Talawanda High School’s football team dominated play against the Eaton Eagles for all but about three minutes of its game last Saturday, but unfortunately for the Braves two of those minutes were the last two.

“We were down only three minutes of the 48 minutes in the game. About one minute at the beginning and the last two minutes,” coach J.D. Vonderheide said Monday. The game started Friday night but was suspended just a few plays into the action by lightning in the area and was resumed the next morning, with Eaton coming out on top 33-28.

Talawanda travels to Mount Healthy tonight to open Southwest Ohio Conference play against the Owls, a team that goes into the game 3-0, having outscored opponents 135-13, including a 61-6 win over Aiken last weekend.

“Mount Healthy is one of the toughest in the conference,” Vonderheide said. “Mount Healthy, Harrison and Northwest is the toughest three-game stretch we will have all year.”

Five plays were run Friday when Talawanda and Eaton squared off on Talawanda’s new turf field. Eaton had taken the opening kickoff back for a touchdown but missed its extra point and led 6-0. The Braves got the ball on a kick off and had a fourth-and-4 situation when lightning shut things down.

The game resumed at 10 Saturday morning.

The Braves went for the first down and made it, and then sophomore Maurice Thomas had a long run for a touchdown. The extra point was good and the home team led 7-6.

The Braves made it 21-6 on touchdown runs by Thomas. On the second, junior Dakota Byrd had gotten the Braves out the shadow of their own end zone after Eaton downed a punt at the 2-yard-line; Thomas ran 90 yards for a touchdown.

Eaton got a big pass play to make it 21-13.

Talawanda got a big kickoff return by Thomas in the second half, returning the ball to the Eaton 30, and it took the Braves four plays to get the touchdown, Byrd taking it the final yard for a score. With a 28-13 lead, Talawanda seemed to be in control.

Another 80-yard Thomas score was called back in the fourth quarter, however, or the lead might have been insurmountable.

Eaton scored again and made the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 28-21, and then scored again, but Talawanda knocked down the pass on a 2-point try and still led 28-27.

The Braves came up inches short on a fourth-and-2 and Eaton went down the field and scored the go-ahead touchdown, failing on a two-point conversion try.

“(Maurice) Thomas did an unbelievable job. The O-line did a nice job. The offense, at times, was clicking well,” Vonderheide said. “Miscues and let-downs hurt us. Penalties hurt us, especially on the 70-yard touchdown run (that was called back). Defensively, we are doing a nice job of getting people in the situations we want, but we gave up the big plays. Eaton’s scores were all on 50-plus yard plays.”

Mount Healthy presents another huge obstacle for the Braves tonight. The game will be on the road and the Owls may be the best team in the league.

“We are up for the challenge. I’m not sure they have been tested, yet, but we have a chance to be successful,” Vonderheide said. “They are very fast. They are very physical. They are pretty simple. They do not do a lot offensively or defensively. They just do what they do very well.”

Vonderheide said he could not pick out any specific players to watch from the Owls’ squad because they all are solid.

“The skill positions on offense and defense are very good,” he said. “They have very good offensive and defensive lines. They are explosive and big. Stats are spread out, so no one stands out. They have a lot of threats and are very multiple. It’s difficult keying on one guy.”

The kickoff tonight is at 7:30, and the Braves will be at Harrison next week before coming home to play Northwest Sept. 28 for Homecoming.