CHARLOTTESVILLE — It was the perfect combination to make for a disappointing Friday night for the Eastern Hancock football team.
The Royals were stopping themselves on offense and were not stopping Shenandoah on defense.
In a battle of Mid-Eastern Conference rivals, Eastern Hancock lost 41-19 to Shenandoah at Eastern Hancock High School Friday.
The Royals trailed by as much as 35 points, triggering the running clock timing rules. They added a couple of late touchdowns for the final margin.
“It was not a good day for us,” Eastern Hancock coach Pat Echeverria said. “Early on we moved the ball. The difference in the first half was turnovers. We both punt once and when we don’t turn it over we scored. That was the difference in the first half and we didn’t come out with the fight we needed in the second half.”
Eastern Hancock had three first-half turnovers, twice coming in Shenandoah’s red zone. Both deep drive turnovers — an interception off a Royals receiver’s hands and a fumble — were quickly turned the other way for Raider scores.
Shenandoah running back Mayson Lewis answered both the Royals miscues with long touchdown runs. He scored from 18 yards out to give the Raiders a 7-0 lead with 4:17 remaining in the first quarter. It came after a pass from Eastern Hancock freshman quarterback Elijah Edon deflected off the hands of sophomore receiver Kayden Ruble.
On the Royals next series, Dylan Bowman had a 30-yard reception, but the ball was knocked out of his hands and recovered by the Raiders on the Shenandoah 17.
Shenandoah took only three plays, all rushes, to up their lead to 14-0. Evan Fries ran for 44. Quarterback Carson Brookbank rushed for 23. Lewis finished it with a 16-yard TD run with 2:08 left in the first period.
Eastern Hancock got closer with its lone score, an 18-yard touchdown pass from Edon to Bowman. The PAT was blocked, but the Royals had narrowed the difference to 14-6 with still 24 seconds remaining in the opening period.
It got the Royals closer, but they were never able to stop a potent Raider running attack. Shenandoah had four first-half touchdowns and all were on running plays of at least 16 yards.
Gabe Lowder added a 27-yard run to pay dirt to open the second quarter. Before halftime, Lewis scored on a 24-yard run.
“They’re good at what they do,” Echeverria said. “We have to tackle better. It’s still about us and what we have to do. We didn’t want to tackle tonight.”
Shenandoah picked up right where it left off to start the second half. Lewis, who finished with five touchdowns, ran the second-half kickoff back 83 yards for a touchdown.
The Royals followed with their fourth turnover, a fumble inside their 10. Three plays later Lewis scored his fifth on a three-yard run. It gave Shenandoah a 41-6 lead and turned the game to running clock timing rules early in the second half.
“We’ve had moments this year when we’ve got down and we fought back,” Echeverria said. “We have to decide how we want to end this season. Our kids, and coaches included, myself, we have to figure out how we can right the ship. We didn’t have that fight I wanted to see in the second half out of the locker room.”
On Friday, the Royals added a late touchdown on a 15-yard pass from Edon to Caiden Willis. James King scored on a five-yard touchdown run.
Over the last three years, and in four meetings, the two nearby rivals – Shenandoah is located in nearby by Middletown in Henry County – had played close games.
They split games 2-2 with all being one-score contests. Eastern Hancock won at Shenandoah last season 20-14. In 2020, the Raiders won two close games, beating the Royals 28-21 in the regular season and 12-7 in a sectional game. EH won in Middletown in 2019, 14-12.
Eastern Hancock (3-5, 1-3) finishes its regular season next week with a home game against Lapel (3-4). Shenandoah (4-4, 2-1) goes on the road for a Mid-Eastern Conference game at Monroe Central (4-2, 2-1).
