If ESPN covered Eagle Football, the talking heads would have been focused on Holland Christian with their acrobatic receivers, strong-armed quarterback, and 6-2 record coming into Eagle Stadium. Not much talk would have been about the Eagles who, despite playing beautiful football at times throughout the season, hadn’t put all three of offense, defense, and special teams together in several games. From their studio, the analysts wouldn’t have been able to hear the pads popping and Eagle Drumline surging during pregame warmup or the love from the team and fans as the senior players and cheerleaders and their families were celebrated before the game. Watching on their screens, the reporters wouldn’t have heard the raucus cowbells and cheering from parents or felt the electricity in the blacked-out student section as the game began. There was something brewing in Eagle Stadium and Eagle fans felt it early.

Holland Christian took the opening kickoff from Will Buffalini and marched down the field to open the scoring. After the ensuing kick and a penalty during the return, the Eagles had their first possession from their own 10-yard line. A designed QB run by Charlie King and a precision 39-yard pass to TD Davis got the Eagles across midfield before a couple wobbly plays put the Eagles in 3^rd and 20. Spreading the Maroon Defense out with 3 WRs to the wide side of the field, King found Freshman Justin Davis on a screen pass to the short side. Following blocking from Trevor Moore and Cam Morgan and making a defender miss at the 10, Davis carried the last HC player across the goal line for the answering score. The 2-point try was a Rembrandt as King rolled right and threw back to offensive tackle Dane Fitzgibbon with Caleb Pugh in front and just one surprised defender within 15 yards! Eagles lead 8-7.

With the lead, the Eagles needed a defensive stop to get the energized offense back onto the field. Stops had been hard to manufacture the last few games and a couple of Eagle penalties kept HC moving but, on this night, the Men in Black were playing at a different level. Davis Hutt flew in for a huge QB sack. Hutt and Cam Morgan stuffed running plays and U’Maree Talley made a great tackle to minimize a gain through the air. Even though HC was driving, they were to try to convert on 4^th and 10 where TD Davis out-leaped the Maroon receiver and made the interception at the 5-yard line giving the Eagles the ball back. A catch, dash, and big defensive hit caused a fumble on the first play for GRC and set HC up with a short field the Maroons scored just two plays later and the score was 15-8 Holland Christian. What followed was an epic 16 play, 9-minute drive engineered by the offense. Featuring only two plays over 10 yards, the Eagles churned out three 3^rd-down conversions and one on 4^th down with Owens dashing through a huge hole carved by Morgan and Hutt. To end it, Owens bulldozed into the end-zone from the 1-yard line. The 2-point play was a Picasso with players lined up all over the place, baffling HC. King pitched to motion-man Aaron Gholston who then completed the pass to TE Nathan Larson. Eagles lead 16-15. Holland Christian got the ball back with 1:04 left in the half and could do nothing against the Eagles pass defense: Gholston stoned a wide-receiver screen, TD Davis and U’Maree Talley each swatted away a pass attempt. The Home side of Eagle Stadium was rocking as the game headed to intermission with GRC leading 16-15.

Coming out of halftime, GRC received the kickoff but was foiled by the Maroons defense and forced to punt. Holland Christian began their own long drive down the field using 13 plays and nearly 9 minutes of clock. The Eagles Defense bent and bent but didn’t give up the big play that has been troublesome at times this season. D-Linemen Trevor Moore and Dane Fitzgibbon stuffed running plays, Talley, Ty Damstra, and Owens kept pass plays in front of them and made secure tackles. With HC looking at 1^st and 10 from the Eagle 32 four huge plays in a row were made by the Eagles. Damstra swarmed into the backfield for a sack and forced fumble which HC recovered: 2^nd and 16. Drew Shripka wrestled an HC receiver down for a minimal gain: 3^rd and 14. Davis Hutt stood up a receiver short of the sticks: 4^th and 4. Thinking to catch the Eagles napping, HC tried a running play but Hutt sniffed it out, sprinted through traffic, and dropped the RB for a 2-yard loss! Eagles ball!

With the third quarter winding down and the ball on their own 28, GRC needed an offensive answer to the strong defensive stand. A short crossing route from King to Davis featured Davis breaking tackles, juking defenders, and gaining 39 yards. William Owens then took the handoff and juked, darted, and bulldozed Maroon defenders turning what should have been a 4-yard loss into a 2-yard gain. The next play, Davis ran a beautiful corner route and King dropped in a perfect pass for 23 yards and then a designed QB run saw King dart into the endzone for an 8-yard score through a huge hole carved by Caleb Pugh and Owens. The 2-point conversion was a Le Corbusier with LB Davis Hutt lined up in the backfield, taking the handoff, and just mashing through the line of scrimmage behind LT Kylon Bender and LG Caleb Pugh. Eagles go up two scores early in the fourth quarter, 24-15.

Holland Christian again tried to answer. The Eagle Defense bent and even helped HC with some ill-timed penalties. In the end though, too many Eagles stepped up to make key play after key play. Hutt flew through the O-line to stuff a run. Pugh and Fitzgibbon had a committee meeting at the quarterback for a shared sack. Owens dashed into the backfield to force a bad throw. Shripka stuffed a play for no gain at the 3-yard line. Hutt forced a holding penalty, Fitzgibbon batted down a pass. All of this set up HC for a 4^th and goal try at the 2-yard line. The defensive call has Owens blitzing from the offense’s left and Ty Damstra charging in from the right. Damstra got through clean and forced the QB to spin away and run straight into a punishing hit from Owens for a 10-yard sack and turnover on downs! 

With just over 5 minutes left on the clock, the HC defense seemed to expect GRC to try to grind down the field and work the clock. A short run by King on first down seemed to indicate that was indeed the plan. But second down saw something 2024 Eagles fans have seen several times this year: Aaron Gholston sprinting past defenders, King dropping in a perfect pass near midfield, and Gholston sprinting for an 86-yard TD! The two-point attempt was a Houdini with King handing off to Nathan Larson, King drawing defensive attention by going out for a pass himself, but Larson throwing to TD Davis all alone for the conversion! Eagles 32, Maroons 15 and the Eagles sideline and crowd were going crazy!

Holland Christian wasn’t done, and their offense moved the ball down for a score and two-point conversion but the Eagles forced them to be methodical and use up valuable time before scoring. An onside kick by HC didn’t travel the required 10 yards so the Eagles took over at the HC 43-yard line with 1:51 left in the game, leading 33-23, and really only needing a couple of first downs to force HC to use up their timeouts and kneel out the game. After an encroachment penalty by the Maroons, King dashed for 12 yards and a first down. Owens took the next handoff and, as he’d been doing all evening, ground out a gritty 5 yards. Owens took the next handoff, darted to his right, got a block from Gholston to seal the edge, and sprinted to the house for a 26-yard game-sealing score and the associated pandemonium on the Home Side of the field. A plain-vanilla 2-point try was unsuccessful but the Eagle Defense stopped the last-gasp effort from HC and the game was over. Eagles earn the win, 38-23 and get to ring the Eagle Stadium Bell.

This was a full-team effort: offense, defense, and special teams. Splashy plays and statistics are what fans remember but the detailed, ordinary plays by the offense, defense, and special teams to execute a block, pick up a blitzer, make a sure tackle, run a good pass route, and hold onto the football with defenders punching at it allow those splash plays to be made. For the game, Charlie King threw for 263 yards and 2 scores. Aaron Gholston and TD Davis both went over 100 yards on the day: Gholston 6 catches for 124 yards and a TD; Davis 4 catches for 101; Justin Davis caught one pass for the huge 36-yard opening score. On the ground, William Owens had 12 carries for 68 yards and 2 TD, King had 11 carries for 60 yards and 1 TD. Defensively, Davis Hutt was a missile on defense with 9 tackles and 3 tackles-for-loss including 2 sacks. Drew Shripka had 7 tackles and TD Davis tallied 6. The Eagles Defense totaled 6 sacks on the night: Hutt with 2, Caleb Pugh 1.5, Ty Damstra 1, Will Owens 1, Dane Fitzgibbon 0.5.

The Eagles thank all the parents, students, and fans for their support this season. Roll Eagles.