First-year Eagles coach upbeat despite tough loss

Jeremiah Smith won't let Saturday's 20-19 loss to Phoenix Moon Valley ruin his optimism for this season.

By RORY FAUST  Sun Sports Staff   Monday, September 01, 2008   

It was only fitting that the clock struck midnight while Jeremiah Smith stood solemnly on the Skydome turf and reflected on his head coaching debut Saturday night.

Just moments earlier, Phoenix Moon Valley had soured Smith's fairy tale ending with an improbable touchdown in the final minute. The first-year Flagstaff High School football coach's shock slowly turned to satisfaction, however, as the reality of his Eagles' accomplishment began to set in. "I can't be any more proud than what I saw tonight," Smith said. "Those guys, in the trenches and everywhere, they did everything I asked and then some. I'm absolutely impressed right now. I'm excited, I know we lost but all in all, it was a great game. There wasn't another game that was better than this one."

Indeed, there wasn't.

The Rockets may have escaped with a heart-pounding 20-19 win, but Smith and his Eagles scored a figurative victory as well. In just one month, Smith has taken a over program that had gone through three coaches in a year and a half. The Eagles' effort in Saturday's heartbreaking defeat is proof of how much the team has embraced its new mentor.

They bounced back from an early deficit, responded immediately after the Rockets tied the game late in the third quarter and continued to show their moxie even after Moon Valley kicked the decisive extra point with 1:14 left in the game.

"They gave me everything they had," Smith said. "It's one of those things I've been trying to tell them, you have to buy into the system and you have to sell out. And tonight I think they finally bought in and they sold out." And they began to taste some of the success that their innovative new coach has promised to deliver.

FHS tried to establish the run game early but Moon Valley stacked the box and held the Eagles to just eight yards on their first four attempts. So Smith quickly adjusted and put the onus on quarterback  Derek Villalpando to make plays, and the first-year starter responded by completing 7 of 10 passes for 108 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.

"My game plan was not to put the ball in the air that much. But while it was working, there was no reason to go away from it," Smith said. "Derek did well; at times he missed some open receivers but that's OK because they brought a lot of people at a lot of times and you can only do so much."

Villalpando finished with 241 yards on 13-of-23 passing and three touchdowns, the last of which was a dramatic 75-yard toss to Chris Neal that gave FHS a 19-13 lead with 5:01 left in the game. It appeared as though the lead would stand up when the Eagles forced Moon Valley and quarterback Marshall Bailey, who played at Sinagua as a sophomore, to go three-and-out on their next possession.

But FHS couldn't run out the clock, and Bailey cashed in on his second chance, capping his triumphant return to the Skydome with a 59-yard touchdown pass to C.J. Westbrooks. Still, Smith maintained that the manner in which the Eagles lost won't tarnish what they were able to accomplish Saturday night.

"Not every state championship team wins every game," Smith said. "You build on what you got and right here, that shows if they want to play they can do whatever they want. I got a feeling they will bounce back pretty easily because they're starting to believe. And once they can believe, all I can say is watch out."