Prep Football: Dominant Performance
Prior to taking the field Friday night in Eldorado, Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn head coach John Shadowens channeled his inner Rick Flair, telling his Red Devils, "To be the man, you gotta beat the man."
The man in this instance was Eldorado, who came into the contest on an 11-game Black Diamond Conference winning streak. The Eagles upped the ante to 12 in a 40-0 shutout, the second in back-to-back weeks to open the season, at Boz Adams Field.
Eldorado (2-0) got a pair of touchdown runs from Trey Vessel, one coming from two yards out to open the game with 10:04 to play in the first quarter and the other at 1:12 in the second quarter from one-yard out.
Payton Price, who finished with 11 carries for 203 yards and appeared to be in expert mode like he was playing a Madden video game, had two touchdowns as well, finding paydirt from 59 and 72 yards out.
The other touchdown came from the arm of junior quarterback Kale Oglesby, who tossed his first career TD, hooking up with Jacob Traxler on a 53-yard bomb with 5:15 to play in the first half.
It was smooth sailing for Eldorado, who got continuous clock early in the third quarter when Price scored on his 72-yard run with 8:16 to play.
"I really liked how our kids came out and jumped on them early," EHS head coach Brandon Hampton said. "We put drives together offensively and really suffocated them on defense. I thought we captured the momentum of the football game and I felt like the turning point was in our territory around the 25-yard line, it was fourth and one and you should punt the football there, but you believe in your fullback and your offensive line and we needed to get a yard. We got it and on the very next play, we bust a 59-yard play with Payton Price. It was a tremendous effort by our kids tonight. We were the aggressor, forcing turnovers and Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn has a good offense. They hung up 28 (on Edwards County) last week and until the very end, didn't move the football."
The Eagles finished with 384 all purpose yards, running for 331 on 35 carries. Eldorado, who has pitched a pair of shutouts to start the season, held the Red Devils to 114 yards of total offense.
Hampton noted how the step from Week 1 to Week 2 was a big one in his book and despite holding the Red Devils (1-1) to no points, still believes they will be a playoff team in the BDC this year.
"I believe that is a playoff team we just played and we just hammered them at our place, which is impressive. Our quarterback made some nice decisions and Traxler helped him out by catching that long touchdown pass. Payton was explosive tonight and just a huge credit to our offensive and defensive line, because we dominated on both sides of the football tonight."
Eldorado will travel to Carmi-White County (2-0) Friday night, while Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn will host Johnston City.
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
Eldorado 08 24 08 00 - 00
S-V-W-W 00 00 00 00 - 00
Team Scoring
First Quarter
ELD - Vessel 2 yard run (Price run), 10:04
Second Quarter
ELD - Price 59 yard run (Vessel run), 11:44
ELD - Oglesby 53 yard pass to Traxler (Vessel run), 5:!5
ELD - Vessel 1 yard run (Price run), 1:12
Third Quarter
ELD - Price 72 run (Price run), 8:16
Team Statistics
ELD S-V-W-W
First Downs 7 4
Total Yards 384 114
Rushes-Yards 35-331 24-53
Comp-Att-Int 1-3-0 5-11-0
Passing Yards 53 61
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 2-2
Penalties 1-10 2-10
Individual Statistics
RUSHING: ELD - Price 11-203, Vessel 13-93, Watt 2-4, Traxler 2-14, Oglesby 3-1, Roberts 2-8, Metten 4-8. S-V-W-W - Gunter 2-2, Smith 3-0, Ashby 10-24, Rock 5-10, Malone 1-(-1), Basso 1-(-9), Gunter 2-18.
PASSING: ELD - Oglesby 1-3-0 53. S-V-W-W - Smith 5-11-0 61.
RECEIVING: ELD - Traxler 1-53. S-V-W-W - Lance 2-36, Malone 2-10, Fennes 1-15.