Prep Football: Eagles Go Streaking

There was a point, a year into Brandon Hampton's tenure at Eldorado, that the head coach had just about all he could endure - at least in regards to losing to Hamilton County.

When Hampton took over in 2008, the Eagles suffered a 33-24 loss to its Black Diamond Conference rival and parlayed that into a 44-21 loss the next year.

That's when Hampton had had enough - and he told his team the same thing.

"I remember after that game we were on the bus on the way home, I told our kids, we're done losing to them."

The message stuck.

Five year's later, Eldorado has yet to lose to Hamilton County and in the process has outscored the Foxes 187-46 during that span.

Eldorado has busted out of the gate to an 4-0 start and will head to Hamilton County Friday, facing a Foxes that that haven't won since Week 3 of last season, when they beat Vienna-Goreville 22-20 and are currently riding a 10-game losing streak.

The conference is having its annual rite of passage this week with teams matching up against their rival and despite Eldorado having five years worth of success and domination over Hamilton County, Hampton said the spark for the rivalry is still there.

"I think maybe historically for the town it is," Hampton said. "History-wise, they are down right now and we are not, but you play a game like this and you basically throw the records out the window."

It's homecoming week for Hamilton County, which Hampton is using as minor motivation for his team.

It was the fourth straight loss to start the season for Hamilton County, dropping a heart breaker last weekend at Vienna-Goreville, a game that Hampton believes was the Foxes for the taking.

"If you watch that game, they will big if they don't turn the football over. Two of them went back for pick-sixes and they end up losing by two. They were snake-bit for sure and should have won big.

"What I feel like we have to do is jump on them early and do the things we have to do on the road to take any belief they have away early."

A point of emphasis for Hampton and the Eagles will be 5-foot-11, 230-pound fullback Damian Pike, who Hampton compares to as a Tre Vessel type player.

"He's good and would be a great player in our offense. (Hamilton County) likes to get him going early and then spread you out throw those short screen passes."

Speed is also something that sticks out for Hampton who added the Foxes have some of the top six or eight track athletes in the BDC.

"They have that speed that is always a concern and they have some big guys on defense. Their defensive front is something like 250-260-270-pound big kids and you hope they just don't get it figured out against you."

The other point of emphasis is not having a repeat performance from last week when Eldorado knocked off Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton 48-7. Despite the win, Hampton wasn't all too thrilled with how his team played.

"I just felt we were emotionally flat and not playing on the edge. I don't think we'll have that problem this week with it being Hamilton County and their homecoming, but I do think we executed better than I gave our kids credit for.

"Friday, we have to be able to stop the run and put pressure on their quarterback," Hampton said. "Our defense, last week, forced some turnovers and set our offense up with short field position and we'll need that again."

At the halfway point, Hampton believes the BDC conference has shaped up status quo, but with the conference still missing that spot in the schedule, some teams will struggle as was evident with Carmi having to play at Nashville and Fairfield having to play at Tremont.

"Muphysboro has obviously been very good, but I've also been impressed with what Al (Way) has been able to do over at Harrisburg. Within our own conference, the way Johnston City has played defense has been pretty legit."

Johnston City has given up just eight points through four games this season.

As for his own team, Hampton complimented his Eagles for not being a "one-trick pony"

"Each week it has been somebody different for us," Hampton said. "Payton (Price), Tre (Vessel), Max (Kaiser), Isaac (Bethel), but I've been most pleased with how fun this group is to work with. The practices really carry over to the games and we have kids working extremely hard to play the game the right way. I've been very encouraged."

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