2007 Prospect: TE/LB/K/P Eric Church

2007 Prospect: TE/LB/K/P Eric Church#47973

By Sly Fox - December 14th, 2006, 3:21 pm

- December 14th, 2006, 3:21 pm #47973

Yet another of the kids from Louisa that has already taken a visit to Liberty:

Eric Church
Tight End/Linebacker/Kicker/Punter
Louisa (VA) High School

After final, Lions talk new beginnings

Date published: 12/13/2006
By TODD JACOBSON

The college coaches began calling Mark Fischer the day after Louisa's 34-27 Group AA Division 4 championship game loss to Amherst Saturday, and each phone message had a specific theme.

They all wanted to see a little more of senior quarterback Jeff Mehlhaff.

Louisa's historic run ended a touchdown shy of a state championship, but Mehlhaff, who was often overshadowed in the Lions' run-first single-wing offense, had his finest game.

He threw for a career-high 162 yards and ran for 78 more, and Fischer said the performance ratcheted up interest in the seldom-showcased quarterback.

"It helped a lot," said Mehlhaff, who has been on unofficial visits to Division I-AA schools Coastal Carolina, Richmond and William & Mary. "That was probably my best individual game."

Like Mehlhaff, Louisa's players have spent the last few days recovering from Saturday's disappointing loss, and Monday, the team assembled in Fischer's film room to snack on pizza and watch a video of the loss to Amherst.

They gasped at big plays, pointed out a few mistakes and replayed the controversial fourth-quarter fumble-that-wasn't "about seven times," senior wingback/cornerback Terrell Wells said.

With Louisa trailing by a touchdown, Amherst's Alonzo Poe fumbled Eric Church's pooch kickoff after calling for a fair catch and Lions senior Brian Grubbs recovered the ball, but an inadvertent whistle negated the play. Poe safely caught the re-kick.

"We turned the speakers as loud as we could to see if we could hear the whistle," Wells said. "Still no one understands what happened."

They didn't dwell on the play long.

In the days since the loss, the team's focus has been moving past the loss and moving on, and for the team's 17 seniors, that means college plans.

Church played tight end, linebacker, kicker and punter for the Lions, but he's likely to play defense in college and he's taken an official visit to Liberty.

"It's still early," said Church, who is also considering Richmond, James Madison and VMI but hasn't ruled out walking on at a Division I-A school. "I'm not going to say no to anybody right now. My mom said I shouldn't burn any bridges."