NEW LEBANON — The game plan was simple.
Get the ball to the senior play-makers and everything else will take care of itself.
Eaton used the formula to perfection in Week 10 of the high school football season as seniors Jarod Lee and Zac Schmidt helped the Eagles close out the season with a 54-6 win over host Dixie on Friday, Nov. 1.
Eaton ends the season with a 3-7 overall record and a 2-4 mark in the Southwestern Buckeye League’s Southwestern Division.
“(The) basic game plan was to get No. 13 (Lee) and No. 21 (Schmidt) the football as much as possible and ride their production,” Eaton coach Brad Davis said.
Lee rushed for 124 yards on 15 carries and scored a touchdown.
Schmidt had 68 yards rushing on 10 carries and scored three touchdowns and caught six passes for 94 yards and another score.
For the game, Eaton amassed over 500 yards of total offense.
Eaton scored on its second possession of the game and never looked back as most of the fourth quarter was played with a running clock due to the 30-point margin.
After sophomore quarterback Theo Winings connected with Schmidt for a long gain on fourth down, Lee scored his only touchdown of the game put the Eagles in the lead 6-0. A successful extra-point made it 7-0.
On the next possession, Schmidt capped a 60-yard drive with his first score of the game and after a successful extra-point, Eaton led 14-0.
Early in the second quarter, Winings hooked up with Trevor Long for a deep pass. Schmidt followed with his second score to make it a 20-0 game.
Dixie threatened to score on the ensuing possession, but the Eagles defense came up with a stop to keep the Greyhounds off the scoreboard.
Dixie finally got on the scoreboard with an interception return for touchdown to make it a 20-6 game.
Eaton, though, responded as Winings tossed a touchdown pass to Tyler Gregory to push the lead to 27-6.
The Eagles made it a 33-6 game on their first possession of third quarter on a Winings to Schmidt touchdown pass.
Another solid drive resulted in Schmidt’s fourth score of the night to make it 40-6 late in the third quarter.
In the fourth, Josh Martin caught a swing pass from quarterback Dawson Blaylock and raced 60 yards for a score and a 47-6 lead.
Eaton closed out the scoring when freshman quarterback connected with freshman Beau Miller for a 23-yard TD.
“Defensively, Dixie is an option-based offense, so we needed to play physical, discipline defense to have success. They have some really good, young players on both sides of the ball. This was definitely not a ‘show up and win’ game,” Davis said. “Thankfully, we executed fairly well and were able to get a win and send our four seniors out on a high note.”
Davis said winning the final game of the season is always a good way to go out.
“Always nice to win the last one, obviously for our seniors but also for the guys coming back next season,” he said.
