Prep Football: Eagles look to rebound
There is a rule that Eldorado head coach Brandon Hampton has in regards to wins.
The Eagles - the team Hampton coaches - only has 24 hours to enjoy a W. The timeframe for recognizing a loss, is the same, if not a little bit shorter.
Saturday, Eldorado lost a heartbreaking, three-point 37-34 shootout at Carmi-White County. The loss was not only the first for the Eagles this season, but breaks a streak of 12 straight dating back to 2014 for the Eagles.
Among the other things that Hampton waxes poetically about is the fact that there is no silver lining in a loss.
"I think a lot of people who say it's good to lose a football game every now and then because you can learn from it, those people have no idea what they are talking about," Hampton said. "They don't know how hard kids work 12 months out of the year. They don't know how hard coaches work, so it's never good to lose a football game. Period.
"The silver lining? Somebody has to play really, really, really well to beat us. We're a good football team and my confidence in this team hasn't wavered," he added. "Do we have work to do? Sure we do, but at the end of the day, you look yourself in the mirror and ask did I do everything I could to prepare the football team? Did the players do everything in their power to put themselves in a position to win? I think the answer to both of those questions is yes."
Eldorado now turns its attention to a Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton team that comes in 0-3 after a Monday night loss to Edwards County. Much like Eldorado's game with C-WC, which was suspended due to lightning on Friday and resumed Saturday, Edwards County picked up its first win, sending C-Z-R to an 0-3 start to the season.
Already on a short week of preparation, C-Z-R has given up the most points in the Black Diamond Conference at 152. Eldorado had the best defense in the BDC through two weeks after shutting out Vienna-Goreville and Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn. Now, that distinction belongs to Fairfield, as the Mules have only given up 18 points this season.
Monday was a day when Hampton said the focus for the second stint of his schedule started, beginning with C-Z-R.
"C-Z-R comes in here Friday and I think they'll find a very focused, very angry Eldorado team ready to get that bad taste out of their mouth. I asked the team Sunday, where do you go from here? You look at the film and you make the adjustments that need to be made. As a player you take ownership, and I think we have a veteran football team that is already extremely focused and I don't think they need a wake up call like that. They prepare the right way and did a tremendous job of handling the situation that was last week where we had to go, come home and go back again. "
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.