CHARLOTTESVILLE — After a pair of convincing wins to open the year, Eastern Hancock had maybe its biggest task of the young season at home on Friday night.
In front of a packed crowd and in a game that gave off playoff vibes, the No. 3 ranked Royals squared off against Centerville in a rematch of a game last year that was decided on the final play, with the Royals missing the two-point conversion and losing 22-21.
This year’s matchup was just as close.
A 70-yard touchdown pass in the closing minutes gave the Bulldogs (3-0) a 29-26 win over the Royals (2-1).
“It’s always great early in the year to be challenged by a great team. We just didn’t come out with that fire and that fight that we normally do,” Eastern Hancock head coach Pat Echeverria said. “I’m really glad with how we responded in the second half. We showed some mental toughness and some physical toughness. When you have a chance to win, you need to close things out though.”
The Royals took their only lead of the night with 2:29 remaining on the clock.
Eli Manship went up and won a jump ball from quarterback Elijah Edon, broke a tackle, and went 48 yards to put Eastern Hancock ahead 26-21.
In 25 seconds, the Bulldogs were back in front.
Quarterback Jace Hollendonner found a wide-open Owen Boyd down the right sideline for the 70-yard game-winning score.
“They just faked a screen pass, and the kid made an excellent pass,” Echeverria said. “They’ve got some fast receivers and just made a nice play.”
The touchdown was the fourth for Boyd, who did it all for the Bulldogs.
He opened the game on the first play from scrimmage with a 64-yard touchdown run on an end around, on the Bulldogs second touchdown, he took the pitch and on a trick play found Hollendonner on a 23-yard touchdown pass and then broke off another 44-yard score on an end around late in the first half.
The three first-half scores put the Royals behind 21-12 at the break.
Mark Kube punched in a 4-yard touchdown for the Royals first score and Garrett Shaw returned a kickoff 75 yards for the only other Eastern Hancock first-half points.
A team that came into the night averaging 48.5 points per game was put to the test against a Centerville defense that had allowed just seven points all season.
All night, the Bulldogs defense caused issues up front.
The Royals were held to 69 yards rushing, with 37 of the yards coming from Edon.
The team’s leading rusher, Kube, had his first three runs of the night go for negative yards and was limited to a season-low 24 yards before leaving the game with an injury near the end of the third quarter.
“We definitely hang our hat on the run game, and their guys up front did a great job of slowing us down,” Echeverria said. “We were able to find a few things, but it wasn’t as easy as it has been this year, and I’m fine with that because I want us to develop that toughness and learn to take away things from games like this.”
Following halftime, the Royals found life early on the defensive end.
Midway through the third quarter, the defense forced a fumble and recovered it in the end zone to cut the lead to 21-20.
They held the Bulldogs scoreless in the half until the closing touchdown.
“It was very calm. I just talked to them. There was nothing fancy or yelling,” Echeverria said of the halftime talk. “It was more about them having conversations with each other because the best teams you have are the ones that the coaching staff doesn’t have to do much in those situations, they’ll figure it out.”
The Royals had two chances at game-winning drives over the final two minutes of play.
With 1:58 to go, Edon was intercepted over the middle of the field by Grady Blake and after a quick defensive stop, an illegal touching penalty stalled the final Royals drive.
Eastern Hancock travels to Heritage Christian on Friday at 7 p.m.
–
Centerville 29, Eastern Hancock 26
Centerville (3-0);7;14;0;8; — ;29
Eastern Hancock (2-1);6;6;8;6; —;26
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
C — Owen Boyd 64 run (Gavin Stiggleman kick), 11:45
EH — Mark Kube 4 run (conversion failed), :41
2nd Quarter
C — Jace Hollendonner 23 pass from Boyd (Stiggleman kick)
EH — Garrett Shaw 75 kick return (conversion failed)
C — Boyd 44 run (Stiggleman kick)
3rd Quarter
EH — Fumble recovery (Austin Brown pass from Edon)
4th Quarter
EH — Eli Manship 48 pass from Elijah Edon (conversion failed)
C — Boyd 70 pass from Hollendonner (Coleson Campbell run)
