Quinn and Machuca named players of the week
By Paul Hall on Wednesday, September 8th, 2021 in Northeastern Oregon News Northeastern Oregon Top Stories
LA GRANDE – (Information provided by EOU Athletics) The Frontier Conference has announced its Player of the Week award winners for football and Eastern Oregon walked away with two of the three accolades. EOU has now had a player win the conference weekly award two weeks in a row now.
Garnering the Erck Hotels/Frontier Conference Player of the Week honors were quarterback Kai Quinn for offense and kicker/punter Jaiden Machuca for special teams. Both players were instrumental in EOU’s 35-28 home opening win against Montana Wester this past weekend.
Quinn was the field general on offense this week and led an EOU offense that posted over 350 yards of total offense. Through the air, Quinn was crisp the whole game going 23-34 for 283 yards and four touchdowns. He shared the wealth as each of his four touchdown passes were to four different wideouts. Quinn also led the way in the ground attack for the Mountaineers with 44 yards rushing on 10 carries. His efforts on the ground game and through the air helped him finish with 327 yards of total offense. For Quinn, this is his first player of the week award for the 2021 season.
Machuca was key in the kicking game for the Mountaineers as he totaled 559 yards between punting and kickoff. In the punt game, Machuca booted the ball four times for a total of 179 yards. He averaged 44.8 yards per putin and had two land inside the 20-yard line to pin the Bulldogs. He had his longest punt go over 50 yards at 58. On kickoff, Machuca put up six kicks in the win for a total of 380 yards. He averaged 63.3 yards per kick and had only two of his six attempts for touchbacks. For Machuca, this is his first player of the week award for the year.
The Mountaineers have their first of two bye weeks this weekend. EOU will be back in action on Sept. 18 when the team travels to Montana to take on Carroll College.
