EAST LAWRENCE – Vinemont took on East Lawrence in a battle of the Eagles in a jamboree game Friday night. Vinemont jumped out to a quick lead in the first half and came out victorious, 21-15, over East Lawrence.
After forcing East Lawrence to punt on their first series, Vinemont got the running game going quickly, as Dustin Moore, Alonso Salgado and Carl Price wore down the Eagle defense. After a Salgado 3-yard run, which put Vinemont in a third-and-7 situation at the 17-yard line, sophomore QB Jack Hill found Cameron Carter for a 15-yard pickup, then Salgado got the final 2 yards to put Vinemont on the board with 6:26 remaining in the opening quarter.
East Lawrence looked to get the running game going themselves, and they were successful in that department, gaining two first downs from the ground game. Hunter Leston completed two big passes on the drive as he found Clay Pilgrim and Tyler Flannagin for 7 and 30 yards, respectively, but penalties drove the Eagles back as they got two delay-of-game flags, putting them in a third-and-15 situation from the 18-yard line, and Leston's pass got picked off by Carter, who took it to the 13-yard line.
Vinemont continued to wear down the East Lawrence defense on the ground, as they drove the ball to the 29-yard line, but on a fourth-and-4 from there, Hill threw an incomplete pass, and Vinemont turned the ball over on downs. After the defense stopped East Lawrence on their next series, they took over at the 36-yard line. Price and Moore went back to work as they got back-to-back first downs on the first two plays. A play later, Carter picked up 26 yards on an end-around run to set Vinemont up at the 14-yard line, then Moore found the end zone to give Vinemont a 14-0 lead with 2:59 remaining in the first half, which would be the score at halftime.
Vinemont went three-and-out on their first series of the second half, but East Lawrence gave the ball right back as they fumbled, and Oistin Cornelius recovered the fumble for Vinemont. After back-to-back empty possessions by both teams, Vinemont got the ball back at the 39-yard line, and it took just two plays for them to find the end zone. After a Price 2-yard run, Hill found Moore for a 35-yard score, and the lead widened to 21-0 with 48.8 seconds left. They looked to get some more points after forcing East Lawrence to punt again. Behind big runs by Teague Whatley, Vinemont was in position for a field goal from the 19-yard line, but Austin Sparks’ attempt was no good. Levi Barnes got East Lawrence on the scoreboard with an 80-yard score on a quarterback keeper, and then, on their next series, Leston found the end zone on a 15-yard end-around run to make the score, 21-15.
Vinemont took a knee the remaining 20 seconds to go home with a win.
Hill went 5-of-18 for 99 yards and a touchdown. Moore rushed for 50 yards on seven carries and a touchdown. Salgado had 37 yards on seven carries and a touchdown. Price had 59 yards on nine touches, and Carter had 33 on two carries, as Vinemont rushed for 179 yards on the night. Carter added an interception, and Cornelius added a fumble recovery for Vinemont, as the defense stuffed East Lawrence in the running game.
"Cody Harris is our offensive coordinator, and he is doing a great job, helping them with the run game," Vinemont coach Stephen Robinson said. "We had a great game running the ball. Jack Hill had a great game tonight. He was a leader out there. Defensively, we're getting the fundamentals down. We still need to work on a few things defensively, and fill the positional slots, but for the varsity squad, I felt like they played good, and they played hard."
Vinemont will start out the regular season at home against Good Hope next Thursday.
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