Eastern High School

Winning can cure a lot of ills and Musketeer football needed a win in a bad way. On Friday, at Eastern Greene, the M's were able to enjoy the sweet taste of victory hanging on to a 14-12 win to spoil the Thunderbirds Homecoming. A program that last tasted victory in Week 1 (8-23-24) of last season, finally got to enjoy some success this year in spite of having over 10 players and 6 starters out with injuries. It was Coach Jordan Williams first career win. Coach gave credit to his players and coaches. "Every position group got better tonight - offensive line, defensive line, secondary - everyone did their jobs and did the with heart. We pride ourselves on playing a physical brand of football and tonight it showed. We found a weak spot in their defense, stuck with the game plan and wore them down. (senior) Brody Temple made his first career start at running back and ran for 158 yards behind a strong offensive line. Cordell Hurst scored is first career rushing touchdown and threw his first career passing touchdown. Kaleb Pacheco hauled in his first career receiving touchdown. On defense, we came up with some huge stops that saved us multiple times. Kort Rice stepped up big on both sides of the ball, Boston Lee delivered some big tackles, our secondary battled all night. Lucas Langley made his first career start at defensive tackle and was a difference maker. So many firsts tonight and it was the definition of a true team win." Williams went on to talk about the culture that he and his staff are working to establish at Eastern with their players. "On paper, we have had every reason to quit. Every excuse was sitting there waiting on us. But these kids have not quit. Since June (really their entire careers) they have been staring adversity in the eyes and have refuse to back down. They have carried themselves with toughness, pride and commitment to the Eastern Football standard and now they are starting to believe in themselves just as much as we (the coaches) believe in them. Proud doesn't begin to describe how I feel. The players are probably tired of hearing how much I love and appreciate them, but I'll keep saying it, I love these guys like my own." It was evident how important relationship building is to the Musketeer Football program as the players and coaches celebrated the victory and the players showed a lot love to their coaches, hoisting Williams in the air to celebrate his first victory as a head coach. In a season where finding a win has been hard to come by, with a program that has not enjoyed much success over its 19 years of existence, that is now on its 3rd coach in 3 years, what might have seemed like an excessive celebration to people on the outside, was a monumental moment that Coach Williams, his staff and kids will never forget. Simply put, a celebration of never giving up when there has been plenty of reasons to give up and reaping a small reward of hanging in there. The very experience that culturally, with the Eastern football program and community, needs to be celebrated after being rewarded with an exciting, hard fought win. A win with the all to familiar twists and turns that accompany the feeling of, 'here we go again', which likely was in every Musketeer faithful's mind throughout the game until the final second ticked off the clock. "We've cried together, laughed together, and even argued. But tonight, we celebrated together. This group embodies resilience-and tonight's win proved that." The Musketeers host North Harrison this Friday. It will also be Homecoming for Eastern, the 4th Homecoming of the year for the Musketeers.