Prep Football: Eagles win scoring marathon

During Friday night's Black Diamond Conference tilt between Eldorado and Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton a track meet broke out during a football game.

The back-and-forth affair saw scoring aplenty and nine lead changes, but it was a trip up by the Bearcats late in the fourth quarter that helped Eldorado cross the finish line 50-32 for the victory at Boz Adams Field.

With the win, Eldorado improves to 2-1 in conference play, while C-Z-R remains winless at 0-3 on the season.

The leader under center for the Eagles, Nathan Burnett, took over for his club when they needed him the most.

The 6-foot-3, 175-pound senior quarterback hooked up with Logan Kanady at the 10:35 mark in the fourth quarter, giving Eldorado a slim 34-32 lead, but after stopping C-Z-R on a crucial series, Eldorado used a nine-play drive that ate up almost five minutes worth of clock with Burnett taking the quarterback keeper 25 yards to the house.

If there was a dagger in the heart for the Bearcats, it was Burnett intercepting a pass on the ensuing possession and returning it 50 yards for the score.

Eldorado head coach Brandon Hampton didn't shy away from handing out compliments to his signal caller for his play down the stretch.

"He did what seniors do, he made a great play on the keeper and then made a great play on the interception and that's what great players do. He played great tonight."

Eldorado racked up 366 yards of offense, but was outnumbered to the tune of 389 the Bearcats put up as considerable chunk of that was done by Jeff Saddler who rushed for 123 yards on 16 carries, while Hunter Wheeler went for 89 yards on 12 carries.

With nine new starters on defense for Hampton and the Eagles, he knew his club was going to take some lumps. Still, he said the effort never wavered.

"We're so young defensively and when you start five sophomores and a freshman, you're going to have some learning curves and some bumps in the road. I was proud of our kids for battling.

"We knew if we could just get one stop, we could force them into doing some things they were as comfortable doing," Hampton added. "You give their fullback (Saddler) and Wheeler a lot of credit. They were a handful for us defensively."

Payton Price, the 5-10, 170-pound sophomore running back grew up in front of Hampton's eyes Friday night, running for 107 yards on 25 carries. Drew Woolcott had 13 carries for 97 yards, while Braxton Roberts had 74 yards on 11 carries, including two touchdowns.

"I thought our offensive line played well and our lead blocking was so much better," Hampton said. "I really thought Payton Price stepped up as a player (Friday). Did he make some mistakes? Sure. But what he did was kept battling and got better as the game went on. The more he plays, the better he is and I was extremely proud of him tonight."

___

Roberts put Eldorado on the board in the first quarter, finding the endzone from 10 yards out.

C-Z-R went up by six points on a pair of back-to-back scores, one from Dustin Barnett (five yards) and Luke Saeger (15 yards) with 3:50 left to play before halftime.

The two clubs closed out the first half, exchanging blows, as Burnett hooked up with Max Kaiser from 30 yards out to put Eldorado up 14-12, but the Bearcats took a 18-14 lead into the locker room when Saeger found Wheeler eight yards out for the lead.

EHS put the momentum on their side when Logan Kanady took the opening kickoff of the second half 88 yards to the house as Eldorado built a 20-18 lead.

It was short lived however, as C-Z-R and Saddler scored from 26 yards out.

After Roberts scored his second touchdown on the night, a four-yard run coming at the 3:03 mark of the third quarter, the Bearcats responded with Saeger hooking up with Wheeler, again at the 11:53 mark of the fourth quarter for the 32-28 lead.

From there, Eldorado would find the endzone three more times, all compliments of Burnett, who finished with 33 yards on the ground and 44 yards through the air.

Eldorado will travel to Fulton City, Ky., next week. The game is scheduled as part of what would be the Eagles' bye week with Elverado not fielding a team this season.

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

CZR 06 12 08 06 32

Eldorado 06 08 14 22 50

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

ELD - Roberts 10 run (2-point conversion failed), 2:36

Second Quarter

CZR - Barnett 5 run (kick failed), 10:16

CZR - Saeger 15 run (2-point conversion failed), 3:50

ELD - Burnett 30 pass to Kaiser (Roberts, 2-point conversion), 3:18

CZR - Saeger 8 pass to Wheeler (2-point conversion failed), 1:14

Third Quarter

ELD - Kanady 88 yard kickoff return (2-point conversion failed), 11:47

CZR - Saddler 26 run (Wheeler 2-point conversion), 7:49

ELD - Roberts 4 run (Price 2-point conversion), 3:03

Fourth Quarter

CZR - Saeger 22 pass to Wheeler (2-point conversion failed), 11:53

ELD - Burnett 14 pass to Kannady (2-point conversion failed), 10:25

ELD - Burnett 25 run (Roberts 2-point conversion), 3:44

ELD - Burnett 50 yard interception return (Price 2-point conversion), 3:04

Team Statistics

CZR ELD

First Downs 18 12

Rushes-Yards 25-314 39-322

Comp-Att-Int 7-19-1 2-5-0

Passing 75 44

Total Yards 389 366

Penalties-Yards 7-55 5-40

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-1

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: CZR - Barnett 13-65, Wheeler 12-89, Saddler 16-123, Anderson 2-24, Dennison 1-8, Saeger 4-(-4), Barnett 2-9. ELD - Roberts 11-74, Burnett 7-33, Price 8-107, Woolcott 11-97, Kanady 2-11.

PASSING: CZR - Saeger 7-19-1 75. ELD - Burnett 2-5-0 44.

RECEIVING: CZR - Dennison 2-29, Wheeler 4-45, Saddler 1-5. ELD - Kaiser 1-30, Kanady 1-14.