WATERFORD - Eastern racked up 392 yards rushing on 44 carries and scored five touchdowns on the ground en route to 39-6 triumph over host Waterford Friday night.
The Eagles' 392 rushing yards were 313 more than Waterford managed as a team, and both running back Ethan Nottingham and quarterback Joey Scowden rushed for more yards individually than the Wildcats' combined.
"We played well, but we've got to get better. We had over 100 yards in penalties," said Eastern football coach David Tennant.
Article Photos
KEVIN PIERSON Special to The Times
Waterford’s Derek Brown (42) outruns Eastern’s defenders during prep football action Friday night.
Penalties were about the only thing the Eagles did wrong, as they racked up 12 of them for 110 yards in the game.
Despite all those miscues, the Eagles still put up 15 first downs and outgained Waterford by a 488-113 margin, converting on numerous third downs.
"Every time we had them third and long, they made it. We didn't get any stops when we needed to make stops," said Waterford football coach Tom Tucker.
Fact Box
Eastern 39, Waterford 6
Eastern 13 6 13 7 -39
Waterford 0 6 0 0 - 6
First quarter
E: Joey Scowden 46 run (Max Carnahan kick) 3:01
E: Ethan Nottingham 56 run (kick fail) 0:18.1
Second quarter
W: Derek Brown 5 run (kick fail) 1:51
E: Scowden 10 run (kick fail) 0:17.2
Third quarter
E: Nottingham 6 pass from Scowden (Carnahan kick) 9:02
E: Scowden 23 run (kick fail) 5:02
Fourth quarter
E: Scowden 27 run (Carnahan kick) 7:39
Team stats
EASTERN (2-2)
First downs:15; Rushes/yds 44-392; Passing yds 96; Passing (comp/att/TD/int) 10-16-1-1; Total yds 488; Punts/avg. 2-21.5; Penalties/yds 12-110; Fumbles/lost 1/0
WATERFORD (1-3)
First downs 7; Rushes/yds 38-79; Passing yds 34; Passing (comp/att/TD/int) 4-8-0-2; Total yds 113; Punts/avg. 7-30.9; Penalties/yds 9-65; Fumbles/lost 0/0
Individuals stats
Eastern: Rushing: Ethan Nottingham 15-214, TD; Joey Scowden 18-141, 4 TDs; Chase Cook 1-(-1); Alex Amos 2-(-2); Triston Goodnite 6-32; Daschle Facemyer 2-8; Passing: Joey Scowden 10-16-96 yds, TD, int; Receiving: Ethan Nottingham 7-55, TD; Troy Gantt 1-12; Max Carnahan 2-1; Alex Amos 1-7; Chase Cook 1-21
Waterford: Rushing: Austin Lang 4-13; Joe Pugh 4-(-13); Derek Brown 14-50; Hunter Munjas 15-33; Jaret McCutcheon 1-(-4); Passing: Joe Pugh 4-8-34 yds, 2 int; Receiving: Austin Shriver 2-20; Austin Lang 1-4; Hunter Munjas 1-10
As good as the ground game was, it still took a little while for the Eagles to get going.
Eastern turned the ball over on downs on its first possession, and punted on the second, but then tallied two touchdowns on the next four plays to go ahead 13-0.
Scowden got the scoring started when he scampered in from 46 yards out with 3:01 to play in the first quarter, and then Eastern turned to a little trickery on a third and 14 at their own 44.
Facing the long third down, Scowden completed a pass to Max Carnahan, and Carnahan flipped the ball to Nottingham, who covered the remaining 56 yards to paydirt for a 13-0 Eagle advantage with 18.1 seconds in the first quarter.
Down 13-0, Waterford strung together a long drive, as the Wildcats took more than eight minutes off the clock. But with the ball situated at the Eastern 14, a pair of penalties and a sack of sophomore quarterback Joe Pugh doomed the drive.
"Our kids played hard. We had a lot of good plays, and then we'd have an offsides or we'd have a hold," Tucker lamented.
The Wildcats finally got on the board with 1:51 to play in the first half when Kyle Miller intercepted a screen pass by Eastern and gave Waterford the ball at the Eagles' 5-yard line. One play later, Derek Brown gave the Wildcats' their only score.
"That was a great play on their part. You can't take it away from them," Tennant said.
Leading by just a single score, the Eagles took advantage of Waterford's miscues to transform the game.
Eastern took possession at their own 49 after the kickoff return, and moved down to the 20 before a pair of sacks and an incomplete pass set up a fourth-and-30.
Scowden then completed a pass to Nottingham for 20 yards, and the Eagles benefited from a personal foul penalty against Waterford to take a first down at the 10. Scowden then scampered into the end zone on the next play to set the halftime score, 19-6 in favor of Eastern.
After a first half that was very competitive, Eastern turned up the heat in the second half, allowing Waterford to run just 14 plays from scrimmage in the second half, excluding punts.
Gaining 110 yards in the first half, the Wildcats managed just three yards of offense in the final two quarters of play.
"We still thought coming into the second half if we came out and made a statement that first drive we'd be okay," Tucker said.
Instead of a statement, the Wildcats saw their first drive of the second half end quickly as Pugh's pass was intercepted by Alex Amos, who recorded a pair of picks in the game.
Eastern then covered 56 yards to score, with Scowden connecting with Nottingham on a 6-yard touchdown pass with 9:02 in the third quarter.
