Prep Football: Contrasting Styles
Brandon Hampton made a promise to his Eldorado football team back on Week 5 of the regular season and after a history-making Week 10 win over Flora, it's time for the Eagles' head coach to pay up.
The bet was pretty simple. After the Eagles' wore an all-black uniform in its Homecoming Game against Hamilton County, the only way Hampton was going to let the team win them again this year was a Week 10 win.
Eldorado answered the challenged and will now, not only wear their all-black uniforms, but host Maora-Forsyth at Boz Adams Field Saturday, starting at 1 p.m.
It's the second straight week Eldorado has hosted and if that wasn't enough history for the Eagles, last week they became the first Black Diamond Conference team since Fairfield in 2009 to win an IHSA playoff game against a non-conference opponent.
This year's edition of the 2A playoffs started with 32 teams. Eldorado and Maora-Forsyth are part of the sweet 16.
Hampton, who sat down to break down Saturday's matchup with the Daily Register/Daily Journal likes being mentioned in the round of Sweet 16, but has his eyes on the Elite 8.
Hampton: Maora-Forsyth is a second round playoff team so you know they are well coached and will be well prepared. When you get yourself in the postseason, you start with 32 teams and now we are down to 16, so it's really the class of 2A football and when we step on the field, we should be excited about it. Our guys have earned that opportunity and they should have confidence and we are here for a reason.
Breakdown on Maora-Forsyth
We have a lot of respect for Maora-Forsyth as you watch them on film, you quickly learn that they are very well coached and I don't say that lightly because I know sometimes you have to say that, but they do things the right way. They have a lot of speed. Jackson Nelson and DeAndre Gregory are two guys that really jump off at you when you are watching film. They have a tight end that really reminds me of Max (Kasiar), the way they move him around like we do. He can run the football and catch the football. They play two quarterbacks, Tyler Ray is a senior and he was very efficient in the Week 10 game against Johnston City. He had very good numbers and they bring in another guy who runs in a little bit more, Cameron Bodine, who is little more of an athlete. They want to play fast and play a lot of kids. They are an uptempo-spread offense team. They are going to snap the ball every 12 to 15 seconds, so it's really important for us to do the things we do well, which is run the football and stop the run.
Continue to Grind Out First Downs
For us, we have to stay in that huddle as long as we can and snap the football right as the play clock is about to expire and continue to grind out first downs. We talk all the time about our offense being our best defense because we hang onto the ball for so long and keep the other offense off the field and that's what we will have to do this week. I really like how our offense continues to evolve and the ability of Jacob Traxler to kind of come to the forefront and Week 10 will do nothing but make our offense a harder team to defend for. You're always going to dance with the one you brought, and Trey (Vessel) and Payton (Price) got us here.
Our Focus Won't Change
I'm happy for our kids to be in this position. It was another great win for our kids (against Flora) and now we get another second round home playoff game, which is going to be a great week weather wise. I think everyone in town is excited about where we are at. I just loved our kids approach last week about taking care of business the right way. Our focus won't change. The same things we talked about the first week of the playoffs will be the same thing we talk about this week and hopefully on down the road, but we're asking our kids to do whatever it takes and prepare the right way and continue to improve at this point in the season.