LAPEL — An old Eastern Hancock foe raised its ugly head at Lapel High School Friday.
The turnover bug that plagued the Royals during much of the 2018 season and in their lone loss prior to Friday’s final regular-season contest returned.
The Royals lost 28-20 to Lapel on the Bulldogs’ Senior Night. They finished the regular season with a 7-2 record. Lapel improved to 6-3.
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The Bulldogs intercepted Eastern Hancock quarterback Houston Swan twice in the first half. The picks led to Lapel’s first two scores. An additional turnover on downs led to a third first-half touchdown and a 21-0 Bulldog lead at the break.
The Royals made a late rally, but the deficit and four total turnovers were too much to overcome.
Eastern also lost a pair of fumbles, including one on its opening second-half drive that reached the Lapel 5. Another lost fumble came in the fourth-quarter at the Lapel 11.
“Lost opportunities early in the game were crucial when you have a game against this caliber of an opponent,” Eastern Hancock coach Doug Armstrong said. “We’ve been good with turnovers most of the season, but we were not good with them tonight.
“If you lose the turnover battle, you’re up against it. Turnovers have had a hand in both of our losses.”
Every Royal drive reached Bulldog territory.
Eastern’s last plays of its first-half drives were at the Lapel 38, 3, 42, 30 and 28 yard lines. Two were ended by interceptions. Two were turned over on downs and the other was the final play of the half.
“For whatever reason, we’re momentum-based,” Lapel coach Tim Miller said. “When you let our offense get momentum, we tend to score in flashes pretty quickly. You saw the opposite of that in the second half when we couldn’t get it going, we struggled. We’re hot, cold, hot cold.”
“Our kids played well against a spread team,” Miller added. “Our kids see that every day in practice. They’re not wowed by somebody that can throw well, because Eastern Hancock has a pretty accurate quarterback and they have some good receivers and well-coached concepts.”
The Bulldogs also took some of the wind out of the Royals’ sails when they converted a fourth-and-13 play on their own 17. Tanner Mroz, the Bulldog punter took off for a 22-yard gain. It turned into the final Bulldog scoring drive. Alexander finished it off with a 1-yard run with 10:04 remaining in the contest. It stretched Lapel’s lead to 28-6.
“Our kids were coached this week that if they got the look to allow it, they could call it,” Miller said. “They got the look and I had no idea it was going, but they got the look, called it and ran it. Good job for them.”
“With a couple of injuries we had, we had some substitutions in there and we had a missed assignment,” Armstrong said of the fourth-down conversion.
In the first half, with the game still scoreless, the Royals reached the Lapel 3, but quarterback Houston Swan was picked off by Lapel’s Brock Harper. The Bulldogs turned that into a 33-yard touchdown pass from Cole Alexander to Noah Frazier.
Eastern Hancock was intercepted three plays later at the Lapel 42. Alexander finished off the Bulldog drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Plough.
Instead of turning productive drives, yardage-wise, into points, the Royals were down 21-0 at the break.
“We came out pretty good, should have scored a couple,” Armstrong added. “They’re a tough team to stop.
“Second half we battled back and tried to make a game of it the best we could.”
When Swan connected with Landon O’Neal on a 1-yard touchdown pass, which was set up a 31-yard connection between the two sophomores, and added the two-point conversion on a Swan-to-Connor Shultz pass, the Royals had cut it to 28-20 with 1:53 remaining.
The Royals had all three timeouts remaining, but the Bulldogs were able to get a first down and then run out the clock.
Eastern Hancock’s first score was a Swan-to-J.P. Fuchs 30-yard play. It cut the margin to 21-6 with 4:33 remaining in the third.
The Royals trimmed it to 20-12 with 7:23 left in the game, getting a turnover of their own. Chase Settergren intercepted an Alexander pass and returned it 29 yards for a touchdown.
Swan finished the game, unofficially, 18-of-40 for 223 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Jake Johnson was strong in the running game with 27 carries for 104 yards.
“Jake ran real well,” Armstrong said. “He’s missed a lot of the season and he looked fresh.
“I thought we moved the ball pretty much the whole game, we just didn’t finish like we have been, but we have a new season coming.”
The Royals begin Class 2A Sectional 38 play next Friday with a road game at 6-3 Winchester, which lost 26-24 to Union City.
