Notre Dame senior Jordan Davis (7) tries to break a Meigs Eastern Eagle tackle during Friday night’s non-league football game at Portsmouth’s Spartan Municipal Stadium.

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

PORTSMOUTH — Unable to keep pace with Tyler Hill’s speed, the Notre Dame Titans’ tall mountain to scale on Friday night turned out to be too much.

That’s because the Meigs Eastern junior running back Hill had four touchdown dashes, including three of at least 42 yards, as part of a massive 268-yard and 21-carry rushing night — as undefeated Eastern captured a key 42-26 non-league victory inside historic Spartan Municipal Stadium in Portsmouth.

Billed as a battle between a pair of 3-0 clubs coming in, and both at the time listed in the top-four of the Division VII Region 27 computer ratings per the unofficial yet highly-respected rankings website www.joeeitel.com, all Notre Dame did was rally to within a touchdown twice — as the Eagles outscored the Titans 28-14 in the decisive second half.

Indeed, it was that same second half that saw Eastern blitzkrieg the Titans on the ground — to the tune of 22 times for 249 of their 288 total rushing yards.

Hill, himself, had a hat trick of trips to paydirt in the final 24 minutes — carrying 18 times for 219 yards, including end zone sprints of 60 on the opening play of the third quarter and another of 58 only five minutes and 10 seconds in.

Hill had a 10-yard TD run with two-and-a-half minutes left in the third frame —giving the Eagles a doubled-up edge and their largest advantage at 36-18.

That, of course, was with sophomore Hayden Wilcoxen kicking four extra points, as Hill had a two-point conversion run after his 60-yard scamper — only 13 seconds into the second half and making it 22-12.

Hill had a 33-yard reception as well — the same distance of which Treyvon Rembert rumbled for the Eagles’ and the game’s final score with four minutes remaining.

Last season, in Meigs County along Ohio Route 7, Eastern upended Notre Dame 12-7 — a defensive slugfest impacted by the Titans turning the ball over.

On Friday night, as the second-ranked Eagles soared to the top Region 27 spot while Notre Dame dropped from fourth to ninth, the Titans couldn’t contain Hill’s speed to the outside.

Hill had entered the contest with only five carries — but for 140 yards and two touchdowns.

His prominent presence was also the result of injured Eagles — as leading rusher Rylee Barrett (33 carries for 311 yards before Friday) went down with a hip pointer late in the first quarter and never returned, and second-leading rusher Gavin Smith (27 carries for 220 yards) did not play after injuring his ankle against South Gallia a week ago.

With Hill shouldering the load, many of the Eagles’ runs went to the periphery — instead of straight-up traditional power-blocking and running.

Either way, it worked for both Hill and the Eagles’ offensive line in their Friday night scheme— and Notre Dame’s defense didn’t stop it.

“We knew Tyler (Hill) had some speed, but in our power game, we are trying to build depth, and Tyler against South Gallia only started at cornerback on defense. But he did the same thing last week. Tyler goes in later on in the game, and I believe had an 80-yard touchdown run and a 50-yard touchdown run. Notre Dame’s scheme is very sound as far as playing defensive gaps. But our offensive line came through for us tonight,” said second-year Eastern head coach Jason Jackson. “We have been practicing a full ‘T’ (formation), two-tight (tight ends) blocking scheme which we felt we could take care of what they (Titans) were doing on defense, and it worked.”

What also worked for Eastern?

Not allowing Notre Dame senior standout Jordan Davis really breaking loose until the fourth quarter, and putting pressure on Titan sophomore quarterback Ethan Kingrey.

Now Kingrey did get free for a 34-yard touchdown jaunt to make it 22-18 with 4:51 gone by in the third, and Davis caught a Kingrey screen pass and took the pigskin 55 yards to the house with nine minutes remaining, but the Eagles were in the Titan backfield on a regular basis otherwise.

Kingrey’s carries, aside from his touchdown run, only added to three yards on nine attempts.

The Eagles amassed nine tackles for loss, and sacked Kingrey four times.

“We had to make some adjustments on defense, putting kids on the defensive line that aren’t really true defensive linemen, but I still thought we could wear them down with those kids. And we did,” said Jackson. “We got a few sacks there in the second half, finally got to the quarterback.”

The Titans punted three times, turned the ball over on downs on back-to-back first-quarter possessions, failed to convert on a fake punt late in the third, and turned the ball over on downs one final time with 1:45 remaining.

In all four instances in which Notre Dame didn’t make a first down on a 4th-down go-for-it call, it was on the Eagles’ side of midfield — including three times of at least inside the Eastern 35-yard line.

Notre Dame sophomore quarterback Ethan Kingrey (8) completed three touchdown passes and threw for 200 yards in the Titans’ 42-26 loss against undefeated Meigs Eastern.

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

Kingrey completed 19-of-31 passes for 200 yards with his own hat trick of TD tosses — and rallied the Titans to a 14-12 halftime deficit.

Hill, only three minutes in and on the game’s fifth play and following an ND three-and-out, had his 42-yard touchdown run — then a mere minute and four seconds into the second period and following the Titans’ second punt, sophomore QB Ethan Edwards hooked up with Gavan Murphy for a 27-yard scoring strike.

With Wilcoxen’s opening extra-point kicks, that made it 14-0 — only 14 minutes and four tics gone by.

Notre Dame senior Brock Shepherd (57) recovers an Eastern Eagle fumble during the first quarter of Friday night’s non-league football game at Spartan Municipal Stadium.

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

But sandwiched around an Eastern turnover, the Titans produced second-stanza scoring drives of 15 plays and 69 yards in five minutes and 20 seconds and 13 plays and 43 yards in two minutes and 40 seconds to get within 14-12.

Kingrey completed touchdown passes of nine yards to Chris Piccolo (14-6) and 11 yards to Luke Cassidy — as Cassidy caught seven passes (58 yards), Davis four (78 yards) and Piccolo three (47 yards).

“Notre Dame had a great gameplan holding the ball on us and running the (Jordan) Davis kid up the middle and then passing, and we got so tired in that first half,” said Jackson. “At halftime, we just decided to put some lighter guys up front and some guys that could move. That really paid off for us. I’m really proud of our defense.”

A “lighter” guy in the speedy Hill — breaking off big runs — had 20 of the Eagles’ next 22 points, over a span of 15 second-half minutes.

With Davis’ touchdown and two-point conversion run making it a 10-point game at 36-26, the Eagles immediately answered — as Rembert’s run to daylight capped an eight-play, 65-yard and four-minute possession.

This week, on Friday night and once again at Spartan Municipal Stadium, the Titans tangle with another undefeated — and top-rated region team.

Williamsburg’s Wildcats are also 4-0, and are ranked first in Division VI of Region 24.

The Wildcats have scored at least 34 points in all four of their games, including at least 54 in two of the past three.

* * *

Meigs Eastern 7 7 22 6— 42

Notre Dame 0 12 6 8— 26

ME — Tyler Hill, 42-yard run (Hayden Wilcoxen kick), 9:09, 1st (7-0 ME)

ME — Gavan Murphy, 27-yard pass from Ethan Edwards (Hayden Wilcoxen kick), 10:56, 2nd (14-0 ME)

ND — Chris Piccolo, 9-yard pass from Ethan Kingrey (pass failed), 5:32, 2nd (14-6 ME)

ND — Luke Cassidy, 11-yard pass from Ethan Kingrey (run failed), :17, 2nd (14-12 ME)

ME — Tyler Hill, 60-yard run (Tyler Hill run), 11:47, 3rd (22-12 ME)

ND— Ethan Kingrey, 34-yard run (run failed), 7:09, 3rd (22-18 ME)

ME — Tyler Hill, 58-yard run (Hayden Wilcoxen kick), 6:50, 3rd (29-18 ME)

ME — Tyler Hill, 10-yard run (Hayden Wilcoxen kick), 2:35, 3rd (36-18 ME)

ND — Jordan Davis, 55-yard pass from Ethan Kingrey (Jordan Davis run), 9:02, 4th (36-26 ME)

ME —Treyvon Rembert, 33-yard run (kick failed), 3:59, 4th (42-26 ME)

Team Statistics

ME ND

First downs 13 21

Scrimmage plays 41 77

Rushes-yards 34-288 47-169

Passing yards 94 200

Total yards 382 369

Cmp-Att-Int. 5-7-0 19-31-0

Fumbles-lost 2-2 3-0

Penalties-yards 7-53 11-55

Punts-Ave. 2-49 3-25.3

——

Individual Leaders

RUSHING —Meigs Eastern: Tyler Hill 21-268 4TD, Treyvon Rembert 2-48 TD, Rylee Barrett 3-2, Ethan Edwards 1-(-2), Cooper Barnett 1-(-5), Team 6-(-23); Notre Dame: Jordan Davis 26-132, Ethan Kingrey 10-31 TD, Myles Phillips 6-12, Bryce McGraw 1-4, Luke Cassidy 3-(-5), Team 1-(-5)

PASSING — Meigs Eastern: Ethan Edwards 3-3-0-77 TD, Cooper Barnett 2-4-0-17; Notre Dame: Ethan Kingrey 19-31-0-200 3TD

RECEIVING— Meigs Eastern: Gavan Murphy 2-44 TD, C.J. Smeeks 2-17, Tyler Hill 1-33; Notre Dame: Luke Cassidy 7-58 TD, Jordan Davis 4-78 TD, Chris Piccolo 3-47 TD, Myles Phillips 3-11, Bryce McGraw 2-6

Reach Paul Boggs at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1926, by email at [email protected], or on X @paulboggssports © 2023 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved