First-year East Hamilton football coach Grant Reynolds lamented before Friday's game that his Hurricanes were struggling after a close loss to Red Bank a week ago.
A sluggish first quarter left the Hurricanes leading host Central 7-6, but Reynolds saw his team erupt for 31 points in the second quarter on its way to a 52-14 win over the Purple Pounders.
"They hit us in the mouth early and created some adversity with that," Reynolds said, "but the kids got past that, we got going and the kids played really well."
East Hamilton moved to 3-2 for the year and 2-0 in Region 2-4A. Central fell to 1-4 and 1-1.
"We got control of the region," Reynolds told his team after the game. "Now we just need to keep it rolling."
After completing only one of his first five passes, Haynes Eller completed eight of his remaining 11, throwing for 194 yards and three touchdowns. The junior had scoring passes covering 25 and 51 yards in the second quarter.
"I don't know what was wrong in the beginning," Eller said. "We weren't us in the beginning. I don't know why, but once we got us, we got it rolling."
The Hurricanes' Adam Caudle carried 14 times for 71 yards and two touchdowns while playing only a few snaps in the second half and none after he scored with 8:06 left in the third quarter. Johnavan Moore carried 12 times for 70 yards for East Hamilton, and Cade Meeks caught five passes for 114 yards and a touchdown.
Central quarterback Kelvin McGee completed 14 of 21 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns, including an 80-yard strike to freshman Donovan Smith. The two combined for Central's last score, a 23-yard play, with less than a minute left in the game.
"We just have so many freshmen and sophomores on defense that when they got into tempo and scored a few times, it just started getting away from us," said Central coach Curt Jones, whose team had four turnovers. "But we fought hard and competed."
Contact Davis Lundy at sports@timesfreepress.com.