LAPEL — While there are four quarters in a football game, the second quarter of Lapel’s regional championship outing was a huge contributing factor bringing an end to the Bulldogs’ season.
Lapel had home field advantage and played a solid first quarter against high-powered Eastbrook, but the Bulldogs just couldn’t match the firepower put forth by the Panthers, who walked away with the regional championship 52-21 on Friday, Nov 9.
The loss closed out Lapel’s (8-5) season and sent Eastbrook (12-1) to semistate, where it will take on Bremen at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, with the winner moving on to the state championship.
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Eastbrook put the finishing touches on its 10th victory of the year with a powerful second quarter, but it set the tone early in the game on Lapel’s first drive. That’s when the Panthers stopped the Bulldogs on a fourth-and-six from inside the Panthers’ 20-yard line.
“We had our chances to make a game out of it early, but we couldn’t afford to get in the red zone two to three times and come away empty,” Lapel head coach Tim Miller said.
The Eastbrook defense stepped it up putting all kinds of pressure on Lapel quarterback Cole Alexander, sacking him five times and causing several rushed passes.
“The two botched punts by us were also mistakes we couldn’t afford to make against a program like Eastbrook,” Miller said.
While the first quarter ended scoreless, the Panthers turned on the offensive firepower to score 28 points in the second quarter. Lapel scored late before the half, when Alexander drilled Dane Busch from 35 yards out for a touchdown pass to get the Bulldogs on the board and make it 28-7 at the midway point.
Any thoughts of a Lapel comeback were washed away in the third quarter when the Bulldogs couldn’t get anything going and were shut out, while Eastbrook got a touchdown to pad its lead. Both teams added two touchdowns in the fourth, but by then the game had been settled.
The win was familiar territory for Eastbrook, which now has nine consecutive victories.
Eastbrook’s senior duo took command as Xaine Kirby rushed for 156 yards and one touchdown on 22 carries, and Edward Keasling rushed for 57 yards and three touchdowns on seven carries.
Though the Bulldogs lost the regional, there are moments of success to look back on from the season.
Lapel battled back from a 2-and-4 start to the season against four very strong opponents to finish 8-5 with the highlight being the sectional championship, Miller said.
