EAST HELENA — Not only has the East Helena football team already punched its ticket back to the postseason, but the Vigilantes also boast Class A’s top-ranked passing offense.
Junior quarterback — and first-year starter — Bearek Shuman leads Class A with1,829 yards passing this season.
“Last year, (former starting quarterback Jack Taylor) taught me a lot. I mean, he had a great year last year,” said Shuman. “(Taylor) taught me just how to read defenses, coverages, all of that. And then to come into this year and just use what I’ve learned from all the years of just being the backup and to just put it into the game, I mean, it’s amazing.”
But what’s a quarterback without weapons to throw the ball to? And no one on East Helena’s offense commands more attention from defenses than senior wide receiver DeonDray Ellis — even though the stats don’t always show it.
“I think the biggest thing is not being selfish,” Ellis said of his role in the offense. "I got a whole bunch of teammates, a whole bunch of other receivers that I know that I can trust them to go get a chance.”
Ellis, who currently ranks 10th in Class A with 405 yards receiving, said it’s easy to trust his teammates to win their one-on-one matchups when he’s lined up alongside guys like fellow senior receiver John Benevides.
“After Week 6, our motto has just been playoffs,” said Benevides, whose 570 yards receiving rank third in Class A. “Every game is a playoff game. We’ve got to execute on every game and just go as far as we can. We know there’s going to be some hiccups in the game, but we just got to get through it.”
The Vigilantes can secure their first home playoff game in program history with a win Friday night against Lewistown.
