Indiana high school football: East Central airs it out against Lawrenceburg in 38-3 win
ST. LEON, Indiana – Jake Meiners knew his junior quarterback Cole Burton was ready to take a big leap up in his second season starting for the East Central Trojans.
Meiners, EC’s head coach, saw that rise firsthand Friday night as his Trojans defeated Lawrenceburg 38-3 in the Indiana High School Athletic Association high school football opener for both teams at East Central.
Burton, a 6-feet-3-inch junior, completed 17-of-21 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns tonight. Most of those yards, 198, came in the first half as he led the Trojans to a 31-0 lead at the break.
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“That’s just year two progression,” Meiners said. “He’s a special kid. He’s a special talent. He’s got all the arm ability in the world. His reads were really good tonight and distributing the ball well.”
Burton had a solid debut season in 2021 with 1,749 yards and 19 scores for the year but showed he could improve on those numbers against the Tigers.
East Central has several explosive weapons for Burton to throw to who showcased their skills against the Tigers.
Senior Eli Aston caught 10 passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns. Junior Ryan Brotherton caught three passes for 88 yards and a score. Senior running back Josh Ringer rushed for 62 yards and two TDs. Senior Trae Ohmer had 33 rushing yards.
Burton was equally adept at throwing short passes to one of his skill players in a spot where they could run with the ball, and completing long passes downfield.
“We were all confident,” Burton said. “We’ve been game-planning this all week, and we knew what we had to do. We started clicking. They kept giving us that short pass and we’re going to keep taking it. We’ve got some amazing skill players and we were beating them over the top in coverage.”
Lawrenceburg has not beaten its county and conference rival since 1992.
Both teams were coming off heartbreaking losses in the regional final round of their state playoffs last year.
In East Central’s case, the Trojans lost in overtime to Evansville Memorial and were happy to get a win on their ledger after all those months.
“Just very energetic,” Aston said. “I love how every year the fans show out. Makes it so much better. After going off that hard loss last year and coming back this game, there’s nothing better.”
Burton threw for 198 yards on 12-of-14 completions in the first half. Aston caught seven of those passes for 114 yards, and Brotherton caught three passes for 88, including two long strikes of 37 yards each.
Ringer rushed for 48 yards during the Trojans’ first-half onslaught.
“We knew it would be a game of adjustments,” Meiners said. “We had to feel out how they were going to attack us this year. We were able to make those adjustments going into the second quarter and it really opened up our passing game. We saw what coverage they were playing. We went to the stuff to defeat man coverage and challenged our guys to make plays, and they did.”
Lawrenceburg struggled on offense and special teams during the first half. The Tigers’ first two drives ended with the Trojans getting great field position after Lawrenceburg committed a miscue on a punt snap.
The first time the Trojans got the ball, they gave it back in one play when Ringer fumbled the ball away after catching a short pass from Burton.
The second time the Trojans had possession, they began at the Lawrenceburg 11 after the Tigers’ second bad punt snap in a row. EC couldn’t get into the endzone and sophomore Nathan McFee put the Trojans on the board with 5:30 to go in the first quarter on a field goal.
On Lawrenceburg’s next drive, EC senior Carson Koelling intercepted Lawrenceburg’s new starting quarterback Logan Ahaus and returned it 17 yards to the Lawrenceburg 39. Aston scored from four yards out for EC’s first TD of the game, and the Trojans led 10-0 after one quarter.
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“The first quarter, we had to settle in,” Aston said. “But once we settled in, we just flowed and got the ball to all of our athletes. We just showed what we can do.”
On EC’s first drive of the second period, Burton found Brotherton for a 37-yard pass to the Lawrenceburg 39. Ringer scored from 14 yards out, showing a nifty cut to his left to evade the defense and walk into the endzone untouched.
On EC’s next drive, Burton completed a short pass to Aston on the sideline. He dodged several defenders and ran about 35 more yards to the Tigers 8 for a 45-yard gain. Ringer scored from three yards out with 4:43 to go in the half, and the Trojans led 24-0.
EC scored in the final minute of the half. Burton had several seconds in the pocket before finding Brotherton on a wide-open pass at the Lawrenceburg 8. Brotherton caught it for a 37-yard gain. Burton found Brotherton in the endzone on the next play, and McFee’s PAT made it 31-0 at the break.
“Last year going into this game, it was all new to us,” Burton said. “We didn’t know what we were doing. For a lot of us, it was the first time playing, but we were just ready tonight.”
East Central travels east on Interstate 74 to face nearby rival Harrison next week on the road, while Lawrenceburg hosts nearby rival Taylor.
East Central 38, Lawrenceburg 3
Lawrenceburg 0 0 0 3-3
East Central 10 21 7 0-38
EC – McFee 27 FG
EC – Aston 4 pass from Burton (McFee kick)
EC – Ringer 14 run (McFee kick)
EC – Ringer 3 run (McFee kick)
EC – Brotherton 8 pass from Burton (McFee kick)
EC – Ohmer 26 pass from Burton (McFee kick)
L – Hinthorne 33 FG
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: East Central airs it out against Lawrenceburg in 38-3 win
