Prep Football: Eldorado runs win streak to seven

Eldorado had its first true test of the season - following a 6-0 start - and passed with flying colors Friday night.

The Eagles offense racked up 577 yards, while limiting Fairfield to 388 and southern Illinois top rusher Colton Land to 67 yards in a decisive 58-20 win at Boz Adams Field.

Playing to an electric atmosphere, the Eagles matched their best start under head coach Brandon Hampton as Eldorado is now 7-0 on the season and 6-0 in Black Diamond Conference play as they outscored Fairfield 32-8 in the second half.

Hampton summed it up best, calling Friday's victory a "big time win" going as far as to call it a total program win.

"I'm just so proud of how our kids played. We challenged them this week not to flinch and we knew it was going to be a physical contest. Fairfield is a very tough matchup, but we felt like our defense played great to limit them to 20 points. Our offense, all night long, made big plays. I can't say enough about the way our O-line blocked, our quarterback executed and our playmakers made plays.

"I'm really proud of how we limited them on offense, but I felt like when you can limit Fairfield to what they are able to do offensively and you keep scoring, you can take them out of what they want to do with featuring Land and they start throwing the ball. It was just a tremendous win."

Highlighting the Eldorado offense Friday night was junior running back Payton Price, who had 276 yards on 16 carries and three scores for the Eagles, while Drew Woolcott had 80 yards on six carries and one score. True Vessel had 13 carries for 55 yards and a score, getting the Eagles on the board in the first quarter.

Fairfield responded on an eight-yard score by Colton Land to tie the game at six.

From there, the two teams traded blows as Eldorado got an eight-yard score from Price, while Fairfield's Scott Esmon broke off a 57-yard run.

Eldorado scored two more times before halftime, getting a 47 yard run from Price and quarterback Adam Ninness hooked up with Isaac Bethel on a 26 yard pass play, giving the Eagles to 26-12 halftime lead.

An emergency situation in the Eldorado stands prior to the start of the second half delayed the game by about 20 minutes and on the ensuing kickoff, Fairfield came up with the onside kick and quickly punched in their third score of the game after Wyatt Borah went 46 yards to make it 26-20.

Eldorado quickly stopped the bleeding and tacked on four more scores in the second half, compliments of Woolcott, who scored on a six yard run, Price, who went 63 yards for a TD and Ninness who threw his second touchdown of the game, hooking up with Max Kaiser on a 74-yard pass play. The final score for the Eagles came in the fourth when Connor Watt found paydirt from 16 yards out.

Hampton was most encouraged with how his team responded to the adversity to start the second half, saying it would have been simple to close up shop and go home.

"We had a medical situation with the quarterback's grandmother, they get the onside kick and go and score on the next play and what would most teams have done? They would have folded. This team was resilient, they never flinched, they went down and got some big scores and then the defense got some great stops down the stretch."

After stopping Land, which was the focal point of the Eldorado scheme going into the week, Hampton was proud to see another running back, Price, step up and take the spotlight.

"We could feature one guy and I've done it here before, but we could feature one guy and get him 15, 16, 1800 yards in a season, but what we have really decided to do is spread the wealth and hope we are healthy down the stretch. I thought tonight when everyone was talking about Colton Land, Colton Land and he's a tremendous player, make no bones about it, but I thought the way our halfbacks - Payton and Drew made some big time runs and I thought our fullback (Vessel) finished the game strong too."

Eldorado matched its best start since the 2013 season when the Eagles finished the year 7-2 and fell to Columbia in the first round of the IHSA Class 2A Playoffs. The Eagles will go for their eighth straight win in another rival game Friday night at Johnston City, before closing out the regular season at home against current unbeaten Chester.

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

@spydieshooter.

Fairfield 6 6 8 0 - 20

Eldorado 6 20 24 8 - 58

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

ELD - Vessel 3 yard run (conversion failed), 8:43

FF - Land 8 yard run (conversion failed), 2:49

Second Quarter

ELD - Price 8 yard run (Bethel pass from Ninness), 9:55

FF - Esmon 57 yard run (conversion failed), 7:28

ELD - Price 47 yard run (conversion failed), 6:37

ELD - Bethel 26 pass from Ninness (conversion failed), :48

Third Quarter

FF - Borah 46 yard run (Land conversion), 11:47

ELD - Woolcott 6 yard run (Woolcott conversion), 8:03

ELD - Price 63 yard run (Woolcott conversion), 4:13

ELD - Kaiser 74 pass from Ninness (Woolcott conversion), :23

Fourth Quarter

ELD - Watt 16 yard run (Molinarolo conversion) 2:21

Team Statistics

FF ELD

First Downs 14 20

Rushes-Yards 43-316 46-432

Passing 4-13-2 4-8-138

Passing Yards 54 137

Total Yards 370 570

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-Yards 5-48 5-72

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: FF - Borah 7-113, Esmon 12-101, Land 18-67, McGill 2-29, Butler 2-9, Sadler 1-2, Mitchell 1-(-3). ELD - Price 16-270, Woolcott 6-80, Vessel 13-55, Watt 2-17, Molinarolo 7-12, Ninness 1-3, Traxler 1-2.

PASSING: FF - Snyder 4-12-2 70, Mitchell 0-1-0 0. ELD - Ninness 4-8-0 138.

RECEIVING: FF - McGill 1-30, Lewis 1-21, Hooper 1-6, Borah 1-3. ELD - Kaiser 2-108, Bethel 1-26, Woolcott 1-4.