East Mills dominates in 42-0 win at East Union

Michael Schafer tossed four touchdown passes and East Mills tossed its first shutout in three seasons in a 42-0 victory over East Union in a non-district Eight-person football Friday in Afton.

“We’d been so up and down in practices, Coach (Claude) Lang and I had no idea what was going to happen,” Schafer said. “They were a little bigger than us but overall I felt like we had a speed advantage over them in multiple positions and that really helped us out. We were extremely pleased with how we played, especially on the defensive side.”

The Wolverine defense forced two turnovers and limited the Eagles to 126 total yards while holding them without a point for the first time in six seasons.

“We really shut them down offensively, put a lot of pressure on their passer and stopped the run game, which was big because they were bigger than us so we were pleased by that,” Schafer said.

Leading by six touchdowns in the fourth quarter, Schafer went to his subs. And they delivered the school’s first shutout in three seasons.

“We understand if teams want to try and score and get a touchdown in but we were proud of junior varsity kids against mostly their starters the last drive,” he said. “We held them out of the endzone. That was a big deal for us.”

On offense, the Wolverines went three-and-out on offense on their opening drive and then proceeded to use a balanced offense to methodically pick the Eagles’ defense apart to the tune of 28-0 lead at halftime and a 42-0 lead at the end of three quarters.

East Mills finished with 316 total yards (147 rushing and 169 passing).

“In eight man, 300 yards is always enough but we made some big plays after they stuffed us those first three plays and we had to punt,” Schafer said. “We hit some big passes over the top and that opened up our run game.

“We were nervous about condition, the first game I’m sure they were, but it looked like our kids held up better in the heat than they did.”

Michael Schafer completed 9-of-16 passes for 169 yards and four TDs. Anthony Rainey hauled in five passes for 145 yards and three scores. Nic Duysen grabbed two passes for 22 yards and a score. Jackson Wray led the ground game with 91 yards and a TD.

Fremont-Mills hosts Audubon Friday in the Knights’ home opener.