The Acorn's High School Football Game of the Week

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers GREAT GRAB—Oak Park High wide receiver Max Fahn reaches back to snag a pass during last weekend's win over Carpinteria. Bend, but don't break.

That's the rallying cry this week for Oak Park High's football team as it prepares to host undefeated Santa Clara and one of the top running backs in the nation—senior Cierre Wood.

Wood, a Notre Dame commit, has already carried the ball 84 times for 1,117 yards (13 yards per carry) and 15 touchdowns this season.

In his squad's first six games, Wood, ranked as the nation's 24thbest overall recruit by ESPN.com, has rushed for at least 144 yards and has scored at least three touchdowns in each contest.

Last weekend against Nordhoff, Wood scored the game-winning touchdown on a 70-yard reception with a little more than a minute remaining in the contest to keep his team undefeated at 60, 10 in the TriValley League.

Oak Park only allowed 91 total rushing yards in its win against Carpinteria last week, but the task will be more difficult in Week 7 against Wood.

"We just need to contain him," Oak Park head coach Dick Billingsley said.

"When we say we want to bend but not break, that means we'll allow (Wood) to get some short yardage, but we want to clog the holes he usually finds to break open a big one. We also need to be very physical."

Oak Park senior linebacker Grayson Phillips said stopping the star running back will take a group effort by the Eagles.

"We're going to have to play great team defense," Phillips said. "Nobody can stop (Wood) by themselves.

"I'm not going to lie; it's going to be very tough. He's a great player, and we need our entire defense flying to the ball and playing fundamentally sound."

To get ready for Santa Clara, Phillips said the Eagles have taken a different approach to practice this week.

"We're treating each practice like it was a quarter of football in this weekend's game," Phillips said on Monday.

"If we have four really good practices, we should be all right come this Friday."

Oak Park is 3-3 overall, 1-0 in the Tri-Valley League, but has played especially well on defense the last four weeks by only giving up 51 total points, or 12.5 points per game.

Phillips, senior defensive tackle Michael Brinkley, senior safety Max Fahn and senior linebacker Trevor Goehring have led the Eagles' stout defensive attack.

While the OPHS defense has been doing its job week in and week out, the team's offense has been a different story.

Twice this year, the Eagles' defense has held its opponent to 10 points or less but still lost.

Oak Park is only scoring 15 points per game.

Offensively, seniors Cody Skene and Max Fahn fuel the Eagles. Skene leads OPHS in rushing with 384 yards on 67 carries, while Fahn is Oak Park's leading passcatcher with 15 receptions for 244 yards and three scores.

Kyle Andrus, Oak Park's starting senior signal-caller, can do damage through the air or on the ground.

According to Billingsley, Oak Park must avoid turnovers to upset Santa Clara.

"We need to eliminate mistakes on offense," Billingsley said.

"We're kind of like UCLA. If it's a close game in the fourth quarter, we feel we have a good chance to win."

Players to Watch

Outlook

Because they face Oaks Christian at least once a year, Oak Park's players shouldn't be intimidated

by the skills of Cierre Wood. The Notre Dame commit is an electric force on the gridiron, but

he's only one man playing a team game. The

Eagles should thrive in an underdog role.