Soap Lake makes transition to 2B and 11-man football

SOAP LAKE - With six extra players on the field, passing windows and rushing alleys are going to tighten.

The Soap Lake Eagles will have to adjust to the addition of the extra players as the team moves from the Northeast 1B South conference to the Central Washington 2B South conference this year.

"We have our work cut out for us," head coach Tony Blankenship said. "The eight-man game and the 11-man game is like night - day. You see scores in the 60s and 70s consistently and total offenses being 500 (yards) for one team, 600 for the other. It's going to be different this year and our kids know that."

First-year head coach Blankenship comes to the Eagles from Soap Lake Middle School's football program.

Blankenship spent over a decade coaching youth football and three years at the middle school level before moving up the high school ranks.

"It's awesome," he said. "Our numbers have been ... That's the big thing, the question was what our numbers were going to be and they've been great. 25 kids out consistently - I think we had 23 tonight ... For our numbers to be in the 20s that's a good deal for us."

Blankenship believes the shift to 11-man football will take some time for the Eagles. However, Soap Lake doesn't plan on conceding this season to some of the larger 2B schools.

"We're supposed to be at the bottom of the league, but I'm an optimist so I'm kind of curious to see what we can do here. But the new league - it's brutal - I mean, there's 14 teams in it and it's cut in half in seven and we'll see what we're made of quick."

Starting quarterback Joe Cutshell returns to lead Soap Lake's offense, along with running backs Nazar and Ruvim Turchik,

"We've got two great backs - the Turchik kids - we've got a three-year starter at quarterback coming back, we've got a great incoming freshman at receiver coming in," Blankenship said.

That freshman receiver is Peyton Nielsen, who will join Julio Gomez and Jared Bessett on the outside.

Nielsen, who stands over six feet, will be a big target for Cutshell down the field and in the red zone.

So far, there's been some growing pains with the move up a classification and a new head coach, but it takes a few bumps and bruises to create a culture of winning.

"The first week was kind of a culture shock for them a little bit," Blankenship said." I come from the old school. I grew up in the White Pass area and I come from a program that you hit, you tackle, you win the trenches ... That's kind of what I'm trying to create here, that mentality."

Fellow 2B South teams shouldn't sleep on the Eagles as the team's potent offense could result in a few upsets this first year playing 11-man football.

"We're liking this underdog - we've talked about it - underdog mentality of that's fine if you guys want to think we're going to be down here, but I think we're going to surprise some people," Blankenship said.