Football Preview: Eastern Hancock Royals vs. Centerville Bulldogs
Two dominant signal callers in Elijah Edon and Jace Hollendonner are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Eastern Hancock Royals will face off against the Centerville Bulldogs at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Eastern Hancock is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 35.3 points per game this season.
Last Friday, Eastern Hancock lost to Lapel at home by a 35-18 margin.
The losing side was boosted by Edon, who threw for 245 yards and two touchdowns, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground. Eastern Hancock also got a significant boost from Mark Kube, who ran away from the competition to the tune of 85 yards.
Meanwhile, Centerville waltzed into their contest on Friday with two straight wins... but they left with three. They took their match on the road with ease, bagging a 46-7 win over the Panthers. Considering the Bulldogs have won six matchups by more than 20 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Centerville relied on the efforts of Hollendonner, who rushed for 114 yards and a touchdown on only ten carries, and Jeremiah Mull, who rushed for 133 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 7.8 yards per carry. Hollendonner's longest rush was for an impressive 62 yards, which helps to explain his lofty yards per carry total. Maddox Pritchett was another key player, picking up 94 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Centerville was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 317 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since the start of last season.
Centerville didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Grady Blake and Kyle Dickenson. Johnny Mcginty was another major factor on D, picking up a sack and making 14 total tackles (2.0 for loss).
Eastern Hancock's loss dropped their record down to 5-4. As for Centerville, their record now sits at 8-1.
Friday's game might be decided in the on the ground. Eastern Hancock has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 188.2 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Centerville struggles in that department as they've been averaging 195.3. It's looking like Friday's contest might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Eastern Hancock couldn't quite finish off Centerville in their previous matchup back in September and fell 29-26. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Centerville's Owen Boyd, who rushed for 133 yards and two touchdowns on only five carries, and also picked up 70 receiving yards and a touchdown. Now that Eastern Hancock knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
