Eastern Hancock’s Cameron Volz runs the ball against Lapel in the Class 2A Sectional 38 semifinal at Eastern Hancock High School Friday.
By Brady Extin | Daily Reporter
CHARLOTTESVILLE — In Friday night’s Class 2A Sectional 38 semifinal game, it was Lapel taking a page out of the Eastern Hancock playbook to earn the win.
In the first showdown between the two (two weeks ago in a regular season game), it was the Royals using a three-score first half to jump out to an early lead and eventual win.
This time, the Bulldogs scored four times in the opening half en route to the 41-13 victory at Eastern Hancock High School.
“You know, that’s a physical, physical football team,” Eastern Hancock head coach Pat Echeverria said. “We knew coming in that it was going to be a tough game.”
Both offenses came out firing, and it took just over one minute for both teams to find the end zone. On the Royals’ second play of the game, Dylan Bowman brought down a jump ball from quarterback Elijah Edon and took it 67 yards for the opening score.
It took Lapel just one play to answer when running back Tyler Dollar’s first carry went 71 yards for a touchdown.
From there, the two teams took turns in opposite directions.
On their next possession, Eastern Hancock was stuffed on four straight plays from inside the 5-yard line to turn the ball over on downs.
“When we scored early, I think we were excited, and then we drove the ball all the way down and got stuffed at the one,” Echeverria said. “ It was an early backbreaker for us.”
While the Royals’ offense stalled, the Bulldogs continued their attack behind the legs of Dollar.
He added two more first-half scores — a 4-yard run and 10-yard reception — to help give the Bulldogs a 28-6 halftime lead.
The Royals limited Dollar – who played sparingly due to an injury – in the first matchup. In Friday’s semifinal matchup he finished the game, unofficially, with 249 yards and four touchdowns.
“That kid was running hard tonight, and all their kids ran hard. It’s just a really good football team, and they were the more physical team tonight,” Echeverria said. “If we would’ve hit that score early and had kept a bit of the momentum, it could’ve been different. We needed some things to go our way, but, again, that’s just a good football team. They were full strength tonight and it showed.”
While the Bulldogs star running back thrived, that was not the case for the Royals.
The third leading rusher in Class 2A coming into the game, Kain Sotelo had, unofficially, just 18 yards. In the first matchup, he totaled 215 yards and four touchdowns.
For the Royals’ offense, that was the difference.
“Kain wasn’t 100% tonight, but that’s not an excuse. It was tough sledding in there,” Echeverria said. “They’ve got a big, strong front, and we knew it was going to be tough for us. We tried to make a few adjustments, but it ended up being that we had to try and throw the ball to move it tonight.”
The little success the Eastern Hancock offense had, did, in fact, come from the quarterback position. Edon totaled over 100 yards and two touchdowns through the air, and made some big plays with his legs.
“We definitely knew we were going to have to throw. Edon had a good night running the ball, too, and that was part of the game-plan as well,” Echeverria said. “That’s something we haven’t shown a lot, so hopefully that’s something he can build on for the future.”
Edon’s second touchdown of the night came in the third quarter, when he connected with wide receiver Cameron Volz on a 23-yard pass.
The Bulldogs added two more second-half scores to help put the game out of reach.
Craig hit wide receiver Nick Witte on a 20-yard pass late in the third quarter. Witte, a player the Royals had trouble stopping in the first matchup, once again went for over 100 yards on the night.
It wasn’t the way Echeverria and his team wanted the season to end, but in an up-and-down season, the Royals finished 5-6, and in Echeverria’s mind exceeded expectations.
“I couldn’t be happier to be back here at Eastern. I had a blast coaching these kids. They were a fun group of kids to coach, and they worked hard,” he said. “I don’t think many people gave these seniors a chance to have a good season, but we ended up having a very good season, and I think we have a bright future ahead of us.”
