Eagle’s Landing Christian senior quarterback Dalton Etheridge scored three rushing touchdowns for the top-ranked Chargers, who outmanned Holy Innocents’ 34-14 on Friday night in the Region 5-A opener for both teams.
Etheridge was one of three football players who received championship rings at halftime for the Class A baseball title earned this spring. The Jacksonville State commitment helped the ELCA offense put up 28 consecutive points after a Golden Bears score on the game’s first possession.
“I love to see two physical teams play,” ELCA coach Jonathan Gess told both teams in the postgame huddle. “(Holy Innocents’) helped us turn our program around four years ago.”
Holy Innocents’ opened the game with a 71-yard, 10-play drive that included a fourth-down conversion from quarterback Luke Wright inside the Chargers’ 10-yard line. Two plays after the conversion, William Morton scored on a 4-yard run.
Down 28-7 late in the third quarter, Wright found the end zone on a 2-yard run.
Etheridge led the Chargers on a 36-yard scoring drive to tie the score late in the first quarter. On the first play of the second quarter, fullback Lane Timpson took a handoff from Etheridge and sprinted 50 yards to put ELCA up for good, and later in the quarter Etheridge led a 13-play, 88-yard touchdown drive that he capped with a 2-yard run.
On the Chargers’ initial drive of the second half, Josh Shockley broke two tackles on a 54-yard touchdown run to give ELCA a 28-7 lead.
“I felt like they were a tough bunch, and we wanted to match their physicality,” Gess said. “Holy Innocents’ really gets after it and we do, too.”
The Chargers extended what currently is the state’s longest active win streak to 17: Sandy Creek’s unbeaten streak is 18 games; the Patriots’ season-opening tie with Tampa (Fla.) Plant ended its win streak at 15. ELCA trailed Washington County in its season opener when the game was suspended by lightning.
Holy Innocents’ has lost three in a row after opening the season with two victories.
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