Prep Football: Eagles take down Hawks on Homecoming

For Brandon Hampton, he got the best of both worlds this weekend.

The Eldorado High School football head coach cornered his Homecoming game on a Saturday and did so with the mindset of a out of town school to give it more of a playoff vibe.

The Eagles, who have not hosted a playoff game since 1996, took another step towards doing so in a 46-6 win over Riverton at Boz Adams Field Saturday.

Eldorado had 379 yards of total offense - all coming from the ground - while the Eagles held Riverton (1-5) to just 102 yards, 62 of which, came through the air.

Hampton addressed the stress that comes with having to prepare for a homecoming game and the challenge of an opponent he wasn't used to seeing within the Black Diamond Conference.

"This is nightmare week for a head coach and those in southern Illinois will tell you that because of all the distractions and things we have going on, but a real credit to our seniors and our captains and our leaders, because each and every time it was time to practice, they were focused. The game was no different. We came out focused and jumped on them early. I felt like we executed well on offense early and played extremely physical on defense."

Every homecoming has a theme, Eldorado's was no different Saturday as they scored their touchdowns in pairs.

Drew Woolcott had two first quarter touchdowns - one from 39 and another from 31 yards out to make it 16-0 after one.

Tre Vessel then scored a pair of TD's - one from two yards and another from one yard out and Payton Price capped off the scoring with an 11-yard TD run, followed by a third quarter 21-yard run to give EHS (6-0) the 46-6 win.

Price and Woolcott each went over 100 yards in the game as Price has 10 carries for 156 yards, while Woolcott had 100 yards on seven carries. Vessel had 75 yards on 11 carries.

In the end, Hampton acknowledged how big the game was, but only on the condition that it was the next game on the schedule.

"It felt like a playoff game this week, maybe because the weather cooled off a little bit," Hampton said. "It was a different opponent and someone that does something the Black Diamond Conference is not used to seeing and it was good for our guys to prepare for a Saturday game and have some success here at home. We know we have to take care of business down the stretch here and hopefully we're fortunate enough to do that."

"Six wins is huge," Hampton said. "It was big today cause it was the game on the schedule. Next week, the big game will be Fairfield, because it's next.

There's little doubt Hampton knows he closes out the season, facing the toughest part of his schedule.

Eldorado will host Fairfield (5-1) Friday at Boz Adams, followed by a date with Johnston City (5-1) next Friday at Davison Field. The Eagles close out the schedule with a possible winner-take-all championship game against Chester, who is currently 6-0.

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

Eldorado 16 22 8 0 - 46

Riverton 0 6 0 0 - 6

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

ELD - Woolcott 39 run (Woolcott run), 4:41

ELD - Woolcott 31 run (Traxler run), 2:46

Second Quarter

ELD - Vessel 2 run (Traxler run), 11:52

RHS - Gabriel 4 run (conversion failed), 10:44

EHS - Vessel 1 run (Attebury pass from Ninness), 6:11

EHS - Price 11 run (conversion failed), 1:19

Third Quarter

EHS - Price 21 run (Kaiser pass from Ninness), 7:51

Team Statistics

EHS RHS

First Downs 17 9

Rushing Yards 379 40

Passing Yards 0 62

Total Yards 379 102

Individual Statistics

Rushing - ELD: Price 10-156, Woolcott 7-100, Vessel 11-75, Molinarolo 5-17, Traxler 2-9, Roberts 3-8, Ninness 1-7, Watt 1-3, Barton 1-2, Oglesby 1-2.