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more photosMountain View running backs Solomon Helms, left, and Austin Sears sit in the stands at Mountain View High School during practice on Tuesday. After patiently waiting to be the go-to guy on offense for two years, Helms has been one of the best running backs in the state this season. Sears, who had big games when he filled in for an injured Helms, is waiting for his turn to start next year.
Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
Ground attack
A couple of talented Cougar running backs have led Mountain View back to the Class 5A state quarterfinals
By Beau Eastes / The Bulletin
Published: November 26. 2009 4:00AM PSTMountain View tailback Solomon Helms feels for Austin Sears, his backup on offense. He really does.
When Helms was hurt during the final two games of the regular season, Sears stepped in admirably, rushing for combined totals of 212 yards and six touchdowns against Crook County and Century.
But after three weeks of rest, Helms returned to the Cougars’ backfield last Friday, helping Mountain View roll past Madison of Portland 39-14 in the second round of the Class 5A state football playoffs. Helms, who has rushed for 1,183 yards and 19 touchdowns in just eight games this season, went for 76 yards and a score against the Senators last week.
“I know what it’s like, exactly like,” laughs Helms, a senior, who himself had to wait for two years behind all-Intermountain Conference first-team backs Ash Gibson and Scott McCreery before getting the chance to be the Cougars’ featured back.
“But”, says Helms of Sears, “he’ll get his turn.”
On the strength of what in recent years has been a formidable running game, Mountain View is competing in the 5A quarterfinals for the fourth consecutive year. This Friday, the Cougars (9-1 overall) play at two-time defending state champion West Albany at 7 p.m.
“We like to run the football,” says Mountain View coach Steve Turner, now in his third year as head coach. “We’ve had some great tailbacks throughout the years.”
And for the past several seasons, each back has had to wait his turn to carry the football. In 2006 senior Sean Koepf, running behind the blocking of junior fullback Ash Gibson, rushed for 1,401 yards, which at the time was the second-highest mark in Cougar history.
Given his chance at tailback as a senior in 2007, Gibson ran for a school-record 2,109 yards and 27 touchdowns. And last year, after serving as Gibson’s understudy, Scott McCreery led Mountain View in rushing with 1,021 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Helms has maintained that strong tradition this year with his 1,000-yard season and selection to the all-IMC first team as a tailback.
“The bar’s been set here,” says Turner, who also serves as the Cougars’ offensive line coach and offensive coordinator. “The goal for a lot of young kids here that are running backs ... is to do a little bit better (than the previous back.”
A starer in the defensive backfield since his sophomore year, Helms was itching to be the Cougars’ go-to guy on offense since his freshman season.
“I was real hungry,” Helms says about his desire to run with the football this fall after recording only 42 carries in the last two years combined. “I would have liked to do it more last year, but we had some good backs. I knew my time would come.”
Helms wasted little time establishing himself as one of Oregon’s elite high school running backs of 2009. After opening the season with 94 yards and one touchdown in a 14-6 victory over Class 6A McKay of Salem, Helms went off for 240 yards rushing and five touchdowns in a 41-21 win against Eagle Point and then 135 yards rushing and four more scores the following week in a 48-0 blowout of Pendleton.
“He’s not a fast football player, not quick, just strong,” Turner says about the 6-foot, 185-pound Helms, who was an all-IMC first-team selection on both offense and defense this season. “He loves to carry the football, but he’s a heck of a defensive player, too. He’s a football player. He comes off the field at halftime and that’s about it.”
Helms racked up 1,053 yards and 18 touchdowns on 151 carries — a 6.97 yards-per-carry average — before suffering a high ankle sprain in Mountain View’s 24-22 road win over The Dalles-Wahtonka on Oct. 23.
With Helms out, the Cougars inserted Sears, a junior, into the starting tailback slot for their final two regular-season games. Sears, who starts at defensive back in Mountain View’s secondary, ran for 58 yards and two touchdowns in his first start on offense, a 38-7 shellacking of Crook County that clinched a share of the league title.
In the following week, Sears, who stands 5-9 and weighs 170 pounds, rushed for 154 yards and three more scores as Mountain View rolled Century of Hillsboro 38-14 in a nonconference contest that ended the regular season for the Cougars.
“He got a taste of carrying the ball and scoring touchdowns,” Turner says of Sears. “He wants to perform and show people he can play well. ... He loves offense, but he helps us so much on defense and special teams too.”
In addition to his spot duties at tailback, Sears received all-league honorable mention as a defensive back and has run back two kickoffs for touchdowns.
“Special teams are a lot of fun,” Sears says. “It’s another chance to touch the ball and make some plays.”
The Cougars will need strong performances from both Helms and Sears on offense, defense and special teams when they play the Bulldogs, a team that has not lost at home since 2005.
“The whole thing about this group,” Turner says about this year’s Mountain View team, “is it’s all about, ‘What can I do to help the team?’ ”
Beau Eastes can be reached at 541-383-0305 or at beastes@bendbulletin.com.
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