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Prep Football: Eldorado opens up season with win

On Friday night, the rules Eldorado head coach Brandon Hampton and Vienna-Goreville head coach Mike Rude played by, weren't necessarily the ones that were in a book.

Instead, the two played by Mother Nature's rules and after a lightning delay in the second quarter halted the Black Diamond Conference season opener for both schools, the game was ultimately called with the weather radar looking unfavorable and showing no signs of positive life, the two called the game a final as Eldorado won the home opener 22-0 at Boz Adams Field.

It wasn't the ideal ending Hampton wanted, but in the grand scheme, he'll take the good with the bad.

"Week one, you go into it thinking you are going to see something new, but to have this ending was a real surprise," Hampton said. "We are going to look at it as a positive, that we got out healthy, we got some film to look at in the morning and our kids came out and handled business, particularly in that first quarter and jumped on them right away.

"Sometimes you just have to give into Mother Nature right there and just look at it as 'we got this game in' and it doesn't drag into our week two preparation, which neither coach wanted."

Eldorado (1-0) got things going in the first quarter, when on the third play from scrimmage, Payton Price found the end zone from 10 yards out. Eldorado didn't convert on their two-point conversion and took a quick 6-0 lead with 6:46 left to play.

The Eagles went back to work in the second quarter, getting another TD from Price, this time the 5-foot-10, 190-pound senior running back scored from eight yards out with 10:54 to play in the first half and Trey Vessel picked up where he left off last season, scoring from five yards out with 4:03 to play.

The game was then delayed with 2:13 left in the second quarter because of lightning.

The lightning and the weather were a wide spread issue across much of southern Illinois Friday night, with many games being postponed until Saturday.

For Rude, it wasn't the first time he's been down this road before.

"Back in 1993 at Christopher, we came out and stopped the game in the middle of the third quarter because of hail and rain and we never went back and finished the game. We're going to walk out of here and be tickled to death with the way we played."

Despite not scoring finding the end zone, Vienna-Goreville (0-1) ended their night with 21 carries for 36 yards.

Eldorado, led by Vessel's seven carries for 62 yards, ended the game 18 touches for 145 yards of offense, all on the ground.

"Our program is built on a really big, physical offensive line," Hampton said. "We were able to run the football tonight. We stopped ourselves on offense with a few penalties and a turnover late there in the first half, but we anticipate being able to run the football well.

"Vienna-Goreville came out in a different look, both on offense and on defense," he added. "I thought our kids settled in and did a good job of playing their assingment, particularly on defense and I never felt threatened that they were moving the football."

Eldorado will play host to Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn Friday at 7 p.m., while Vienna-Goreville will play at Johnston City, also at 7 p.m.

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

Eldorado 06 16 00 00 - 00

Vienna-Goreville 00 00 00 00 - 00

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

ELD - Price 10 yard run, (two-point conversion failed), 6:46

Second Quarter

ELD - Price 8 yard run, (Attebury pass from Oglesby), 10:54

ELD - Vessel 5 yard run (Vessel run), 4:03

Team Statistic

ELD V-G

First Downs 4 2

Rushes-Yards 18-145 21-36

Comp-Att-Int 0-1-0 0-3-1

Passing 0 0

Total Yards 145 36

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 2-0

Penalities 2-11 2-13

Individual Statistics

RUSHING

ELD: Vessel 5-62 (TD), Price 7-47 (2 TD), Traxler 3-21, Oglesby 2-9, Roberts 1-6. V-G: Ugalde 4-17, Massey 7-10, Rutherford 3-10, Wilcox 2-6, Frassato 5-(-7).

PASSING

ELD: Oglesby 0-1-0 0. V-G: Frassato 0-3-1 0.