Prep Football: Shut Down Defense
Rivalry week in the Black Diamond Conference was two weeks ago when Eldorado traveled to Hamilton County and came home 48-0 winners.
Eagles head coach actually prefers to look at Fairfield as more of a BDC rival and not in the heated, hated manner either.
Hampton, along with Fairfield head coach Justin Townsend share a similar bond in both are former players and alums of respective schools, who came back to establish some legitimacy in the program.
To their credit, both have done so in what could be construed as a short amount of time and because of that Hampton has a lot of respect for Townsend, Fairfield and the Mules - his opponent this Friday night in a key conference game at Boz Adams Field.
A win would match Eldorado's best start under Hampton at seven straight. The last time Eldorado (6-0, 6-0 BDC) did that was 2013. A victory would also go a long way in helping the Eagles solidify a home game for the IHSA Class 2A playoffs, something that hasn't occurred at EHS in quite some time.
"Fairfield is one of the elite in the Black Diamond," Hampton said. "Year in and year out they are competing for a conference championship and this year isn't a whole lot different.
The Mules (4-2, 4-1 BDC) lost Week 1 at Chester in a game that Hampton feels Townsend would love to have back.
"They didn't play as well as they would have liked and they had major travel problems on the way down. Just a nightmare for them, but they are a team built a lot like ours, where ground control and the ground game are very important."
Fairfield has the top rusher in not just the Black Diamond Conference, but all of southern Illinois in Colton Land.
At 6-foot-1 and 2-5 pounds, Land leads the south with 1,162 yards on 88 carries and 18 touchdowns.
Second on that list is Eldorado's Payton Price, who has 49 carries for 759 yards and 12 TD's
The key for Land this season, according to Hampton, is Fairfield's ability to get a lot of of people at the point of attack and block for him.
"He's one of the faster kids in the Black Diamond Conference and what makes dynamic is Fairfield's scheme is to get four or five guys in front of him, lead blocking, out numbering the opposition," Hampton said. He's able to find that little seam wherever it may be and when he hits it, he's gone. Look at what he did last week, he had six carries and five of those went for touchdowns. One, he's super talented and two, their scheme really features things he does best."
Hampton calls Fairfield a tough fit because of what they do offensively, but feels good about going into Friday night after seeing how physical his Eagles were with Springfield's Riverton High School Saturday on Homecoming.
"They are very unique and very physical. Historically, we have had some good games and I expect this one to be the exact same. We have to continue to improve because this matchup has always posed problems when it comes to matching up with each other. It's usually comes down to the team that can get enough stops on Friday night. Both teams are really good at what they want to do and how they want to operate and go about their business, but its the team with the defense that can get the stops, the turnovers and the team that can take care of the football and gets the spark with a big play in the kicking game."
What he doesn't feel good about are the amount of penalties (6-for-90 yards) the Eagles came away with after their 46-6 win over Riverton.
"A lot of those penalties were in dead-ball situations, which will be a major point of emphasis this week," Hampton said. "I think we let our emotions take control and it's one of those things where they are always going to catch the second guy. We have to eliminate that from our program. We don't coach that, we don't allow that and it will be something that will be addressed this week in practice.
"The dead-ball penalties were disappointing. Some of them, you're going to have some hold penalties and some of those physical type penalties, but the ones you can control a little bit, your emotions, are the ones we have to cut out."
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.