Prep Football: Still Perfect

Nothing else mattered.

The early two score lead Eldorado held at Johnston City Friday night didn't matter.

The four touchdowns Johnston City rallied with to take a two-score lead in the fourth quarter didn't matter.

The Eagles having to go 94 yards in a little over 4:00 didn't matter.

Only one thing mattered - Eldorado junior Payton Price turning a 4th-and-1 conversion into a 19-yard run, setting up a Tre Vessel one-yard plunge, followed by Price's heroics once again as he completed the two-point conversion to give Eldorado a thrilling 28-26 come-from-behind victory at Ralph Davison Field in Black Diamond Conference action.

There were plenty of plays and plenty of action, but in the end, Eldorado kept its perfect record in tact with the two-point victory against a team that has long been a nemesis of the Eagles and head coach Brandon Hampton.

Going into the game Friday night, both had the top two ranked defenses in southern Illinois and the Indians were 8-1 against the Eagles under Hampton.

None of that mattered to Hampton who had one strong message for his team heading into what he called hostile territory.

"We talked about how there were going to be no shortcuts," Hampton said. "This football team continues to stay together and do what they do every day in practice, which is just play for one another. They know how to handle adversity and tonight in a very hostile environment against a very tough opponent, down two scores late in the fourth quarter and just really had to go. We talked to them earlier in the week and told them there was no shortcut and right there when you are down two scores late in the fourth quarter there are no shortcuts. All you can do is continue to block, tackle and be physical as a football player and that's what we were able to do. The kids did an excellent job of finishing the football game."

After Caleb Holtzclaw returned an Eldorado punt 44 yards for an Indian touchdown with 9:46 to play, Eldorado (8-0) was starring down the barrel of a 26-14 deficit.

Down, but not out, Eldorado went to work and got a 13-yard touchdown from Drew Woolcott with just over 7-plus minutes to play.

The Eldorado defense - the no. 1 ranked defense in the south - forced Johnston City to punt and Indian's all-purpose guy Nico Gualdoni got off a good one, pinning the Eagles at their own 4-yard line.

14 plays later - and 111 yards - after penalty yards were added into the equation, Vessel punched in the tying score.

Despite pinning Eldorado all the way back at their own 4-yard line and six point lead, at no point did Johnston City head coach Dan Mings feel comfortable about things.

"Not with 4:19 on the clock, no," Mings said. "They had three timeouts left, we had two and I knew that last drive was going to take an eternity. We had them on fourth down twice and maybe three times and didn't stop them, so they earned it. They got the first downs when they had to and they're having a great season and will continue to have a great season.

"They just dominated with their size," Mings added. "They took care at the line of scrimmage and just punched it down our throat and there was nothing we could do about it."

Eldorado won, but they were down for quite some time as Gualdoni scored with 1:30 left in the first half and that was followed by a pair of runs from Alec Blades, the last coming with 11:53 to play in the fourth.

Leading 20-14, Holtzclaw came up with the punt return at the 9:48 mark, which was followed by Drew Woolcott's 13-yard run with 7:37 to play to get EHS to within six at 26-20.

It was a game that Hampton said he's never been a part of before.

"It was a special win. A comeback like this doesn't happen have very often and we feel like in year's past, (Johnston City) has stolen some games like this from us. I've had to look at some kids that are standing around here right now with tears in their eyes because we feel like we might have been the better team and the luck just didn't bounce our way. Tonight, we were going to make sure there weren't any shortcuts and not let luck decide this one. We did that."

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

Eldorado 8 6 0 14 - 28

Johnston City 0 7 7 12 - 26

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

EHS - Vessel 1 run (Woolcott run), 7:57

Second Quarter

EHS - Kaiser 7 pass from Ninness (conversion failed), 5:40

JC - N. Gualdoni 9 run (N. Gualdoni kick), 1:30

Third Quarter

JC - Blades 2 run (N. Gualdoni kick), 4:36

Fourth Quarter

JC - Blades 20 run (kick blocked), 11:53

JC - Hoytzclaw 45 punt return (pass failed), 9:48

ELD -Wooloctt 13 run (run failed), 7:37

ELD - Vessel 1 run (Price run), 0.5

Team Statistics

EHS JC

First Downs 17 11

Rushes-Yards 50-287 39-141

Passing 4-11-1 3-8-1

Passing Yards 55 73

Total Yards 342 214

Penalities-Yards 8-68 9-61

Individual Statistics:

Rushing: ELD - Price 19-108, Woolcott 13-94, Vessel 16-85, Ninness 2-0. JC - N. Gualdoni 13-85, Blades 6-26, Thompson 8-19, Summers 7-18, Steed 3-1, Team 1-(-3), Holtzclaw 1-(-5).

Passing: ELD - Ninness 4-11-1 55. JC - Blades 3-7-1 73, L. Guladoni 0-1-0 0.

Receiving: ELD - Kaiser 2-28, Attebury 1-20, Bethel 1-7. JC - N. Gualdoni 1-51, Thompson 1-15, Gualdoni 1-7.