Photo by: A. Simon
Charles Chaney
Sports media
The Butler Grizzlies cap off their season, heading to the Salt Bowl in Hutchinson on Saturday, Dec. 3. They’ll take on the Eastern Arizona Gila Monsters.
The Salt Bowl, located in Hutchisnon, typically is between an at-large team and a team from the Jayhawk Conference. Hutchinson Community College has first rights if they reach six wins. This season, they did not.
Located in Thatcher, Ariz., about two hours from Tuscon, Ariz, Eastern Arizona is about an hour from the New Mexico border. The paths of Eastern Arizona (8-3) and Butler (7-4) paths were similar. After losing a handful of games early in the season, both teams rolled off big game winning streaks that sent them bowling.
For Butler, this is their first ever appearance in the Salt Bowl. That cannot be said for Eastern Arizona. They lost to Hutch in 2010, 42-21.
It will be the first meeting between the two schools.
Eastern Arizona is led by Head Coach John O’Mera, who has Jayhawk Conference ties. His father, Bob, who is currently an assistant at Eastern Arizona, was the head coach at Independence in the ‘90s.
O’Mera has been at Eastern Arizona for the last 11 years. Before that, he was the head coach at New Mexico Military Institute.
The Gila Monsters finished third in a very strong Western States Football League. They were 7-4 before last week’s forfeit by Snow College. Snow used an ineligible player for two games and was forced to forfeit two contests, one against Eastern Arizona and the other against Scottsdale Community College.
Eastern Arizona is led by sophomore Jonathan Thomas. He has thrown for 290 yards on the season, but he has ran for 900. After rushing for only 31 yards all of last season in 10 games, Thomas has taken the reigns of offense and led them into a bowl game.
Clifford Lowe and Andrew Hardrick have combined to rush for 1,127 yards and 11 touchdowns.
This all leads to Eastern Arizona being the nation’s No. 1 rushing team at 333.2 yards per game. They arere second in yards per carry (6.5) and second in rushing touchdowns (38).
Eastern Arizona will pound the ball until the defense is tired and then they will pound it again. They have only thrown 71 passes all year long. That is approximately seven passes per game.
At 26.9 points per game, their offense ranks 42nd in the nation. They are giving up only 19.1 points per game, which is 14th nationally.
