El Dorado Finally Gets Rolling to Beat Cypress

El Dorado’s offense, dormant in the first half, scored two third-quarter touchdowns in a 21-0 victory over Cypress in an Empire League opener Thursday night at Western.

The Golden Hawks managed only 48 yards rushing in the first half, then put together 55- and 65-yard drives in the third quarter.

“Our offensive line did an outstanding job getting off the ball in the second half,” El Dorado Coach Rick Jones said. “We were fired up.”

Cypress (2-4, 0-1 in league) opened the game with a 50-yard drive, with Kelly Patterson carrying the ball on the first five plays for 41 yards. The drive ended when Andrew Thome missed a 47-yard field goal attempt.

El Dorado took a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter when Donny Dymond intercepted a tipped pass and returned it 62 yards for a touchdown. Mark Wade made the first of three successful conversion kicks.

A 33-yard punt return by Aaron Campbell to the Cypress 21 set up another scoring opportunity for the Golden Hawks, but a 22-yard field goal try by Wade went wide.

El Dorado (5-1, 1-0) put together a 10-play, 55-yard touchdown drive to open the second half with Steve Warfield scoring from the three.

Two plays later, Dymond made his second interception of the game, giving El Dorado the ball on the Golden Hawk 35.

El Dorado stayed on the ground, running off eight plays, the longest a 20-yard gain by Warfield. Warfield scored from the two to increase the lead to 21-0 with one minute left in the third quarter.

Warfield finished with 126 yards and Brandon Fischer added 98 for the Golden Hawks.

The El Dorado defense limited Cypress to one first down and only 20 yards in the second half.