RJ Price, Section618.com
Trenton — The Eldorado Eagles took a long drive to Clinton County, but found the same results, a 21-6 loss to the Wesclin Warriors, in the corn fields between New Baden and Trenton. The game was picked up by the two schools after Vienna-Goreville cancelled their season and their game vs. Eldorado. Wesclin had Sparta on their schedule for this week but Bulldogs folded their season as well.
Again, the Eagles allowed their opponent to march down the field and score on the opening drive, capped off by a 6 yard bootleg by quarterback Christian Lopez. Eldorado came back and took the ball down to the 8 yard line. After first and goal, a holding penalty, then a sack, backed Eldorado up to third down and goal from the 24. The drive stalled. The Eagles held the Warriors to a 3 and out on the next possession. Wesclin punted but return man Jake Phelps fumbled at the ten, giving the Warriors a short field where they punched it in a few plays later from 1 yard out on a run from fullback Connor Doty to make the score 14-0 heading into halftime.
The Eagles moved the ball very well to start the 3rd quarter. Quarterback Coltin Patrick scrambled for a 61 yard run to get the Eagles in good position in the red zone, but Patrick threw an interception at the 5 yard line. Wesclin took advantage and scored on an 8 yard run by Colton Robinson and led 21-0 after the extra point. Robinson had 156 yards on 25 carries.
The Eagles finally got on the board with 4:55 remaining on a 6 yard run by Patrick. The two point conversion failed. The Eagles recovered the onsides kick, marched down and threw another interception at the goal line with under 2 minutes left. Wesclin took on offense and ran out the clock. Patrick led the Eagles with 138 yards on 18 carries. But 4 turnovers, including 3 interceptions, were too much for Eldorado to overcome.
“We played well in spurts.” said Eldorado coach Joe Clark following the game. “Our guys were making big plays at the end, got fired up. But the turnovers really hurt. You can’t commit that many mistakes and expect to win.”
Not having much familiarity with one another, both teams had to make in game adjustments. But Wesclin had one major advantage on homecoming night. “If you played the game at our place,” Clark noted. “Who knows? If you had to flip it and make them travel? But I would have liked our chances.”
Eldorado fell to 1-5 on the season and will return to Black Diamond play next Friday at Sesser/Valier-Waltonville.