Prep Football: Eagles steamroll C-Z-R at home
To say that this football season has gone the way anyone might have expected it to could be the understatement of the season.
Mother Nature has won more games than she has lost and Friday was another example as Eldorado and Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton played only one half of football before the game was called with Eldorado leading 54-0.
C-Z-R head coach Josh McCurren can't recall a more odd season weather wise.
"It seems like every Friday we have some kind of weather delay, whether its where we are delayed on a Friday night and have to wait it out, or come back on Saturday and finish things up. This past week, we played on Monday, which made it a very short week for us. It's been crazy."
The Bearcats' game with Edwards County, originally slated for last Friday was postponed to Monday where C-Z-R (0-4) was shut out at home.
Eldorado faced a similar situation last week were after starting their game with Carmi-White County, had to make the drive back, only to lose a 37-34 heartbreaker, snapping a streak of 12 straight Black Diamond Conference wins and the first of the season for the Eagles.
"It's a friendly reminder that we need to worry about the things you can control," EHS head coach Brandon Hampton said. "As a head coach there are a lot of things you can't control, injuries and weather is the lesson we are learning this year. It is frustrating. It's frustrating for your players. I feel for the those guys, like last week for us, you build your football team up, you get the ready to play on Friday and then all of a sudden, you have to find a way to get those jerseys clean and get 35 kids up here for the bus in the morning and go and try to play another game.
"Obviously, your preparation is challenged, but luckily for us we jumped on them early, did the things we needed to do and we got this game in - a half of it anyway - and handled our business."
The Eagles (4-1) started a new streak Friday at home as Eldorado's best offense was its defense.
EHS forced three fumbles and picked off a pass, all leading to first half scores for the Eagles.
In the first quarter, Tre Vessell punched in a three-yard score and Payton Price zig zagged his way to a 57-yard touchdown.
In the second quarter, Jacob Traxler found pay dirt from eight yards out and that followed back-to-back scores from Price, adding an 8-yard and 23-yard run to his total of 136 yards on six carries.
Joe Mayberry's interception of C-Z-R's Cam Newton made it a 46-0 advantage for Eldorado and the Eagles closed out the half with a 11-yard run by Dawson Metten.
The Eldorado ground game rushed for 367 yards on 22 carries as Vessel finished with 78 yards on eight carries. Traxler had 109 yards on five carries. Connor Watt had one run for 33 yards and Metten had his one carry go for 11 yards.
The Bearcats, still stinging from the Monday night loss, rushed for just 56 yards on 17 carries and had 59 in the air.
Steven Anderson had 24 yards on seven carries, while Colton Phillips finished with 18 yards on five carries. Caleb Pedigo had five yards on four carries and Newton had one carry for six yards.
Newton was 6-for-16 in the pocket, finishing with 59 yards in the air.
Derek Mueller caught two passes for 21 yards, Anderson had two catches for two yards and Pedigo had two receptions for 36 yards.
Despite the full game under his belt, Hampton was happy to come out healthy and looks towards the future in terms of overall stats.
"Like Week 1, you look at the positives, you have guys like Payton Price, Tre Vessel and some of those stats may not be there at the end of the season, but I feel like it's a benefit to have 20 less carries from playing four less quarters down the stretch for those guys that carry the ball so much for us."
Eldorado will play Hamilton County Saturday in its Homecoming game, starting at 1 p.m. Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton will also play Saturday, traveling to rival Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn for a noon kickoff.
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
Eldorado 16 38 00 00 - 00
C-Z-R 00 00 00 00 - 00
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
ELD - Vessel 3 run (Price conversion), 6:18
ELD - Price 57 run (Oglesby to Atterbury conversion), 3:25
Second Quarter
ELD - Traxler 8 run (conversion failed), 11:12
ELD - Price 8 run (Price conversion), 10:21
ELD - Price 23 run (Traxler conversion), 8:01
ELD - Mayberry INT return (Oglesby to Kasiar conversion), 6:53
ELD - Metten 11 run (Roberts conversion), 5:08
Team Statistics
ELD C-Z-R
First Downs 9 6
Total Yards 378 115
Rushes-Yards 22-367 17-56
Comp-Att-Int 1-2-0 6-16-1
Passing Yards 11 59
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 3-3
Penalties-Yards 2-10 1-5
Individual Statistics
Rushing: ELD - Price 6-136, Traxler 8-109, Vessel 8-78, Watt 1-33, Metten 1-11, Oglesby 1-0. C-Z-R - Anderson 7-24, Phillips 5-18, Pedigo 4-5, Newton 1-6.
Passing: ELD - Oglesby 1-2-0 11. C-Z-R - Newton 6-16-1 59.
Receiving: ELD - Kasiar 1-11. C-Z-R - Pedigo 2-36, Mueller 2-21, Anderson 2-2.