Eastern Greene football's upset bid falls short just a 'half a step away'

EASTERN HEIGHTS — From the “#1” painted in the corner of the end zones to the “Forever1JC” on the grass at the team entrance to the field to the No. 1 jersey the Eastern Greene football team held as it took the field before the game and huddled together after the game, the emotion of playing its first home game without late teammate Jedd Cummings was clearly a driving force.

A force that pushed the Thunderbirds into position to pull off an upset of West Washington through three quarters in the Class 1A, Sectional 48 opener on Friday night.

However, physical fatigue caught up with the T-Birds’ willpower, as did the Senators, who scored all 22 of their points in the final 12 minutes to end Eastern’s season with a 22-14 defeat.

“I’m not a moral victory guy, never have been, but I’m so proud of these boys and this community, just the fight they’ve shown all year,” Eastern Greene coach Travis Wray said. “Ending a season with two wins is not joyous. Joy is not a feeling I have right now, but pride in this team is something I’m definitely feeling.”

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The fans in the stands felt the same way, applauding after the loss with only slightly less gusto than when the T-Birds held the lead. “Showed a lot of heart,” one fan yelled.

“The pride I feel for them and this community after the last week, week and a half we had — it would be easy for them to check out and they didn’t,” Wray said. “They wanted to fight for Jedd, wanted to fight for the Cummings family, fight for the community. As head football coach of this program, I’m so happy and proud to be part of this community.”

Defense rises to the occasion

Eastern (2-8) picked up where it left off in a comeback win at North Central a week ago. After pitching a second-half shutout on the road, the defense rose to the occasion against a West Washington team averaging over 30 points per game.

It almost provided the offense late in the first quarter when James Lewis ran down Senators quarterback Kenton Chase from the back side. The ball came bouncing away as Lewis made the tackle, while Eastern’s Peyton Lewis picked up the pigskin and dashed 50 yards down the sideline for an apparent touchdown.

As the Thunderbirds celebrated, the officials conferenced and ruled that it was an incomplete pass with intentional grounding rather than a fumble, allowing West Washington (7-2) to punt the ball away, one of several plays that could’ve gone Eastern’s way but didn’t.

“It’s a bang-bang play,” Wray said. “What you have to figure out is how the team will respond. Not having been in that situation, we have to learn from that as a team, as a program, and as a coaching staff. We need to go down and score in response.”

That didn’t happen as the Senator’s defense was every bit as stingy, not allowing a first down in the opening quarter.

But Eastern forced a fumble on the first play of the next possession with Colten Adams falling on the football at the West Washington 14.

Two plays later, Peyton Lewis was in the end zone for a 6-0 lead.

“We pride ourselves on takeaways, preach it and practice it,” Wray said. “We just have to get to the point as an offense where we cash in.”

The Senators fumbled again on the next possession, although this time it was at the Eastern 38 with James Lewis recovering the ball. But again, the offense couldn’t capitalize, going three and out.

James Lewis, coming off a monster game, was held in check, finishing with 37 yards on 14 carries after going over 300 yards last week.

“We have to build weapons outside of James,” Wray said. “We’re getting there. They’re a talented defense that had guys step up. They had a great game plan for stopping James and had guys right where we wanted to throw the ball. They were honing in on the Lewis boys.”

That one touchdown stood up for Eastern, however, carrying that 6-0 advantage into the fourth quarter.

“That was five straight scoreless quarters,” said Wray, a former defensive coordinator at Bloomington North and Evansville North. “As a coach who prides himself on defense, we’ve struggled a lot defensively this year with a new scheme and playing a lot of new kids.

“Holding a team scoreless that likes to jump out on people early was big.”

Fourth-quarter fatigue

West Washington started the final period with a third down at the T-Bird 14, scoring an apparent touchdown that was called back for an ineligible man downfield.

No gain on the ensuing play made it 4th-and-14 from the 19. The snap bounced off Chase’s hands and over his head, but he calmly picked it up on the bounce and fired a dart to Mason Cox for the touchdown. A two-point conversion run gave the visitors an 8-6 lead as the passing game came alive.

“That was what we anticipated coming in given how poorly we played the pass at North Central,” Wray said. “David Newbie, my senior nose guard, had a heckuva game tonight to stop their middle ground game.”

An illegal chop block killed Eastern’s next drive, and Chase dashed 67 yards for a touchdown to extend the West Washington lead to 14-6 with 9:20 left.

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For the first time, the T-Birds were on their heels. The Senators scored again on another bang-bang play with the ball ruled to have crossed the goal line just before it came loose for another fumble. It was 22-6, but Eastern Greene refused to roll over.

“I’d say running out of gas is a good way to put it,” Wray said. “Coming off the emotional rollercoasters we’ve had, I would never use that as an excuse. The kids responded, and that’s all I wanted them to do all year, fight for four quarters. They did that and didn’t quit.

“There were moments tonight where I thought I’d start seeing heads hang. But guys would run over and say, ‘We’re not doing this, this is not how we do things.’”

‘Half a step away’

A good kick return from Peyton Lewis gave the T-Birds a jolt, and Lewis scored from four yards out with 1:50 left, adding the two-point conversion to make it a one-score game.

The onside kick was tantalizingly close to being recovered by the home team, but West Washington covered the ball and picked up the first down it needed to run out the clock.

“Half a step away,” Wray said. “Just a step here, a step there in all three phases of the game, and it could’ve gone differently.

“There weren’t a whole lot of people that gave us a fighting chance in this game. We did everything to win the game but win the game.”

WEST WASHINGTON 22, EASTERN GREENE 14

West Washington (7-2) 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 — 22

Eastern Greene (2-8) 0 | 6 | 0 | 8 — 14

SECOND QUARTER

EG: Peyton Lewis 10 run (kick failed), 9:43. EG, 6-0.

FOURTH QUARTER

WW: Mason Cox 19 pass from Kenton Chase (Ethan Roberts run), 11:05. WW, 8-6.

WW: Chase 67 run (run failed), 9:34. WW, 14-6.

WW: Tyler Miller 14 pass from Chase (Grayson McCoy pass from Chase), 2:49. WW, 22-6.

EG: P.Lewis 4 run (P.Lewis run), 1:50. WW, 22-14.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

West Washington (42-236): Kenton Chase 13-105, Ethan Roberts 12-69, Wyatt Johnston 10-39, Hudson Cress 6-13, Grayson McCoy 1-10.

Eastern Greene (37-76): Peyton Lewis 16-50, James Lewis 14-37, Evan Ferkingstad 3-6, Jonas Hawk 4-(-17).

PASSING

West Washington (8-14-0-111): Kenton Chase 8-14-0-111.

Eastern Greene (5-13-1-41): Jonas Hawk 5-13-1-49.

RECEIVING

West Washington: Mason Cox 3-49, Tyler Miller 2-29, Hudson Cress 1-12, Grayson McCoy 1-11, Wyatt Johnston 1-10.

Eastern Greene: James Lewis 2-15, Braxton Deckard 1-14, Peyton Lewis 1-11, Lane Stephens 1-1.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IHSAA football: Eastern Greene's bid falls short vs West Washington