WINCHESTER — The game pitted the prolific passing game of Eastern Hancock quarterback Houston Swan and Co. against Winchester running back sensation Cole Campbell.
They accounted for three touchdowns apiece, but it was the Royals’ defense that made the big plays in the fourth quarter to give Eastern Hancock a 22-18 victory in Friday’s Class 2A Sectional 38 quarterfinal matchup at Winchester High School.
“You cannot question our defense’s heart,” Eastern Hancock coach Doug Armstrong said. “They left it all out there and I was really proud of them.”
Down 18-14 after Campbell’s 48-yard touchdown run with 1:03 remaining in the third quarter, Swan and the offense answered with the go-ahead drive. It was capped off with a Swan to Cole Rainbolt 14-yard touchdown pass with 8:28 to go. Swan connected with Landon O’Neal on the two-point conversion for the game’s final scoring.
“We just really wanted it,” Swan said. “It was just a little short flat route to (Rainbolt). He caught the ball and he made some guys miss. We got some great blocks from the other receivers and from the O-line and he got in the end zone.”
It was then up to the Royals defense. Rainbolt followed up his touchdown reception with an interception. He picked off Winchester quarterback Brayden Tippett at the Royals 25 and returned the ball to the Winchester 39.
“I was just waiting for that wide receiver to come up and pass by me, but he didn’t pass by me,” Rainbolt said. “I stayed with him and then turned my back to him and looked for the ball and just caught it in my hands.
“It was really a good point in the game to get that. It boosted our energy to keep us going.”
It was a big night for the sophomore, with two touchdown receptions and a key defensive play. He left last week’s game at Lapel with an injury and did not return.
“He wasn’t even 100 percent,” Armstrong said of Rainbolt. “He’ll be 100 percent next week and hopefully he can do the same thing. He was going to play whether he was 100 percent or not. He’s a gutsy dude, too.”
On the game’s final drive, the Golden Falcons reached the Royals 24 with under one minute to play. Linebacker Chase Settergren and lineman Hunter Knudson sacked Tippett on the second to last play of the game.
The final play, a Hail Mary pass, fell incomplete and set the Royals up with a rematch against Heritage Christian in a sectional semifinal game next Friday at Eastern Hancock.
“It’s the same thing as the Shenandoah win (two weeks ago), we just find heart,” Settergren said. “We are truly a family. We might not play well all the time, but when we need those stops we can find them. We reach down and find the heart.”
The Royals broke a 6-6 tie right before the half. Swan completed 5-of-6 passes on the drive that went 65 yards on nine plays and took just 1:48 off the clock. He found O’Neal on a 21-yard connection for the touchdown and hooked up with O’Neal again for the two-point conversion to give the Royals a 14-6 lead with 31.9 seconds remaining in the half.
“There wasn’t a big window and Houston just threw a money ball to me,” O’Neal said of the touchdown.
The Royals opened the game’s scoring on their second possession of the contest. After turning the ball over on downs at the Winchester 23 on their first try, the Royals went 54 yards on six plays in 2:20, finishing off with a Swan to Rainbolt 22-yard touchdown pass. Swan was efficient on this drive, too, hitting on 4-of-5 tries for 41 yards.
Swan completed 20-of-27 tries for 188 yards and was without an interception.
Campbell had touchdown runs of 5, 4 and 48 yards. The 4-yard run opened scoring in the second half and cut the Royals lead to 14-12. The Golden Falcons missed on all three of their two-point conversion tries. Three more key plays by the Eastern defense.
The Royals went 2-of-3 on two-pointers.
Campbell finished the game with 33 carries for 196 yards.
“He’s tall, skinny, fast and he just slips through tackles,” Settergren said. “I don’t think we were getting low enough, but we found heart and we started to finally get him down.
“It took a lot of motivation to get him down. He is a good athlete and I told him that after the game.”
The Royals lost to Heritage Christian 37-20 in Charlottesville on Sept. 13.
“Usually the game is going to come down to one team having a couple of guys that make plays,” Armstrong said. “At the end of the game, we were the ones with the interception and a sack. Next week it’s going to be the same type of battle against Heritage. We’ll have to put more points on the board than we did tonight.”
