DANVILLE – The Cold Spring Eagles took on the Danville Hawks tonight in the final week of regular season football at Smith/Owens Stadium. The Eagles fell short to the Hawks in a score of 39-28 after holding a 21-13 lead at the half.
The game started with Danville recovering their own kickoff, but their first drive ended with an interception by Cayde Elliott, for the Eagles, who also happens to be the QB for Cold Springs. Elliott led the Eagles and running back Nic Rollo down the field 53-yards for a touchdown by Rollo.
Danville answered on the Eagles’ second possession with an interception returned for a touchdown by the Hawks’ Jackson Locklear.
The first quarter ended in a stalemate, 7-7.
As the second quarter began Cold Springs called 13 consecutive run plays, all by Elliott and Rollo, which resulted in a score for the Eagles and put them ahead 14-7 after the extra point was kicked through the uprights.
Danville had a quick possession with Locklear breaking through the Eagles’ defense and running 86 yards for a touchdown to answer the Eagles, taking only 10 seconds off the clock.
With the score at 14-13, the Eagles went back to running formation with Elliott and Rollo, and a 33-yard pass from Elliott to Trevor Slayton set up the Eagles to take the lead again as Elliott ran in a 1-yard touchdown and upped the score 21-13 before halftime.
The second half began with Danville taking about 5 minutes to find the end zone effectively mount a comeback.
The troubles began for the Eagles on the sixth play of their first drive in the third quarter, when Rollo fumbled the ball, giving it to the Hawks at about midfield. Starting 59 yards from their end zone, the Hawks ran a successful one-play drive to score again. Danville took the lead for the first time in the game, 27-21, and didn’t let go.
The Eagles fumbled again, which wasn’t capitalized on by the Hawks, but hurt nonetheless.
The third ended with a fumble from Danville that put the Eagles at their own 20-yard line.
As the fourth and final quarter started the Eagles picked up 12 yards rushing then went to the air, where Elliott was picked off again by the Hawks, ruining the momentum the Eagles were trying to build. Five minutes and nine plays later Danville increased their lead to 33-21 with less than five minutes to go in the game.
Cold Springs was able to answer with a touchdown of their own, but unable to retain possession after two failed onside kicks gave Danville the ball with two minutes to go.
The final blow to the Eagles was a 36-yard touchdown from the Hawks inside the final minute of play, which made the final score 39-28.
Despite having lost the game the Eagles were able to put up 364 total yards. They gave up 401 yards to the Hawks.
Elliott went 2 of 6 passing with 34 passing yards and 20 carries for 110 yards and two touchdowns.
Rollo had 25 carries on the night with 143 total yards and one touchdown.
The Eagles end the regular season 5-5 and are already playoff bound as they head to Sheffield for the 2A postseason next week.
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