Eastern Hancock’s Dylan Bowman heads upfield after intercepting a pass against Milan. Bowman is the county leader in interceptions with six.
Mike Brown | For The Daily Reporter
By Brady Extin | Daily Reporter
CHARLOTTESVILLE – Tonight’s IHSAA Class 2A Sectional 38 semifinal matchup will be between two teams that know each other quite well.
Eastern Hancock hosts Lapel in a rematch of a regular-season game that took place just two weeks ago.
For Royals head coach Pat Echeverria, that makes the game-planning more difficult than normal.
“It’s been interesting. I haven’t had to do this in a long time,” Echeverria said. “When we won that first game, we played our best game of the season. And you don’t know how much they were holding back versus how much we needed to hold back, because we both knew we might play each other again in a couple of weeks.”
In the first matchup, the Royals used a three-score first quarter to propel themselves to the 29-22 win. Echeverria and the coaching staff know it won’t be that easy again.
“It’s an interesting dynamic when you’re trying to figure out what’s going to be the best approach going forward,” Echeverria said. “Sometimes, when you win a game like that, it’s trying to figure out how much we need to change what we do. If we don’t change what we do, and they make adjustments, how much is that going to hinder us.”
The Eastern Hancock offense will still be led by Kain Sotelo, who rushed for 215 yards and four touchdowns in the first matchup. The Bulldogs defense is sure to be keyed in on stopping him. The Royals have been trying to find some different things for the offensive plan.
“It’s just finding the balance of getting ready and trying to look at the moves we can make and not just sitting back and thinking we’re going to be able to do exactly what we did before,” Echeverria said.
In the two weeks since their last meeting, the Bulldogs have got healthier. In the first matchup, star running back Tyler Dollar was still overcoming an injury, and only played the first half, and running back/wide receiver Rylie Hudson missed the entire game.
Both are now fully healthy and combined for all six of the Bulldogs’ offensive touchdowns in their 49-19 sectional quarterfinal victory over Winchester.
Hudson has recorded all six of his touchdowns this season in his last two games he has played.
“They’re going to be at full strength. Dollar is going to be healthy, and Hudson will be returning to their lineup who is really, really good as well,” Echeverria said. “We can’t rest on anything that we did in Week 9.”
The Royals are coming off of a 27-13 sectional quarterfinal victory over Union County, but even in the win, Echeverria saw it as a letdown spot for his team. Correcting that has been his main message to the team this week.
“Practice has been great. The kids are dialed in,” Echeverria said. “Last week was a little bit of a struggle mentally for our kids coming off of a big win. It was definitely a letdown week for us, so I’m really happy with how we responded this week in practice.”
If the final three quarters of their first matchup are any indication of what’s to be expected tonight, it won’t be easy for Eastern Hancock. After the hot start, the Royals were outscored 22-7 the remainder of the way.
“Our kids know it’s going to be a hard-fought game,” Echeverria said. “To beat a team twice is always tough, but I think they’re mentally engaged and excited about the opportunity on Friday night.”
Echeverria knows his team won’t be able to rely on that same jump out of the gate they saw the first time, it’s all about playing a good game from start to finish. It’s been something he’s been trying to get across to his team leading up to today.
“We’re not going to surprise them this time. That first game, it was Week 9, it was coming up to the end of the year, and we’d been struggling a bit,” Echeverria said. “Now, we have to give them our best shot for four quarters.”
