By Drew Goodman/ Scrimmageplay.com contributor
After pulling an interception down and racing over 40 yards into Randolph Macon Academy territory, Covenant freshman Jonas Sanker was a little slow to get up after nearly scoring a defensive touchdown.
As Sanker sluggishly exited the field following the pick, the school’s training staff immediately approached the talented freshman as he made his way to the home sideline asking him what was wrong.
‘I’m tired’, Sanker said and proceeded through a wall of congratulatory high-fives from his teammates.
After all of the work that he had put in in the previous two hours and change, Sanker had every right to feel exhausted.
Sanker racked up a career-high six touchdowns on a bevy of highlight reel-worthy plays as the Eagles rolled to a 57-20 triumph over visiting Randolph Macon.
With the victory, Covenant (8-1) polished off its best regular season since the program’s inception and will enter the playoffs riding a four-game winning streak.
It may have been senior day at the Covenant School, but the freshman Sanker proved to the difference maker in a critical win.
The Yellow Jackets accounted for Sanker every time that he stood on the opposite side of the field, but the rookie executed his role as an A-back/occasional wide receiver to near perfection. Five out of Sanker’s six touchdowns stemmed from plays longer than 20 yards, with three of them greater than 30.
“It was great,” Sanker said of his six touchdown outing. “It was great blocking and I just did my job and the rest of the team did theirs. It was a total team effort. Normally, we’re a second half team, but we were able to get a nice start today in the first half.”
Less than six days after having to wait until the second half to get the offense rolling at North Cross, it took Sanker and Covenant just six plays to build a double digit lead over Randolph Macon.
On the Eagles’ first offensive series, Sanker took a pitch from quarterback John Huemme and raced 54 yards for the first of his six touchdowns of the afternoon. Then, two plays after the Jackets’ second consecutive three-and-out, Sanker was dancing in the end zone following a 34 yard run to pay dirt.
The explosive freshman tailed his third rushing touchdown of the day from two yards out just before halftime, and the Eagles went into the locker room with a rare comfortable lead at intermission.
“All year we’ve been a second half team,” Covenant assistant coach Sean Smith said. “We keep it close in the first half and we always kind of pull away. We talked about playing a full game. We wanted to come out and make a statement that we could play a full game.”
Both Sanker and Smith personify the next-man-up mentality that this Covenant football team has embraced in 2017. Without the services of both star running backs, Donovan Jackson and Rick Weaver, Sanker, along with senior Chris Newton, have helped Huemme and the option offense maintain its identity in recent weeks.
In the case of Smith, however, the assistant coach had to be much more vocal on the sidelines on Friday than he usually is during games. With head coach Seth Wilson suspended for Friday’s regular season finale after drawing two penalties in the North Cross win, Smith and the rest of the coaching staff picked up the slack and steered the ship in the right direction.
Though the Eagles undoubtedly missed Wilson’s calming presence during the game, the upperclassmen helped execute the game plan like nothing was different.
“Believe it or not [the 37-point win] is a testament to his coaching,” Huemme said. “We prepared all week so he didn’t even need to be there. His coaching had just that big of an impact on us, so even when he wasn’t there… but that is also a testament to our coaching staff and the other coaches that stepped up.”
Having entered the game ranked number two in the latest VISAA Division II poll, the Eagles put forth an excellent argument to not only be voted into the top four, but to host a home playoff game for the first time since 2008.
After passing their final regular season test with flying colors, Covenant will now play the waiting game until the postseason pairings are released next week. Their playoff seeding is now in the hands of the voters, but the Eagles feel that they have made their case for one of the top seeds.
“It’s definitely a confidence booster going into the playoffs… we’ll see who end up facing,” Huemme said. “We know we had to come out and dominate to get a good ranking and that’s what we did today.”
