Eagles bullied by Indians in home opener

It has been a long time since Holliday was completely outmatched by an opponent. It’s been an even longer time since it happened at home.

The Eagles got punched in the mouth early in a 40-22 loss to Jim Ned and never got off the mat.

The Indians seemingly out-Holliday-ed Holliday, rushing for 270 yards on the ground while averaging over 5.0 yards per carry. Jim Ned was the more physical team and exerted its will on the Eagles, up and down the field. Last Friday marked the first time since 2015 the Eagles gave up 40 points in the regular season and the only time since a 2017 regional final loss to Gunter.

“This one’s a tough one,” Eagles new head coach Kyle Atwood said. “We were hoping to come out and perform a little better than we did. Turnovers put us in a bad situation and we had some missed execution offensively and defensively. Ultimately we turned the ball over at inopportune times and we let that thing get away. Jim Ned’s a good football team but that thing should have been a one-score game had we taken care of the ball like we should have.”

Holliday was limited to just 9 yards on the ground on 25 attempts, averaging a paltry 0.4 yards per carry. It marks just the third time in the last decade the Eagles failed to reach double-digit yardage on the ground.

Despite all of this, the Eagles held a 14-10 lead with 3:54 to play in the first half before the wheels completely fell off.

Grant Cox connected with Isaac Villa on a bubble screen for a 77-yard score in the first quarter before finding Tyrese Polite for a 15-yard score that put the Eagles ahead 14-10 at the 3:54 mark in the first half.

Jim Ned responded with tempo and power, marching right down the field before an Aiden Ellis 3-yd run gave the Indians the lead for good. A fumble by the Eagles on their next possession gave the Indians a short field when quarterback Grant Beasley scampered 27-yards for a touchdown to push the lead to two scores at the 1:53 mark in the second quarter, 23-14.

Faced with a third and long around its own 20 with around 30 seconds to play in the half, Holliday called a double pass. Cox flipped back to a receiver before an errant backwards lob back to the Eagles’ quarterback gave the Indians another short field. Jim Ned booted through a 21-yard field goal to push the lead out to double-digits, 26-14.

Holliday never found a rhythm in the second half, throwing interceptions on the first play of each of its first two drives out of the locker room.

Jim Ned went into ball-control mode and the Eagles could not stop it.

The Indians marched down the field and scored, taking over six minutes off the clock to push the lead out to 33-14 at the 5:24 mark. Just 10 seconds later, a 21-yard pick six by Jim Ned’s Breck Lawson put the final nail in the Holliday coffin.

The Eagles managed a late score with just over a minute to play on a Cox quarterback sneak from the 1-yd line to make the score more respectable. Of Holliday’s six scoring drives this season, three have come off one-play scores of 75+ yards.

Cox finished the game 9-of-16 passing for 223 yards with two scores and two interceptions. Villa was his top-target, reeling in four passes for 127 yards and a score while Jaedin Kim caught two passes for 56 yards.

Running backs Kaison Yow and Tyrese Polite rushed for 8 yards and 7 yards, respectively, as the top-rushers for the Eagles.

Defensively, Holliday made just one stop in the Indians backfield. Collin Hays was all over the field for the Red and White, making a game-high 17 tackles while his partner in the middle, Parker Jones, had 11 stops.

Holliday makes the long trek to Idalou this week.