Liz Schiff | News Journal Photos
CHILLICOTHE — East Clinton’s defense had six sacks and held Huntington without a point Friday in a 12-0 Astros victory.
The season-opening win is the first defensive shutout for East Clinton since a 3-0 win over Hillsboro Oct. 10, 2014.
“Defense played fantastic,” EC head coach Steve Olds said. “Shut their (running) back down.”
On offense, Lukas Runk threw a pair of touchdown passes to Clayton Kimmey, who caught three passes for 66 yards.
Runk had seven completions for 62 yards. Glenn Peacock ran for 123 yards on 21 attempts.
Up next, Friday night at home, East Clinton welcomes former Kenton Trace Conference rival Cedarville. Last year, the Astros pounded Dayton Christian 34-14 in the opener then lost 54-6 to Cedarville and started on a five-game losing streak.
“I do feel like this year is a little bit different,” he said. “Last year we were young. We’re older now and will have better execution week to week. Cedarville is a solid football team. They have most everybody back. Watching them on film, I think we are better prepared to deal with them this year.”
Along with the rest of the schedule.
“Games are only going to get tougher,” Olds said. “There are things we can do better. This is my fifth year and the coaching staff has been around, too. The juniors and seniors in our program are our guys. There is an element of trust between us and the players. We can say what need to say and they can take it. We push them a little bit more. They know what we want, they know what the expectations are and when they don’t do it, they know we’re going to tell them about it.”
Against Huntington, the East Clinton defense stood tall.
“Their running back is a pretty football player,” said Olds. “It was obvious he was the guy they wanted to get the ball to. Their quarterback had some nice runs. We just put an extra man in the box. I don’t have the whole stats but I guess they didn’t have 50 yards rushing.”
Olds credited his players execution of the gameplan put together by defensive coordinator Bryan Floyd.
“I’m always confident in the plan coach Floyd and coach (Nick) Anderson has,” said Olds. “As coaches all we can do is put our kids in the best position we can. We have an older team now. They have an understanding of what we’re asking them to do, how to play their position. That helps them execute the plan better. It was obvious early on (Friday) night we had them locked up and they were uncomfortable.
“They executed better than I’ve seen a defense execute in a while. Last year we gave up a lot of points. They (the kids) hear the chirping too. They want to be better and (Friday) night was a good start.”
