Prep Football: Eagles Beat The Streak, Flora for first round playoff win
One by one, Eldorado head coach Brandon Hampton went down the sidelines giving a strong embrace to his assistant coaches.
It's customary in the football circle to congratulate following a win. This win for Eldorado was a little different.
After the Eagles finished off Flora 36-14 Saturday at Boz Adams Field in the first round of the IHSA Class 2A playoffs, Eldorado snapped a losing streak of Black Diamond Conference school's losing in the first round of the postseason since Fairfield knocked off Breese Central in 2009.
It was also Eldorado's first playoff victory since 1988, but for Hampton it was a personal monkey off his back.
Eldorado won its ninth game of the season and have not lost since a 37-34 shootout loss at Carmi back in Week 3 of the season. Since that loss, Eldorado has rattled off seven straight.
"I guarantee you there were only a handful of people out here who were at the last playoff win in 1988," Hampton said. "I grew up here and I know how special it is. I watched those guys play, guys like Roddy Hathaway and Rusty Mosby. For us to be able to separate ourselves as one of the teams that have had post season success really raises the credibility of this football team and really puts them in an upper echelon overall football teams here at Eldorado High School."
The nine-year EHS head coach said he wasn't in the business of history, but he sure made it Saturday.
"The real credit goes to the players for the way they prepared and played today," Hampton said. "Yeah, we got that monkey off our back where we hadn't had any success in the postseason. It's the first time in 26 years we were able to do that. I felt like we represented the Black Diamond Conference very well today. I'm extremely happy for our seniors because this is a player-led team. It's their team and they stepped up and did the things they had to do to have success. (Flora) is a very good football team and we had to handle some adversity, they made a couple of runs at us and we did a nice job of handling some injuries that popped up on us, but I thought our ability to run the football with that big physical offensive line with Trey (Vessel), Payton (Price) and Jacob (Traxler) was key for us."
Eldorado punched Flora in the mouth early thanks in large part to its rushing game as all three backs found the end zone.
Price took his in from 28 yards out at the 9:48 mark in the first quarter to give Eldorado a 8-0 lead, following the Traxler two-point conversion. The Eagles went up two scores when Vessel bowled his way in from 1-yard out with 3:11 left to play in the first and Traxler had the Wolves starring down the barrel of a 24-0 deficit after his 5-yard scamper with 6:46 to play before halftime.
The Wolves would get on the scoreboard before going into the locker room as Trevin Smith scored from 10 yards out with 29.1 to play, but Eldorado had one more trick up their sleeve, a play that Hampton felt broke Flora's back.
With just 6.2 to play, Eldorado used a double-pass as Kale Oglesby passed to his left to Max Kasiar who then found a sprinting Jace Jenkins in the open field 46 yards for a score, giving Eldorado the 30-6 halftime lead.
"We slipped a little trick play in there at the end of the first half that I felt broke Flora's back a little bit and players make plays," Hampton said. "The kids did a great job of executing that play and I thought it really gave us tempo and energy as we went into the half with all the momentum."
In the game, Traxler finished with two touchdowns, his second and the only other score for Eldorado coming in the fourth quarter when he found pay dirt from seven yards out.
Traxler finished with 121 yards on 18 carries and was the feature presentation for the Eldorado offense in a season where Vessel and Price have been in the spotlight.
Still, Vessel had 124 yards on 22 carries, while Price went for 80 on 11 carries.
The idea to highlight Traxler wasn't something that Eldorado came up with in preparation for Flora. Hampton admitted it's been a long time in the making.
"We put the pressure on them real early," he said. "We had not shown that formation all year. We had sat on it for 12 months. We waited for the right opportunity in the postseason and we were able to get it. The O-line set the tone and Jake ran the ball hard. We used Trey and Payton as decoys early to loosen them up and then late it turned into the Trey and Payton show behind that big physical line. The ability to get up on them early and real quick it was 16-0 before Flora could catch their breath and get their feet back underneath them.
"We flew around on defense and forced turnovers and played extremely physical. It was just a great overall team win."
Maroa-Forsyth, who knocked off Johnston City 42-6 Saturday, will travel to Eldorado next Saturday as the Eagles will host their second playoff win. Game time is slated for 1 p.m. at Boz Adams Field.
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
Eldorado 16 14 00 06 - 36
Flora 00 06 00 08 - 14
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
ELD - Price 28 run (Traxler conversion), 9:48
ELD - Vessel 1 run (Price conversion), 3:11
Second Quarter
ELD - Traxler 5 run (Kasiar pass from Oglesby), 6:46
FHS - Smith 10 run (conversion failed), 29.1
ELD - Jenkins 46 pass from Kasiar (conversion failed) 6.2
Fourth Quarter
ELD - Traxler 7 run (conversion failed), 5:43
FHS - Winka 4 run (Winka pass from Goldstein), 2:15
Up Next
<p>Eldorado will host Maroa-Forsyth Saturday, starting at 1 p.m. at Boz Adams Field</p>