Prep Football: Uncharted Territory

Taking into consideration that to date, Eldorado has only played 184 of 240 minutes of football, it's a statistic that is perfectly fine with Eagle head coach Brandon Hampton.

After last week's hammering of Hamilton County, where the Eagles had the running clock in the second half, it was the fourth shutout of the season for Eldorado who have given up 37 points, all of which came in a three-point loss at Carmi-White County. The only game of the season where Eldorado played all 48 minutes.

And given that players' stats may be affected by the lack of playing a full game, Hampton is taking the perspective that those players' opportunities will be there down the stretch.

"The real big challenge for us down the stretch is three of our next four games are on the road and if you continue to have turnovers and penalties, history will tell you that you won't have success on the road, it doesn't matter who the opponent is. We have to clean those areas up on both sides of the football and continue to take steps to be an explosive football team offensively, both through the air and on the ground."

That stretch starts Friday night at Edwards County, a little bit of unfamiliarity for Hampton and the Eagles as they embark on the journey to Albion to take on the Lions, who are competing in the Black Diamond Conference for the first time this season.

The Lions' only win came Week 3 at Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton, but despite their 1-4 record, Hampton takes Edwards County seriously.

"Edwards County is a team that puzzles you when you look at their record because they have some big physical running backs," Hampton said. "Their Quarterback is a big physical kid, who runs the option well and throws the ball pretty well. They show flashes of being a really good offensive team.

"Early in the game, they moved the ball all over Fairfield, but they always seem to find a way to stop themselves. So, defensively we have to continue to play at a high level, force turnovers and get the ball back for our offense. Our offense continues to improve and up front, I really like where we are at. We have to eliminate the turnover and we had two of them on Saturday."

Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.