Haslet Eaton stays undefeated in district with impressive road victory against Keller
If you just looked at the records going in you would expect the Haslet Eaton football team to have an easy time with Keller.
The Indians had only one win on the season and were winless in District 4-6A. Eaton on the other hand had posted four wins and was undefeated in two district games.
Eaton (5-2 overall) did win on the strength of two Isaac Jones touchdown runs, but the Eagles were tested in a 21-10 win on Thursday night at Keller ISD Stadium.
The Eagles start district 3-0 for the first time in program history.
“They haven’t lost to bad football teams when you look at their losses,” said Eaton coach Ellis Miller. “That’s still a pretty good football team and they’ve been quarantined through that spell so I still would expect them to get into the playoffs. They’re a good team and well coached.”
Keller (1-5, 0-3) pulled to within 14-10 with four seconds left in the third quarter on a 19-yard field goal by Conner Lisenbee. The Indians had driven from their own 22 to the Eaton 3, but the drive stalled. A 43-yard pass play from quarterback Clayton Thomas to Amarion Henry gave Keller a first-and-goal at the Eagles’ 8.
Two running plays netted five yards and an incomplete pass forced the kick.
“Defensively we’ve always been pretty good and this is a special group,” said Miller whose team allowed 88 rushing yards on 36 carries by Keller and 241 yards total. “There’s not many holes.”
Keller did force an Eaton punt on the Eagles’ next series, but a chop block and holding penalties forced the Indians to punt it right back with 7:31 left in the game.
Taking over at its own 38, the Eagles took almost six minutes off the clock before Jones scored his second TD of the night on a 7-yard run to go up 21-10 with 1:38 left.
“Our offensive line is great,” said Jones. “From the center to the guards to the tackles they’re just amazing. My quarterback also, he blocks for me, my sniffer blocks for me and the camaraderie that we have is incredible.”
Eaton piled up 231 of its 353 total yards on the ground behind linemen Yonas Daniel, Heston Edwards, Trystan Butler, Hunter Erb and Joshua Garza. Quarterback Braden St. Ama led the way with 92 yards on 13 carries. Jones finished with 61 yards on 12 carries and backfield mate Jahbez Hawkins added 84 yards on 16 totes.
“Offensively you can see that our strength is our offensive line,” added Miller. “They’re really big, they’re really physical and they’re really athletic. When it came down to it at the end with nine minutes left we tried to do what we do best and that’s just grind it out and win the game.”
Eaton scored touchdowns on each of its first drives of each half. St. Ama hit Hawkins with a 33-yard pass play to set up Jones’ 14-yard scoring run with 8:24 left in the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead.
Keller answered immediately with a 15-play, 75-yard march to tie the game at 7. Running back Blake Burlison carried nine times on the drive and bulled his way in from the one to knot the score with 1:10 left in the first quarter.
Both defenses stepped up in the second quarter, but Eaton did threaten late in the period.
St. Ama hit Charles Whitebear with a 31-yard pass down to the Keller 14. On the ensuing play Jones broke free, but was hit and fumbled the ball into the end zone, where Keller’s Colton Vargas fell on it with 45 seconds left before intermission to end the drive.
“The first one was all my O line and I have to give them credit for everything,” said Jones. “After I fumbled I felt bad and got my head down, but my teammates encouraged me so much and that’s how I got my second touchdown.”
Eaton’s Jalen Thompson returned the opening kick of the second half 46 yards to midfield. A 31-yard run by St. Ama set up a 12-yard TD pass from St. Ama to Whitebear two plays later and the Eagles took a 14-7 lead with 9:37 left in the third.
“The past two years we started off 2-0 in district and lost out both years so it was good to get a close district win because in the past we were used to losing those,” said St. Ama who also threw for 122 yards, completing 8 of 15. “We knew that they were going to be a good team because we’ve played similar schedules. We knew it was going to be a tight one, but we came out on top.”
This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 11:51 PM.