Eastern Hancock’s Elijah Edon hands off to Mark Kube. The pair combined for three TDs in the Royals win at Shenandoah Friday.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
MIDDLETOWN— Eastern Hancock traveled to Shenandoah on Friday night with one goal in mind — to win the outright Mid-Eastern Conference championship.
After going 0-3 in conference play last season, the Royals flipped the script to win the program’s first MEC title since 2019.
With a 26-14 victory over the Raiders (1-7, 0-2), Eastern Hancock (5-3, 3-0) capped off a perfect conference season. They defeated North Decatur in Week 2 and won against Monroe Central last week.
Set up by a long completion on a halfback pass, it was Shenandoah grabbing the early advantage.
A few plays later, quarterback Ethan Loy hit Zane Mitchell on a 21-yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 Raiders lead.
In the closing seconds of the first quarter, the Royals responded. Quarterback Elijah Edon kept the ball on a read option and went five yards for the touchdown. An Aaron Redmon extra point tied it 7-7.
Late in the second quarter, Eastern Hancock took the lead for the first time. On a fourth down play from inside the five-yard line, running back Mark Kube took the handoff and broke a tackle for the go-ahead score and 13-7 halftime lead.
In the third, Loy connected with Mitchell again from 27 yards out to give the lead back to the Raiders, 14-13.
But with just over a quarter to play, and the conference title on the line, the Royals took control.
James King punched in a score from 1-yard out, and a Kube 29-yard touchdown run in the closing minutes of the game put the punctuation mark on the Royals win.
Eastern Hancock will close out the season next Friday at 7 p.m. at Lapel.
