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Prep Football: Flipping The Script

In the nine years that Brandon Hampton has been at the helm of Eldorado, he's done nothing but bring joy and promise to the football program.

The Eagles have won two Black Diamond Conference championships, both coming in 2015 and 2016 and the Eagles have qualified for the playoffs six times.

The number of playoff games that Hampton and company have won is more of a bitter pill to swallow.

Never has Eldorado won a postseason game, but after finishing 8-1 in the BDC, the Eagles are hoping this year they can flip the script Saturday.

A win would not only erase the memory of last year's heartbreaking home loss to Athens, but give the BDC a non-conference win over an opponent in seven years. In 2009, Fairfield beat Breese Central 30-0.

This year, Flora makes its way to Boz Adams Field and comes in sporting a record of 6-3.

Hampton sat down with the Daily Register / Daily Journal to talk about the Eagles hosting a Class 2A first round playoff game for the second straight season.

Hampton: Flora is a team out of the Little Illini Conference that is in the postseason for the first time in seven years. There has been a lot of hard work and time that has gone into getting their program at the level to be a postseason team. I have been very impressed watching them on film and seeing how well their quarterback plays. He is a dynamic runner and thrower.

Chris Scott is a 6-foot-3, 205-pound kind of a dual threat quarterback. He does a good job running the football and also has a nice touch. They are a spread offense team, but they commit to running the football. They are trying to spread you out and get you thin and threaten it on the perimeter. It really forces you to defend all 11 players because he can run the ball so well. I've also been real impressed with their playmakers on offense. They have a lot of nice receivers. Jordan Winka is a senior and speed kid that at 5-9 and 160 is very elusive in the open field.

You watch them on defense and the common theme among postseason teams is they are good in all three phases. Sometimes when you prepare for an opponent, someone is good defensively or someone is really dynamic on offense. They are pretty good in all three phases. Defensively they have a very big physical nose tackle that plays extremely hard and they run the ball well with several backs. So yeah, I've been real impressed with them on film.

STILL ABOUT US

For us, we're not changing anything about our preparation this week. Monday was a typical Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday is business as usual. When you push your game back to Saturday, sometimes you talk about giving your kids an extra day off, but we started on Sunday with running and lifting over the weekend.

You have to really focus on the things that got you here. We'll play to our strengths which is a strong running game and the ability to hit with the play action. We've shown the ability to play great defense and take the ball away from the opponent and limit them on the big play. We'll have to do that again this week.

A real focal point of where you try to start limiting them and make them beat you left handed would be trying to contain their quarterback, both running and throwing. A week ago, I felt like we made Chester beat us with the quarterback, which going into the game we were really trying to limit some of their edge playmakers and although they had some success, it wasn't the kind that could beat you. I think Flora's quarterback can beat you both running and throwing. We have to get pressure on him, contain him in the run game and play very physical up front.

OFFENSE

I like how our offense is evolving right now. I think the last couple of weeks, we have become more dangerous with Jacob Traxler. He's really came to the forefront offensively for us. So now, you turn it into a three-headed attack back there with Trey, Payton and Jake. Jake has taken the steps to be a more polished running back and hopefully that continues. That's how it was a year ago for Jake, he had a great opening round playoff game with Athens and we expect him to do the same thing.

Hopefully, we're a tough matchup for them to stop offensively.

PROS vs. CONS

Flora lost (their regular season finale) for the same reason that Chester played us so close and Carmi got beat by a Sesser-Valier team, Flora got beat by a 4-4 Red Hill team that was trying to get into the playoffs. That's a nice little rivalry between those schools. Last year Red Hill knocked off Flora from getting into the postseason and this year Flora had a chance to do it against them and they weren't able to do it.

The other film we got on them was against a very athletic Carlyle team that we matched up with in the playoffs a couple of years ago and they got after them pretty good Week 8. I think Flora is a very good football team, but they turned the ball over in their game against Red Hill and that's something we have to do against them with their offense.

SIMILARITIES

Both of us want to run the football, but we just go about it in different ways, which is great about the game of football. We're not trying to trick or deceive you, we're just trying to be extremely physical and run really hard at you. Flora is trying to use some misdirection and get on the edge. Their defense is stout and they do a good job in the run game and like I said earlier, they are good in all three phases. It will be a great challenge for us, I like the matchup between Black Diamond and Little Illini, I think at times our conference doesn't get the credit it deserves, but hopefully we can do a great job of representing our conference and being the champion of our league and going out and getting a postseason win.

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