”
The Tigers tried to fake the field goal after Ryan’s grab and take a one-point lead to no avail.
Emerson finished 21-of-29 passing for 300 yards, two touchdowns a pair of interceptions. He threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Isaac McCoy (6 receptions for 58 yards and a score), pushing the lead to 27-6 one play after Reed’s defense forced a turnover on downs. Emerson accounted for the final points of the night when he hit Jayden Scott in the left flat and let him do the rest of the work. Scott made the first man miss in the open field then won a sprint down the sideline for a 62-yard touchdown.
Chase Merrill picked off a pair of passes in the first half, accounting for two of the Raiders four forced turnovers.
Reed will play its third consecutive home game to the start the season next Friday, when it will play host to Carson (1-1, 0-0). The Senators lost at home to Reno on Friday night, 19-0.
“I know we’re going to play a good football team and coach (Blair) Roman runs a good program there,” Amantia said. “We have to be ready to rock and roll.”
Robert Amantia says
Interest is in Reed High School football program.