CHARLOTTESVILLE — When Eastern Hancock and Lapel meet on the football field, games aren’t decided early. All 48 minutes are usually required to choose a winner.
In Friday night’s regular-season finale, it didn’t take all of regulation, but for just over three quarters, the Royals and Bulldogs were in their typical dog fight.
An Eastern Hancock score early in the fourth quarter made things a three-point game, but late Lapel touchdowns allowed the Bulldogs to pull away for a 35-18 win.
“I did a bad job getting us ready to play this week. I take a lot of the heat for the mindset of our players tonight,” Eastern Hancock Pat Echeverria said. “I felt like we kind of went through the motions a bit, and that starts and ends with me setting the tone.”
At halftime the Bulldogs led 14-6, and early in the fourth quarter it was 21-18 in favor of Lapel before the final score was reached.
After a 21-yard one-handed touchdown catch by Luke Manship with 11:11 to go, the Eastern Hancock deficit was cut to three.
But the next two scores went the Bulldogs’ way.
On fourth down from the 6-yard line quarterback Devin Craig kept the ball on a read option and ran in for the touchdown with 8:54 on the clock to push the Lapel lead to 28-18.
Thirty seconds later, the lead was 17.
Lapel defensive lineman Will Gilbert tipped and intercepted an Elijah Edon screen pass and took it back 60 yards for a touchdown to all but seal things.
“That was awesome,” Lapel head coach Tim Miller said. “He might not score another defensive touchdown in his career, but that one was a heck of a play. Not only did he bat the pass, but he had the presence of mind to stay with the play. Just really happy for him.”
The Royals put the first points of the game up on the scoreboard on their opening possession.
After the defense forced a 3-and-out to open the game, the Eastern Hancock offense drove 80 yards in eight plays for the touchdown. A 51-yard pass from Edon to Austin Brown moved the Royals inside the 10-yard line and a few plays later, Edon broke a tackle on his way to a 6-yard score.
The score was the Royals only of the opening half. On its other three drives, Eastern Hancock neared the red zone, but each time was turned away by the Lapel defense.
On the second Royals drive of the night, they drove down to the Lapel 24-yard line but were stopped for a turnover on downs; the next drive got inside the 30, but an Isaiah Young sack stalled things for another turnover on downs; and the final Royals offensive possession of the half was stopped by another Young sack near the red zone.
“Defensively, those kids made some big plays tonight. Their swagger is on full stride right now. The last few weeks they’ve been making big plays when we need them to,” Miller said. “We could’ve very easily started the game down two scores, but the defense held up. Historically, our defense feeds off our offense, but right now our offense is feeding off the defense.”
While the Bulldogs defense came up with big plays, their offense took advantage.
After punting and turning the ball over on downs on the first two possessions of the night, Lapel scored on their next two.
They answered the first Royals score with a 76-yard drive capped off by a Jack Miller 1-yard touchdown run, and on the next possession, Miller pushed the lead to 14-6 on an 11-yard score.
“We contained them a little better than I thought we would, and they contained us a little better than I thought they would,” coach Miller said. “It took us a little while to get going offensively, but once we did we were able to make some plays on the ground and in the air.”
An Edon 5-yard forward pitch to Garrett Shaw on the opening drive of the second half cut the deficit to 14-12, but three minutes later, Jack Miller’s third touchdown of the night answered the Royals score.
An Eastern Hancock offense that came into the night averaging 37.5 points per game was held well below that average by the stout Lapel defense, and a run game that has found success since the return of junior Mark Kube was stymied by the Lapel front.
Kube, unofficially ran the ball 27 times for 83 yards. As a team, the Royals ran for 119 yards on 36 attempts.
“They really put a lot of numbers in the box and had a lot of bodies in there for us to handle. They prevented us from getting the long run,” Echeverria said. “We were decently effective getting short yardage, but they did a great job of pursuing the ball and beating blocks. We’ve got to clean up some stuff to be better for next week.”
The Bulldogs open sectional play on the road at 7 p.m. Friday at 9-0 Northeastern.
