CHARLOTTESVILLE — Eastern Hancock gave its home crowd something to remember.
With the next four Royals games on the road and ticket limitations due to COVID-19 restrictions, Eastern Hancock isn’t scheduled to play at Knarr Field until a Mid-Eastern Conference battle with Shenandoah on Oct. 9.
On Friday, the Royals, who came in ranked No. 10 in Class 2A, celebrated seniors before kickoff, then quickly took care of business in the MEC opener, leading 30-0 after the first quarter in an eventual 49-16 win over Wes-Del.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“It was a big game because we all came together and we played well,” senior J.P. Fuchs said. “The thing that made it really important was this could be our last home game. You never know how coronavirus is going. You never know if we’re going to come back and play.
“If this was our last game, and hopefully it’s not, but if it was, it was a good way to go out with our last game in front of our home fans.”
Fuchs, nine other senior players and senior managers, cheerleaders and members of the band were all recognized with their families prior to the game.
The pleasant memories continued once the game started.
Junior quarterback Houston Swan became the school’s career leader in completions. He threw four first-half touchdown passes to four different receivers and rushed for another as the Royals were in command shortly after the opening kickoff.
Senior Jacob Johnson had a pair of second-half rushing touchdowns. Six different players scored the seven Royals’ touchdowns.
“Opposing defenses can’t just key on one guy against us,” Eastern Hancock head coach Doug Armstrong said. “It’s important that we spread it around. Normally, we’ll run the ball more, but we were taking what they were giving us. We did a good job throwing and catching the ball.
“I’m a penalties, turnover and field position coach, and we were good in all those areas.”
Swan came into the game ranked second in the state in passing yards (642), first in completions (48) and tied for third in touchdown passes (8). He shouldn’t lose ground in any of those categories after Friday as he did plenty of adding to those numbers.
Unofficially, he was 14-of-24 for 275 yards and four touchdowns.
His fourth completion of the game, which ended with the team’s initial score, a 24-yard pass to Landon O’Neal, gave him 351 completions for his career and the all-time lead. He topped Steven Stunda, who had 350 from 2007-10.
After the defense forced a safety two plays after the ensuing kickoff, the Royals got the ball right back and Swan went back to work. He hit Johnson for a 43-yard gainer then scored it himself on a four-yard run.
After an interception by senior Wes Kane, the Royals offense needed just two plays before Swan connected with Zach Arnold on a 4-yard touchdown pass.
Starting on their own 43 after a punt, the Royals needed just one play to wrap up first-quarter scoring. Swan hit Fuchs for a 57-yard touchdown pass to make it 30-0 with 22.4 seconds left in the opening quarter.
“It doesn’t matter who gets the ball for us. We just find the open guy and make plays,” Swan said. “We get excited for each other when we score. We just love spreading the ball around.”
Cole Rainbolt was on the receiving end of the lone second-quarter score. This time it was a 43-yarder from Swan in a two-play 51-yard possession that started with an 8-yard completion to Fuchs.
“We missed a few opportunities in the red zone that we need to capitalize on,” Fuchs said. “But, as far as the receiving corps and having two really good running backs, it’s great not having just one player who you always have to look for. Houston can look any direction and as deep as our receiving corps is, he can trust all of us. He doesn’t have to trust just that one guy.”
The Royals (2-1, 1-0) are averaging 45.7 points per game with Friday’s total a season-high. It was their third 40-plus point game of the season.
The win gives the defending MEC champs a 1-0 record in league play. Wes-Del dropped to 1-2 and 0-1 in the conference. It was Eastern Hancock’s eighth straight win over the Warriors.
All three of the Royals opponents have been in a different classification. They defeated Class 2A Alexandria in the opener. Wes-Del is a Class 1A school. Last week’s 50-43 loss was to New Albany, which is in Class 5A.
Eastern Hancock will travel to Heritage Christian, another Class 2A school and, like the Royals, one of the favorites in Sectional 38.
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Eastern Hancock 49, Wes-Del 16
Wes-Del (1-2);0;8;0;8;-;16
Eastern Hancock (2-1);30;6;13;0;-;49
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
EH – Landon O’Neal 24 yd pass from Houston Swan (J.P. Fuchs kick) 8:42
EH – safety, tackle Wes-Del RB Will Kelly in end zone 8:25
EH – Swan 4 yd run (Fuchs kick) 6:31
EH – Zach Arnold 4 yd pass from Swan (Fuchs kick) 4:15
EH – Fuchs 57 yd pass from Swan (Aaron Redmon kick) :22.4
2nd Quarter
WD – Eric Harlan 4 yd run (Harlan run) 4:57
EH – Cole Rainbolt 43 yd pass from Swan (kick failed) 4:02
3rd Quarter
EH – Jacob Johnson 4 yd run (Fuchs kick) 9:49
EH – Johnson 13 yd run (kick failed) 4:14
4th Quarter
WD – Cameron Buckner 14 yd pass from Harlan (Kelly run) 11:22
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