SJE Eagles stop Vikings in 8-man pickup game

St. John/Endicott dropped Garfield/Palouse 28-16 Friday in the Vikings’ first eight -man football game this year. Because of injuries and low turnout, Garfield/Palouse last Wednesday dropped the school’s football team from an 11-man squad to an 8-man squad.

After the decision to drop down, the Vikings quickly put together a non-league 8-man schedule, with the trip to St. John leading off the slate.

The Eagles had a bye scheduled Friday, but booked the Vikings as an activation game after the flu bug stopped them from making the long trip to Harrison Flats to play Kootenai last week.

The Eagles jumped at the chance to avoid two weeks of down time before making the trip south this week to open the SE-8s season at Colton.

Gar/Pal opened the scoring in the first quarter, when tight end Ben Lynch hauled in a 30-yard scoring strike from Gavin Burt.

The two connected all night, with Lynch hauling in five catches for 114 yards. Burt finished the night 10-18 with 160 yards through the air.

The Eagles responded in the second, when they blocked a GP punt. Dylan Schmick fell on the ball after it rolled into the end zone to post the Eagles’ first score.

The Eagles benefited from another bounce in the fourth quarter when they fumbled the ball into the end zone and Lee Parrill fell on it for six.

Halfback Cole McCanna then added to the Eagle tally when he broke free of the GP defense for a 42-yard run that ended the half SJE 12, GP 8.

Quarterback Kyle Raynor then opened the third quarter with a 45-yard scamper.

GP’s Riley Hodges capped off the game with a five-yard scoring run.