Eastern High School

Musketeer football earned its second win in as many weeks by ousting the Eastern Greene Thunderbirds, 16-7 behind sophomore running back, Cole Martin's 311 yards and 2 TDs. Eastern's record now stands at 2-3 as they head into what remains of their old MSC schedule with a visit to North Harrison in week 6, before county rival, Salem comes to Pekin in week 7. This game was supposed to be Homecoming, but those plans were derailed by an early evening storm front that developed and rolled in just before kick-off. Lightning and thunder settled into the area delaying the game for 2 hours before the teams got the ok to take the field and play. A small group of faithful fans from both sides remained to watch the game playing into the late night. Neither team could find the endzone in the first half though the Musketeers had a few opportunities after moving the ball deep into Eastern Greene territory. After the half, the Thunderbirds struck first on a 60 yard pass play to put Eastern Greene up 7-0. The Musketeers responded after a long kick return by senior Eli Houglin gave the Musketeers quality field position to set up a scoring drive on the back of sophomore Cole Martin and the M's running game. Martin was difficult for the Thunderbirds to stop and punched the ball in for his first score of the night and followed it up with a 2 point version. The Musketeers defense would prevent the Thunderbirds from scoring again despite another long pass play that put the T-birds within close range. The Musketeers added another 8 pointer with Martin scoring another TD and 2 point conversion to create the final score of 16-7. Coach Williams praised his team including a special shoutout to the offensive linemen, Peyton Spitznagel, Cash Stucky, Lucas Hein, Bryson Shanks, Axel Lee and big Matthew Dansby. With a lot of the game being played in the rain and wet field, the passing game was negated and the linemen paved the way for a monster game from Martin who ran for 311 yards on 38 carries including the 2 TDs and 2 two-point conversions. His longest run was a 43 yarder. Kylan Roll chipped in 38 yards on 6 carries and Houglin ran 3 times for for 24 yards including a 17 yarder. The return game was also lead by Houglin's 32 yard return which set up the M's first scoring drive. The defense was strong again only giving up a few long pass plays, one which lead to the T-Birds lone score. The other long pass set up the Eastern Greene inside the 5, but the M's stood strong in the red zone preventing the T-Birds from finding the end zone. Junior, Kort Rice lead the team with 6 tackles and sophomore Jackson Hoffman had 5 as twelve Musketeers had at least 1 tackle. Sophomore, James Caswell had the lone sack for the Musketeers before leaving the game and field with a scary injury. Test came back negative for Caswell and he hopes to return to the squad soon. Rice and sophomore, Boston Lee both had interceptions for the Musketeer defense. Overall, the Musketeers and their faithful were happy to come away with a win in spite of the weather disrupting Homecoming festivities. Homecoming will be rescheduled for one of Eastern's remaining home games with that information will be released at a later time. Meanwhile, the M's head to North Harrison this Friday to play the Cougars at 7pm. Forecasts indicate fall weather finally arriving towards the end of this upcoming week.