Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
EATON — Eaton ran its winning streak over Monroe to three with a 31-21 win on Friday, Oct. 4 as the Eagles celebrated Homecoming.
“Obviously happy with the result,” Eaton coach Brad Davis said.
Davis said the Hornets gave his team a different look on offense than expected early on, but once the Eagles made a few adjustments, his team responded.
“They came out in something completely different than what we had planned for, so I was pretty proud of the defense, just kind of adjusting then we ended up kind of scrapping our game plan,” he said. “They had some success doing what they wanted to do. At halftime, we made some adjustments, but we were okay giving up some passing yards there at the end.”
Davis said his team prepared for more of a spread offense.
“We thought it was going to be a little bit more spread, put the ball in the quarterback’s hands, a little bit more read, so that heavy wing stuff they came out in was a little bit of surprise,” he said. “Fortunately for us, just coming off Madison, that’s basically the formations in the offense we saw at Madison.”
After forcing the Hornets to punt on their first possession, the Eagles offense behind quarterback Aaron Rogers drove 58 yards in nearly four minutes to grad the lead. Rogers, who completed 13-of-20 passes for 182 yards, connected with Brandon Couch for a 6-yard touchdown pass with 5:02 left in the first quarter.
After back-to-back punts by each team, the Hornets tied the game early in the second quarter on a 20-yard TD pass.
Eaton responded with a 67-yard drive which ended with a Brycen Simpson 6-yard TD run to give the Eagles a 14-7 lead.
Monroe then drove 80 yards to tie the game at 14-14 with 4:22 left in the half.
Once again, Eaton’s offense answered the challenge as they drove 80 yards in just over two minutes to retake the lead at 21-14 on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Rogers to Conner Bach.
“That’s complimentary football,” Davis said. “So, when we’re playing well, that’s what we’re doing. Offense will pick up the defense. Defense will pick up the offense and we’ve been good with short fields in the kicking game. So tonight, don’t love giving up 21 points, but luckily, we scored more than 21.”
Monroe had the ball just 35 seconds before being forced to punt giving the ball back to Eaton on the Eagles 42 with 1:22 left in the half.
Eaton’s offense stalled and the Eagles were forced to punt giving the ball back to the Monroe with 51 seconds.
The Eagles defense responded and forced another Monroe punt. This time a full-on rush by the Eagles caused a bad snap and the Eagles blocked the punt and gained possession at the Monroe 10-yard line with three seconds left in the half.
That was just enough time for Eaton’s Jon Hewitt to boot a 28-yard field goal as time expired to give the Eagles a two-score lead.
“Not much time there on that fourth down, we decided to go punt rush, it affected the snap there, and then we’re able to capitalize there with that short field. We were fine getting to halftime right there,” Davis said. “Best case scenario is the way it worked out. Obviously, we would like to get that touchdown, but with four seconds there (we decided to kick it).”
Eaton extended its lead to 31-14 with a Rogers 7-yard TD run with 49 seconds left in the third quarter.
After Monroe got within 31-21 with 7:32 left in the game the Eagles used its running game to nearly run out the clock as they Eagles held onto the ball for nearly six minutes.
“Offensively, did what we needed to do,” Davis said. “How about Aaron Rogers tonight? I mean, just unbelievable through the air and on the ground. Really did a great job at quarterback tonight.
“It’s fantastic. We’ve done that before, not as much as we would have liked. When we can run the ball, when everybody in the stadium knows we’re going to run the ball that’s a testament to our offensive line. So, just a great job by our offense executing there at the end.”
Cordis Berard, who was named homecoming king, rushed for 89 yards on 15 carries.
Bach caught six passes for 94 yards.
Defensively, Couch led the way with nine tackles and game clinching interception. Gavin Winings and Dylan Gamble each had seven tackles, while Noah Hurd and Presley Stewart both had six.
Eaton, now 6-1, is scheduled to host Brookville (5-2, 3-1 SWBL) in a key Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division game on Friday, Oct. 11. The winner will keep their division title hopes alive as well as securing coveted playoff points.
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
