Eastern Hancock’s Mark Kube had four touchdowns in the Royals 36-31 loss at Lapel Friday. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)
LAPEL — Eastern Hancock’s football team wrapped up the regular season with a 36-31 loss at Lapel Friday.
It was the first of two straight meetings between the teams.
They will play next Friday at Eastern Hancock in a quarterfinal round game of Class 2A Sectional 38.
On Friday, Eastern Hancock sophomore running back Mark Kube scored three touchdowns.
The Royals were playing catch-up most of the night.
After Lapel got out to a 7-0 first-quarter lead, Kube answered with a nine-yard touchdown run. In a high-scoring second quarter, the Royals continued answering the Bulldogs’ scores.
At 14-7, Kube broke a number of tackles on his way to a 41-yard TD dash to tie the game.
At 21-14, Kube scored again, this time from 10 yards away.
Late in the first half, Lapel scored and added a two-point conversion for a 29-21 lead. Eastern Hancock’s Aaron Redmon added a 37-yard field goal to end the half.
Down 36-24 in the third quarter, Eastern scored its final points on a 4-yard touchdown pass from Elijah Edon to Kayden Ruble.
Neither team scored in the fourth quarter.
It’s the second year in a row the teams have played a second time after their annual end-of-year regular season game.
A year ago, Eastern Hancock won in a regular season game in Charlottesville, but Lapel defeated the Royals in a semifinal round game of the tournament.
