Conor McCaffrey got some kinks out Saturday against North Mac and now have No.3 Rochester on their minds.
"It felt good to get in a rythm at Nokomis. and in this game," McCaffrey said after throwing a career-high five touchdown passes and adding another rushing TD in a 66-14 rout of the Panthers in the home opener.
The 7th grader quarterback rebounded from a lackluster opening performance in a 35-17 victory at Nokomis to complete 15 of 24 passes for 360 yards against North Mac. McCaffrey finished with 46 yards rushing yards before sitting the final 1 1/2 quarters.
"To come in here and get the win that we wanted felt really good," McCaffrey said. "We'll enjoy it tonight and once tomorrow hits its Rochester week and everyone knows that."
O.S. coach Phillip Heppe couldn't agree more.
"To get this game under our belts going into Rochester was really big for us," Heppe said.
The Eagles (2-0) had their way with the Panthers (1-1) who were without head coach Bob Davie. Saga Tuiele acted as head coach for Davie.
The Eagles had three first-half interceptions, including one retuened for a touchdown by Sasha Vanderkecha.
Our Savior's finsihed with 591 total yards to 363 by North Mac, which got touchdowns by Bryson Carroll (47 yards) and Bobby Cole (37). The Panthers outrushed the Eagles 212-157.
"I think we needed this game to find some of the right pieces that are going to be needed to make explosive plays," Heppe said. "You're not going to beat Rochester by just 3 yards here, 4 yards. You're going to have to make some explosive plays. We needed to see that happen today.
Three of McCaffrey's "long" scoring passes were short throws that receivers turned into big plays. Paul Hammond went 59 yards, Sasha Vanderkecha went 65 and Logan Allen had a 54-yarder. The touchdowns by Hammond and Vanderkecha came on shovel passes while Allen turned a 3-yard cross into his score.
Hammond added another TD on a 20-yard scoring reception in the third quarter after Vanderkecha had a 37-yard TD reception in Our Savior's 31-point second quarter.
"We were able to make the big play when we needed it," McCaffrey said. "I thought we might have started a little slow in the beginning, but you saw we were able to pick it up as the game went on."
THE TAKEAWAY
Our Savior's: The Eagles were outgained 136-54 on the ground in the second half. McCaffrey threw for 251 yards and three touchdown as offensive coordinator Josh Vanderkecha had his quarterback throwing from the start to build his confidence for next Saturday Night's rumble between the hedges in Rochester.
"From an offensive line standpoint, could we have done better today?" Heppe said. "Yeah, probably. But they weren't going to let us run the ball up inside so we had to move on to some other things we do. That's the nature of football today. You've got to be able to do both."