Eldorado Rushes Past Elverado-Trico
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Eldorado head coach Brandon Hampton left last week's loss against Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton with a grab bag full of issues for his team to consider: great line play, good running, and winning effort, but also mistakes, costly penalties and missed tackles.
The general idea was to expand on the good things, and correct the bad. And while Friday's 32-8 home opener win over Elverado-Trico still saw its share of expected mistakes from a young Eagle squad, evidence continues to build that the program is turning around.
"I'll be honest, this was not an easy game for our kids," said Hampton, whose rival on the other side of the field - Duffy Sanders - coached the Eagles before Hampton arrived, and took many assistants with him to Elverado-Trico. "It was a tough, emotional game. We tried to downplay it, but you can't totally, and I think the kids did a good job of playing through that."
It looked like the penalty bug might come back to bite Eldorado hard on the game's first play, when Derek Miller fielded the opening kickoff at the 23, went straight, broke right up the sideline and took it 77 yards to paydirt - yet the play was called back to the 45 on a clip.
Big plays were still in store, though, as DeShawn Turner found a hole on the left side and scampered 41 yards on the second play from scrimmage, setting up a Nick Stewart end-around just 10:27 into the first quarter, for a 6-0 Eagle lead.
Eldorado got the first of its three takeaways - to none for Elverado-Trico - toward the end of the first quarter, when E-T quarterback Alex McGill and fullback Randy Goetz misfired on an option pitch, and the Eagles covered it up deep in E-T territory.
After switching ends with the quarter change, Stewart brought the second period in with a bang as well, with a 37-yard touchdown jaunt on the first play from scrimmage. A Nick Houseright PAT put Eldorado up 13-0.
After trading a couple of possessions, quarterback Lucas Weir got the Eagles into good position with a 10-yard scamper out of trouble, setting up Brian Ward for an 8-yard power run at the 4:42 mark, giving Eldorado the 19-0 lead they would take into the half.
The Falcons put together one of their best drives to start the third quarter, pushing to the Eagles' own 22, but another fumble was recovered by the hosts, thwarting that scoring drive.
Elverado-Trico would finally score, assisted by a personal foul and pass interference calls at the end of a sustained drive. Goetz punched the ball in from four yards out with 4:15 left in the third, and McGill converted the two, cutting the lead to 19-8.
Enter the arm of Lucas Weir - and some nifty footwork on the other end.
On Eldorado's first play from scrimmage, the Eagles went all out, with Ben Genet running a fly pattern and Weir airing it out. The throw was behind Genet just enough to cause him to have to twist, to readjust and make the catch, and his defender couldn't do so and maintain his footing, leaving Genet to take it all the way for a 59-yard score and a 25-8 Eldorado lead.
"That was a situation where we decided to take a shot at it," Hampton said. "They'd just had a pretty good drive and we'd made some mistakes, and we thought we'd try that and see if we could keep the momentum on our side."
Even with a relatively comfortable advantage, Eldorado still had a big play left. The Eagles got a nice run by Ward on third down to gain a first down, with an additional 15-yard facemask added on.
That set up Stewart, who dashed around the right side and up the sidelines, bobbling the ball for a second, then regaining his composure en route to a 51-yard score.
Both Stewart (124) and Turner (145) surpassed 100 yards rushing, with Stewart doing so for the second straight week.
Hampton was excited for his charges to get a win, optimistic about the future, but at the same time, reflective on what it all meant, and what still had to be done.
"I give Elverado credit for playing hard, and I don't say this to disparage them, but I didn't get into this, and our kids don't work as hard as they do, just so we can beat Elverado," Hampton said.
"We want to come out against established schools like Fairfield, Carmi, Hamilton County. We want to win against really good teams too, and we're getting there. We have some kinks to iron out and penalties are still hurting us, so we've got room to improve, but I think our kids will work hard and come out really pumped and ready next week."
Next Friday's game sees the Eagles hosting Fairfield, with the evening doubling as the Homecoming game - certainly a chance for these Eagles to find new heights.
E-T 0 0 8 0 - 8
ELD 6 13 6 7 - 32
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
ELD - 10:36, Stewart 3-yard run, conversion failed, 6-0
Second Quarter
ELD - 11:52, Stewart 37-yard run, Houseright PAT good, 13-0
ELD - 4:42, Ward 8-yard run, Houseright PAT no good, 19-0
Third Quarter
E-T - 4:15, Goetz 4-yard run, McGill 2 point conversion, 19-8
ELD - 3:57, Genet 59-yard touchdown pass from Weir, Houseright PAT no good, 25-8
Fourth Quarter
ELD - 10:27, Stewart 51-yard run, Houseright PAT good, 32-8
ELDORADO OFFENSE
Rushing: Turner 26-145; Stewart 10-124, 3 TD; Ward 4-27, 1 TD; Miller 3-8; Weir 7-4. Total: 50-308, 4 TD.
Receiving - Houseright 3-7; Miller 1-3; Stewart 1-7; Genet 1-59, 1 TD. Total: 6-76
Passing - Weir 6-9, 76 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT.
ELVERADO-TRICO OFFENSE
Rushing - Easton 14-50; Sandlin 3-6; McGill 10-34; Porter 1-5; Goetz 9-34, 1 TD; Mathis 1-0. Total: 38-129, 1 TD.
Receiving - Rodman 2-27; Sandlin 4-30; Mathis 1-10 . Total: 7-67.
Passing - McGill 7-12, 67 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT.