Running back duo reaches milestone for Campbell football

As the regular season came closer to the end, Greg Gush realized his starting running backs were approaching some rare territory for the Campbell High School football team.

There was a chance that, despite limited playing time, both Ryan Yanuszewski and Keegan Mills could reach a thousand yards rushing on the season in the Cougars final couple of games before the playoffs.

But with Campbell winning games by an average of over 50 points per contest, neither player had seen much action after halftime, meaning it would be a close call for both to reach the milestone.

"As the numbers were piling up, I was hoping we could get them there," Gush said. "It’s difficult because they work hard and we want to get them there. A lot had to go right for that to happen. Our offensive line is a big part of that. They’ve really come together and we have a little bit of depth there that we can plug in. That’s helped us a ton."

Yanuszewski (1,072 yards) and Mills (1,012) both went over a thousand yards, combining for 30 touchdowns in the regular season and an average of 12.3 yards per carry.

At the beginning of the season, the Cougars knew they had most of their key cogs back on offense and switching to a run-heavy offense, operating out of the single wing, Yanuszewski and Mills knew they'd be getting plenty of opportunities to show what they could do.

But neither thought it would go quite like this.

"Coming off last year, I expected only to get better," Yanuszewski said. "I thought we had a good chance of being pretty good. With (Mills) stepping up this year, I thought it’d be a good opportunity.

As much as the running duo has helped Campbell, 9-0 heading into Saturday's Division III semifinal against Stevens, they know they couldn't accomplish what they've done without the blocking up front.

"Last year, our offensive line was the same (as this year) and all of them came back, all of them were in the weight room working," Mills said. "We got better and better from there, and Ryan came back and had a great year."

With different running styles - Yanuszewski, a senior, makes guys miss, Mills, a sophomore, runs to contact - the Cougars have an attack that can be difficult to diagnose and stop.

"It’s been good to see them develop and I think they’ve learned from each other," Gush said. "Physics is physics and Keegan is a little bigger human being. I think Keegan, more than most players, understands leverage and objects in motion. He’s a powerful guy and he gets the physics behind that."

What also makes the pair work well together is their ability to communicate and listen to each other, despite the age difference.

"It’s great having two different style backs," Mills said. "Teams have trouble preparing for it. I know that if I get tired, Ryan can come in and do great things, too.

"We usually talk before the game, how we’re feeling, what we’re trying to do. All that stuff. We know how we’re doing before the game beings and once it starts going, we know when each other needs a break."

Going into last week's playoff win over Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough, Yanuszewski and the other seniors, who were freshmen when Campbell won its only D3 title in 2014, let their younger teammates know what it was like to be around that team.

"It would mean everything," Yanuszewski said. "From that freshman year, we had a pretty special class. We learned a lot and we were very grateful for that senior class and what they did for us. We’re trying to get them in the same position."