Cougs dominate heading into IMC

Mountain View rolls past Eagle Point, 42-7

Published: September 13. 2008 4:00AM PST

The reigning Intermountain Conference champion is hitting the ground running heading into league play.

Mountain View destroyed Eagle Point 42-7 on Friday night in its final nonconference game before the start of the IMC season. The Cougars (2-0 overall) play at Pendleton next week in the 2008 conference opener for both teams.

“We enjoy every win, but we’ve got conference coming up,” said Mountain View coach Steve Turner. “Boy, it’s going to be tough.”

Led by seniors Scott Plants and Matt Robertson at quarterback — both signal-callers led Mountain View to two touchdowns each in the first half — the Cougar offense racked up 499 yards of total offense.

Robertson ended the night completing five of eight passes for 49 yards with three touchdowns, while Plants added 46 yards and one score on five-of-eight passing.

Senior tailback Scott McCreery paced Mountain View’s ground game, rushing for 159 yards and one touchdown on 11 carries. Combined, 10 different Cougar runners ran for 404 yards against Eagle Point.

“We’ve always been a running team,” Turner said. ““But our key is we keep people off balance.”

After going three and out on its first possession of the game, Mountain View scored on its next five offensive series before halftime. Senior receiver Pat Cashman broke open a scoreless game four minutes into the first quarter when he caught a six-yard touchdown pass from Plants for the Cougars’ first score.

Mountain View scored again six minutes later when Mc- Creery carried on a draw play 41 yards into the end zone, giving the Cougars a 13-0 lead after a failed point-after attempt.

“We’ve got the ability to do both (passing and running),” Turner said. “And that makes us difficult to defend.”

The Cougs did not wait long to score again, this time with Robertson under center. Following a three-and-out series by the Eagles, Robertson took Mountain View 45 yards in 212 minutes, ending the eight-play drive with a four-yard touchdown pass to senior tight end Robert Turner to make the score 20-0 following Skyler Laughlin’s point-after kick.

Robertson led the Cougars to the end zone again after an Eagle Point punt, directing another eight-play drive. Junior running back Chris Barber caught a 12-yard touchdown strike from Robertson with 3:17 left in the half, putting Mountain View ahead 27-0 after another Laughlin kick.

After Robertson’s two touchdown drives, Plants commanded the Cougars’ offense for its final series of the half. Taking over at the Mountain View 48-yard line, Plants drove the Cougars to the Eagle Point 17 before Laughlin ended the half with a 34-yard field goal.

“People say, ‘Oh boy, that’s tough (playing two quarterbacks),’ but I like it,” Turner said about his quarterback situation. “We’ve got two really good quarterbacks with different strengths.”

The Cougars tacked on two more scores in the second half, a seven-yard run by Solomon Helms and a 22-yard touchdown pass from Robertson to Steve Smith. Defensively, Mountain View held the Eagles to fewer than 300 yards of offense.