Local Sports

EOAC has no match for United

EAST PALESTINE - The United Eagles have proven to be the beast of the Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference. They have outscored their three league opponents 161-22, winning all three games handily.

Friday night against the East Palestine Bulldogs, they dominated the line of scrimmage and the scoreboard once again with a 50-8 victory to capture sole possession of first place in the league. They held the Bulldogs to minus 43 yards in the first half and rolled to a 43-0 advantage at halftime.

"You can ask our coaches; I was very concerned all week about this game. They have some really good skill players, and I was concerned about that going into this game," Eagles oach DJ Ogilvie said. "Our kids up front are good, and they worked their butts off. They do a great job in the off-season."

"I haven't had too many nights like this in a season," Bulldogs coach Rick Shepas said. "They (United) are a physical team, and I like their tempo with unbalanced sets. He (Ogilvie) gets you misaligned and takes advantage of the flank. Their players play hard, and those are just little things that we need to overcome here."

With the victory, the Eagles improve to 5-1 overall, and 3-0 in the EOAC. The loss drops the Bulldogs to 4-3 on the year and 3-1 in the league.

"It was a great win, happy to do it," United senior Rohan Kelly said. "One more step to a league championship."

While the Eagles’ defense was suffocating, their offense was clicking as they scored on their first two offensive plays, with Thomas Brown racing 16 yards for a touchdown at the 10:48 mark, followed by a 35-yard run by M'Kyan Haynes with 9:36 remaining in the opening quarter. In between the two touchdowns, Haynes tackled Bulldogs quarterback Clark Rutledge in the end zone to provide the Eagles with a quick 16-0 lead.

The Eagles racked up 307 yards on the ground while holding the Bulldogs to minus 71 due to multiple sacks and fumbled shotgun snaps. The Dogs got 73 passing yardsto end the night with just two positive yards overall.

"They dominated both sides of the front. There is no question about that," Shepas pointed to the battle of the trenches. "We have been working to get better at that, and we have shown glimmers where we have gotten better as well, but we need to make sure that we are better in these big games."

"We just lift hard. Other teams try it, but they don't have the same intensity," Kelly said. "We hit the weight room hard. We wanted this one bad."

Ogilvie also pointed out that having a week off prior to the game was very beneficial. Not necessarily to game plan, but to give the team a week to heal and re-focus.

"It helped a lot. Just for our mental, more than physical, in taking two days off last week. It helps to refresh the legs, get your mind right again. It helped for the mental fatigue of going through a season," Ogilvie said.

The Eagles would score on their next three possessions as Brown scored his second of three touchdowns on the night with 6:22 left in the first quarter when he scampered down the right sideline with a 23-yard jaunt. That was followed by a 22-yard run by Haynes with just 3:01 remaining in the frame, and an 8-yard run by Rohan Kelly 1:29 into the second quarter to make it 37-0.

With just 4:07 remaining in the first half, the Eagles added their sixth rushing touchdown on the night when Brown scored on a 28-yard run. That made it 43-0, with the Eagles taking a knee late in the half instead of taking the offensive after an interception in Bulldogs territory.

Both teams would score in the second half with a running clock as the Eagles’ Jordan Kidder caught a short pass from Brown and outran the Bulldogs’ defense for a 63-yard score on the Eagles’ first offensive play of the second half. That stretched the Eagles’ lead out to 50-0.

But the Bulldogs kept fighting as Tanner Morrow turned in an electrifying 80-yard kickoff return down to the Eagles’ 10. RJ May would score on a 10-yard run around right end on the next play to make it the final 50-8 score.

"We control our own destiny," Ogilvie said. "If we take care of ourselves and our business, then we have a great shot at winning the league.

The Eagles will look to keep their momentum rolling next Saturday when they play Valley Christian at the Joe Lane Sports Complex in Mineral Ridge. The Bulldogs will look to bounce back when they host Pymatuning Valley in a non-conference game.



U: 30-13-7-0--50

EP: 0- 0-8-0-- 8

SCORING

U - Thomas Brown 16 run (Liam Jones kick)

U - Safety, M’Kyan Haynes tackled quarterback in end zone

U - M'Kyan Haynes 35 run (Jones kick)
U - Brown 23 run (Jones kick)
U - Haynes 22 run (Jones kick)
U - Rohan Kelly 8 run (Jones kick)
U - Brown 28 run (run failed)
U - Jordan Kidder 63 pass from Brown (Brady Pierson kick)
E -  RJ May 10 run (Calvin Hoffer pass from Mason Gorby)


TEAM STATS

UNITED

First downs: 16; Total yards: 397; Rushes-yards: 36-307, Passing: 90; Comp-Att-Int. 3-7-0; Punts 1-37; Fumbles-Lost 3-1; Penalties-Yards 5-45.

EAST PALESTINE

First downs: 3, Total yards: 2, Rushes-yards: 20-(-71), Passing: 73; Comp-Att-Int. 6-14-2; Punts 6-22.83; Fumbles-Lost 7-1; Penalties-Yards 2-25.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING--United, M'Kyan Haynes 7-99, Thomas Brown 9-70, Nick Gruszecki 7-39, Brayson Fisher 3-36; East Palestine, 3-11.

PASSING--United, Thomas Brown 3-7-0; East Palestine, Clark Rutledge 1-3-6, Mason Gorby 5-11-2.

RECEIVING--United, Jordan Kidder 1-63, Kota Shasteen 1-27; East Palestine, Terrance Dixon 2-45.

INTERCEPTIONS--United, Kota Shasteen, Jaxson Gruszecki.

FUMBLE RECOVERIES--United, Owen McCulley.