To say it rained on East Hamilton’s long-awaited home opening parade would be both an understatement and a misnomer.
The Hurricanes overcame some early woes, a 40-minute rain and lightning delay and a hard-hitting Central team to christen their new football stadium Friday with a 25-6 victory.
“We had a little bit of spring in our step before the game, that was for sure. To be able to walk out your building and up the hill to play a football game on our home field was pretty special,” said East Hamilton coach Ted Gatewood.
After two full years and two games this year of bus trips to other teams’ stadiums, East Hamilton (1-2) gave the overflow crowd a lot to cheer about. It just wasn’t in the early going.
The Purple Pounders struck quickly with Robert Cobb ripping off a 72-yard run on the first play from scrimmage and LaDarrius Jackson slipping in from a yard away two plays later for a 6-0 Central lead. Hunter Parker electrified the crowd on the ensuing kickoff with an 86-yard return for a score, but a holding call nullified it.
On the Hurricanes’ first play from scrimmage, Hunter Moore’s pass over the middle was dropped or it would have been a touchdown.
“We have behind most of the year, so that was nothing new. These young kids are really having to grow up, but they can play,” Gatewood said.
Once things did start going right for East Hamilton, did they ever.
The Pounders were poised to widen the lead just before the half, but sophomore Austin Gatewood forced a fumble and Chad Patterson pounced on it. That’s when the sophomore Moore went to work, orchestrating a 92-yard drive by hitting five different receivers for 72 yards.
East Hamilton’s first TD in the new stadium was a beauty, with Moore scrambling to avoid a heavy rush on a fourth-and-8 before lofting a 20-yarder to Jacob Noorbergen with two seconds left in the half.
The Hurricanes wasted little time in testing the home side’s scoreboard lights again. Logan Jackson took the second-half kickoff 85 yards to a TD just as a slight mist started to fall. Up 13-6 now, the Hurricanes held Central on downs and then went 39 yards with Chas Holse scoring on a 5-yard jaunt for an 18-6 lead.
That’s when a big bolt of lightning struck, and it was officially a perfect Hurricanes home opener.
Jackson again was the East Hamilton workhorse with 159 yards on 22 carries, and Moore was 7-of-14 for 97 yards. Gatewood wound up with a sack among eight tackles, and Chad Patterson had nine tackles and a forced fumble.
The Pounders offense suffered a serious blow when Cobb went down with an ankle injury on his fourth carry, and while he did return in the second half, it was more in the role of a decoy. Cobb wound up with 94 yards on his five carries, but the other Pounders managed just 100 yards on 41 carries.