INDIANAPOLIS — It comes as no surprise to Eastern Hancock fans this season to see plenty of touchdowns on a Friday night when the Royals are in action — this week however, it was the opponents that found the end zone much more often.
Despite early success, Eastern Hancock (2-2) was outmatched by the Heritage Christian Eagles (3-0) on the road, 56-21.
Through the first quarter at Heritage Christian, the Royals and Eagles were sticking with each other blow for blow behind their preferred modes of attack.
For the Eagles, their preferred mode was running back Colton Brown. The offense opened the game with a five play drive covering 58 yards. All five plays were hand offs to Brown.
Their second score of the first quarter belonged to Brown as well. He reached on a 37 yard reception from quarterback Max Milton.
The preferred mode for the Royals was by no surprise, the passing game.
Twice the Royals reached the end zone in the first quarter on the arm of quarterback Houston Swan. He hit Zach Arnold on a 46 yard pass and Cole Rainbolt on a 40 yard pass in the quarter.
Swan finished the opening quarter with 171 passing yards.
In the second quarter, the Eagles tightened their defense and continued moving the ball to grab control of the game. The adjustments led to the Eagles shutting down each of the Royals offensive opportunities in the quarter.
”I don’t really think (the Eagles) changed anything,” Royals head coach Doug Armstrong said. “They just tightened up more than they already were. They played us really tight in man coverage. They had multiple pass interference penalties. That happens because you’re playing a little too tightly in coverage. They just were on top of us in coverage defensively.”
While the defense stepped up, the Eagles offense continued to roll with two more score before the intermission.
Brown ran for 131 yards in the first half.
The Eagles stretched the lead to 21 points on another Brown touchdown early in the third quarter. Then scored twice more with an interception return for touchdown and another passing touchdown by quarterback Max Milton.
Down 35 points, the Royals chances diminished as the IHSAA Mercy Rule went into affect for the final 16 minutes of game action.
Despite the running clock, the Royals continued to work and did not shut down. Before the end of the third quarter, Swan completed his third passing touchdown of the game — a second to Rainbolt.
After the early high yardage pace Swan began on, he finished with just 238 passing yards in the game.
Jacob Johnson was the team’s leading rusher with 56 yards on the ground. Rainbolt led the way in receiving with 97 yards.
Brown finished the game with 199 yards rushing for the Eagles.
Friday night’s game was the first for the Royals in which they did not score at least 40 points.
“We just have to keep improving all around,” Armstrong said. “Our starters and subs all have to get better. We need to get healthy and just keep improving every day. We have our whole season ahead of us it seems like still. We have our rivalry game, our big conference games and the big end of season battle with Lapel. We’ll keep improving to be ready for those games.”
The Royals are scheduled to be back in action next Friday night at Knightstown.
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Heritage Christian 56, Eastern Hancock 21
EH (2-2);14;0;7;0;21
HC (3-0):14;14;21;7;56
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
HC – Colton Brown 27 yd run (Caleb King kick), 9:53
EH – Zach Arnold 46 yd pass from Houston Swan (J.P. Fuchs kick), 6:10
HC – Brown 37 yd pass from Max Milton (King kick), 1:44
EH – Cole Rainbolt 40 yd pass from Swan (Fuchs kick), 1:03
2nd Quarter
HC – Garien Sharp 25 yd pass from Milton (King kick), 10:59
HC – Reid Gerig 54 yd pass from Milton (King kick), 3:50
3rd Quarter
HC – Brown 1 yd run (King kick), 8:25
HC – Harrison Waltz 37 yd pass from Milton (King kick), 7:58
HC – Gerig 54 yd interception return (King kick), 4:50
EH – Rainbolt 20 yd pass from Swan (Fuchs kick), 13.7
4th Quarter
HC – Brown 48 yd run (King kick), 7:17
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