Eastern Hancock quarterback Elijah Edon had a big game in the Royals sectional semifinal win at Cardinal Ritter Friday.
Tom Russo| Daily Reporter
INDIANAPOLIS — It wasn’t an exciting back-and-forth shootout like the week prior, it wasn’t against a familiar opponent, and it was all but over by halftime.
For Eastern Hancock though, it didn’t matter how they got there, it was only the result that mattered.
In a much more stress-free game than their 45-43 quarterfinal win over Lapel, the Royals knocked off Cardinal Ritter 44-21 at Marian University on Friday night in a IHSAA Class 2A Sectional 38 semifinal game. The win gets Eastern Hancock back in the sectional championship for the first time since 2014.
“We’ve got a lot of history in this football program. That’s where we should be every year, competing for a chance to win a sectional championship,” Eastern Hancock head coach Pat Echeverria said. “I’m really proud of our guys. They bought in, believed, and now we have that opportunity in front of us.”
The Royals were dominant on both sides of the ball and made that known early.
On the opening drive, they went 79 yards on 12 plays for the first score of the game.
Elijah Edon — on his first of many touchdowns on the night — hit Kayden Ruble on a 9-yard pass to take an early 6-0 lead.
On six first-half drives, the Royals scored five touchdowns and added one field goal.
After a Ritter punt, it took just four plays for the Royals to go 68 yards for their second score. Edon hit Dylan Bowman up the seam on a 24-yard pass for the 12-0 lead.
A four-yard pass from Edon to Cameron Volz pushed the Royals lead to 18-0 early in the second before the Raiders found the end zone for their first offensive touchdown of the night. Harley Campbell punched in a run from two yards out to cut the Royals lead to 11, but that’s as close as Eastern Hancock would let them get.
The Royals scored the final 16 points of the first half for a 34-7 halftime lead.
A long kick return set up the Royals next score, and two plays later Edon hit Brayden Sullivan for a 19-yard touchdown. Later in the half, Edon ran in a two-yard touchdown, and with a minute left before the break, Aaron Redmon drilled a 22-yard field goal.
In the half, Edon threw for 242 yards and four touchdowns and ran in a fifth score. In the second half, he added five more yards and his fifth touchdown pass, for 247 total passing yards, and six total touchdowns.
“He was calm, cool, collected, and delivered the ball on time. The line gave him protection, and kids made plays for us,” Echeverria said. “We had been focusing on our run game lately and we knew that if we wanted to make a big run, we needed to run and pass. That’ll make us really hard to stop.”
The Edon touchdown strikes went to four different receivers. Volz caught the lone second-half touchdown to finish the night with two scores. Ruble had 63 yards and a score, Sullivan finished with 46 yards and one score, and Bowman had 34 yards and a touchdown.
The main offensive weapon over the past two weeks, going for eight touchdowns in the two matchups against Lapel, was running back Mark Kube. On Friday he didn’t find the end zone but still made big plays for the Royals. A 69-yard screen pass from Edon set up one of the Royals first-half scores, and on the ground he ran for 91 yards.
“We know we have a lot of good players. When we’re running the ball as well as we had been, it’s hard to put the ball in the air. I made that commitment tonight, and we knew with the defense they were going to be running that we could attack some things,” Echeverria said. “Our coaches did a great job of scouting and that was all part of the game plan. I’m happy the kids executed well.”
The Raiders added second-half scores on an 85-yard kick return by Adrion Gregory and, in the final minute, a 69-yard pass from quarterback Santana Allen to Gregory.
Offensively on the night, the Raiders punted three times and were forced into four turnovers on downs by the Royals defense.
“They’re really starting to get comfortable communicating with each other and doing their job, ” Echeverria said. “We’ve played some really, really good offenses lately, so it was good to see our defense get after the quarterback and make some plays.”
The Royals will host Winchester Community next Friday at 7 p.m. for the sectional championship.
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Eastern Hancock 44, Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter 21
Eastern Hancock (7-4);12;22;10;0; —; 44
Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter (4-7);0;7;6;8; — ;21
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
EH – Kayden Ruble 9 pass from Elijah Edon (conversion failed), 7:17
EH – Dylan Bowman 24 pass from Edon (conversion failed), 2:54
2nd Quarter
EH – Cameron Volz 4 pass from Edon (kick failed), 11:46
CR – Harley Campbell 2 run (Michael Agboola kick), 8:18
EH – Brayden Sullivan 19 pass from Edon (Aaron Redmon kick), 7:45
EH – Edon 2 run (conversion failed), 5:25
EH – Redmon 22 FG, 1:09
3rd Quarter
EH – Volz 1 pass from Edon (Pablo Del Saz Morales kick), 8:41
EH – Redmon 37 FG, 6:42
CR – Adrion Gregory 85 kick return (conversion failed), 5:30
4th Quarter
CR – Gregory 69 pass from Allen (Kasien Stevenson pass from Allen), :54
