Eldorado rolls to win, 34-15, at Vienna-Goreville
Playing at Vienna-Goreville comes with a unique set of circumstances that any Black Diamond Conference School is well aware of.
Eldorado's situation was no different Saturday and didn't get off to a very good start. Luckily, for the Eagles, they were able to smile after a 34-15 win to improve to 2-0 in BDC play.
Before the game, Eldorado's leading rusher Jacob Traxler's helmet was accidentally ran over by the team bus, but the senior back got help from a teammate with a new lid and ran for 131 yards on 10 carries and had three touchdowns in the win.
It was the second straight game the 6-foot-4, 220-pound running back had three touchdowns in a game.
Eldorado, who finished with 319 yards on the ground, served notice early, taking a 20-0 lead before Vienna-Goreville got on the scoreboard and for first year head coach Joe Clark says his team is still developing.
"Overall, we are doing a good job running the football and when we want to are able to take advantage in the passing game. We continue to grind, but we made some mistakes, myself included and starting with me that we were able to recover from. We had a lot of kids step up and that was nice to see."
Dawson Metten, who had 11 carries for 87 yards, got Eldorado on the board in the first quarter and that followed two straight TD runs from Traxer, one from 1-yard out and another from 46 yards out.
After Vienna-Goreville got on the board in the third quarter with a 27-yard touchdown pass from Logan Frassato, Traxler scored his third touchdown on the game on a 17-yard run.
Wayne Roberts then gave Eldorado a 34-7 lead on a punishing 38-yard run and Vienna-Goreville closed the game out with a 15-yard run from Danny Smith with 30 seconds to play in the fourth.
Vienna-Goreville head coach Mike Rude said Saturday's contest with a measuring stick game for his club, one where he considers Eldorado to be the No. 1 or No. 2 team in the conference.
"I would say a lot of people are going to pick Traxler to Player Of The Year in the conference. He's a D1 football player and he's a load. I didn't really feel like the score should have been what it was at halftime. We learned a lot of things today, we said this was our measuring stick and we know where we're at now."
Clark said V-G had a good scheme and took away a lot of things Eldorado wanted to do and the first-year head coach credited his kids for making the adjustment.
"We were able to to stay in the fight, executed and never flinched really. I think Vienna is a good football team and will win some games in our league. Early on it was harder than I assumed it was going to be, but Vienna-Goreville did a good job of getting into a defense that put us in a bind in a situation or two and took us a minute to get a good read on."
Eldorado will travel to Sesser-Valier Friday to take on a Red Devil club that is also 2-0, while Vienna (1-1) will play at Johnston City (1-1).
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Register, Eldorado Journal & The Gallatin County Democrat. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.