CHARLOTTESVILLE — Friday night, on the Eastern Hancock football field, history was made.
With a 41-7 win over rival Shenandoah (4-4, 0-2), the Royals (5-3, 3-0) won their second consecutive outright Mid-Eastern Conference title.
The win capped off two straight years of going undefeated in conference play and secured the first back-to-back conference titles for the Royals in any conference since 1976 and 1977.
With this being the final season of the MEC, the last two names on the trophy will be Eastern Hancock’s.
“It’s all cause of the buy-in by the kids. We have really good players and they’ve bought into it. We play physical football and that goes a long way and helps you win at the end of the season,” Eastern Hancock head coach Pat Echeverria said. “Really proud of the guys. It’s the last one, so we get to leave our mark in the history books as the last two conference champs.”
The Royals offense did what it normally does on Friday nights, and lit up the scoreboard, but it took a while for that group to get going.
Holding things down through their early-game struggles was the defense with their best game of the season.
The Raiders had five first-half possessions ending in three punts and two turnover on downs.
After a Royals turnover on the opening possession of the game, the Eastern Hancock defense responded by forcing a quick three-and-out. The Raiders first play of the night was a run up the middle for no gain, they completed a 3-yard pass on the next play and then threw an incomplete pass before punting.
After getting the ball back quickly, running back Mark Kube opened the scoring with his first of four touchdowns. He took the handoff from quarterback Elijah Edon, juked a defender just past the line of scrimmage, and then made another Shenandoah defender miss near the goal line for a 30-yard score.
The Royals punted and then turned the ball over on downs on their next two possessions, but each time, the defense stood strong.
“I messed up a couple of calls, so I’m going to take the heat for those first few possessions. Then we had some penalties that pushed some drives back,” Echeverria said. “There was just some overall sloppiness from me and a few mistakes by the players, but once we got settled down, we were good.”
The defense forced another quick three-and-out and then on the next Raiders drive, freshman Brennon Trueblood sacked Shenandoah quarterback Jarrett Helman on third down and then hit him as he threw to force an incompletion on fourth down.
An Ethan Sipes sack forced a punt on the fourth Raiders drive of the night, and sacks by Brayden Hester and Ethan Carter on the next Shenandoah possession kept them scoreless at the half.
“We figured some things out coverage-wise that fit our kids better and we’ve made some adjustments, so shout out coach [Ethan] Robbins on making those adjustments with our secondary. The confidence is building with our guys up front too, because they’re not worrying about the passing game. They can fly around and just focus on making plays in the run game,” Echeverria said. “It’s a fun group to coach. They love it and they get after it. They were great tonight.”
Late in the second quarter, a switch flipped on the offensive side of the ball.
After scoring just once through their first four drives, the Royals found the end zone on their next four.
With 3:59 to go in the first half, Kube scored from six yards out and a touchdown as time expired in the half put the Royals ahead 20-0 entering the break.
With 4.3 seconds left, Edon took the snap, rolled out right, avoided two defenders and found Luke Manship for a sliding catch in the back corner of the end zone on a pass that was tipped up in the air by a Shenandoah linebacker.
That momentum carried over into the second half.
A recovered onside kick to open the half set up the Royals, and Kube, for another score.
A 34-yard catch on fourth-and-three by Austin Brown moved the ball to the 3-yard line and led to Kube’s third touchdown of the night.
Later in the quarter, Kube scored from 2 yards out to close out a night in which he ran the ball, unofficially, 16 times for 120 yards and four touchdowns.
Since returning from an injury last week, Kube has rushed for over 100 yards in two straight games and has scored multiple touchdowns in both.
“Mark’s working that way, and that’s what we want at the end of the year,” Echeverria said of Kube’s health. “We want him back out there and to start getting comfortable and confident with what’s going on with his body and everything else, and he’s definitely starting to get there.”
Fellow running back Evan Wheeler scored the final Royals touchdown of the night on an 8-yard run in the final minute of the third quarter, pushing the lead to 41-0. He carried the ball 13 times for 59 yards and a touchdown.
“It’s a guy that’s going to get us a tough four or five yards and run through tackles in Evan and then Mark is pretty dynamic,” Echeverria said. “It’s a great combination and two different styles of runners which makes it tough for the defense.”
The Raiders added a fourth-quarter score on a 4-yard run by Dylan Parsley with the Royals starting defense on the bench.
With the starters in, Shenandoah was held scoreless, and through the first three quarters had, unofficially, 39 yards of offense.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” Echeverria said. “We’re coming up on the end of the third quarter of the season, and the fourth quarter is coming up. We have to dominate that fourth quarter.”
The Royals close out the regular season next Friday at home against Lapel.
–
Eastern Hancock 41, Shenandoah 7
Shenandoah (4-4, 0-2);0;0;0;7; — ;7
Eastern Hancock (5-3, 3-0);6;14;21;0; — ;41
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
EH — Mark Kube 30 run (conversion failed), 5:28
2nd Quarter
EH — Kube 6 run (Kube run), 3:59
EH — Luke Manship 13 pass from Elijah Edon (kick failed), :00
3rd Quarter
EH — Kube 3 run (Evan Wheeler run), 10:25
EH — Kube 2 run (kick failed), 5:38
EH — Wheeler 8 run (Wheeler kick). :44
4th Quarter
S — Dylan Parsley 4 run (Hayden Hubbard kick), 5:36
