EATON — Two quick scores 90 seconds apart in the first quarter helped Eaton’s football team to an impressive start to the postseason.
The Eagles scored two touchdowns midway through the opening quarter to gain control en route to a 44-20 win over fellow Southwestern Buckeye League opponent Oakwood on Friday, Oct. 29, in the first round of the Division IV, Region 16 playoffs, at home.
“It was nice to see,” Eaton coach Brad Davis said of the quick start. “We hadn’t had a quick start like that in the last few games. So it was kind of nice. Early momentum is always nice, especially in a playoff-type atmosphere here.”
Second-seeded Eaton (10-1) will now host No. 7 Milton-Union (10-1) on Friday, Nov. 5 in a regional quarterfinal match up. The Bulldogs advanced with a 33-0 win over No. 10 seed Cincinnati Indian Hill.
“It was ugly at times but but we’ll take the victory for sure,” Davis said. “Overall, we did what we needed to do to win the game. We were sloppy at times, which we need to just play cleaner. We cannot turn the ball over and our kicking game needs to improve moving forward. We left some opportunities and some points on the field. But, 1-0 this week and we’re on to Milton.”
Eaton used a solid ground attack to remain undefeated at home in playoff games.
“We had a couple match ups that we thought we could take advantage of. We thought we could run the ball if they gave us a couple looks, which they did. We did what we needed to do when we needed to do it,” Davis said.
As a team, the Eagles rushed for 279 yards.
Senior Aiden Williams rushed for 119 yards on 25 carries and scored a touchdown. Sophomore quarterback Chris Atkins had 72 yards on eight carries and scored two touchdowns. Freshman Cordis Berard added three second-half touchdowns, rushing for 62 yards on seven carries.
Williams put Eaton up with a four-yard touchdown run with 7:31 left in the first quarter. After a Drew Michael added the point after, the Eagles led 7-0.
Eaton’s defense got the ball right back as senior Christian Reyna intercepted a pass on Oakwood’s first play.
Atkins followed with a one-yard touchdown run to make it a 14-0 game with 6:01 left in the opening quarter.
Atkins scored his second touchdown of the game on a 31-yard run with 7:59 left in the second quarter for a 21-0 lead.
Oakwood got on the board with 3:58 left in the first half, scoring on a 24-yard touchdown pass on a fourth down play.
The Eagles added a 38-yard Michael field goal as time expired for a 24-7 halftime lead.
Berard added all three of his touchdown runs in the second half as Eaton extended its lead to 44-7 early in the fourth quarter.
The Lumberjacks added two late scores against the Eagle second string defense for the final outcome.
Eaton entered the game coming off its first loss of the season, and Davis said his team didn’t dwell on that lose.
”They’re resilient. They responded. The coach part of me says that we’re way past that. But the former player part of me says, I know there’s a little special place for those bad memories,” he said.
As he has said all season, Davis is only concerned with the game at hand.
”We’ll just celebrate 1-0 here and move on,” he said. “Just another solid team win.”
