Adjusting to the life of varsity football can be rough for an underclassman.

The pace of play goes up, the talent around players is at a different level than they’ve ever been used to and the demands and expectations rise for every player.

But for Ethan Meadows, it seems that he has pushed past any and all of those concerns, acclimating with ease to the ways of varsity life and thriving in the Tompkins offense through five games, despite being a sophomore who entered the year with no varsity experience.

Meadows started the season and his varsity career with a bang, rushing for 94 yards and touchdown in Tompkins season opening win over Cy-Ranch and he hasn’t slowed down. Through five games, Meadows has steadily improved, and on Thursday, the sophomore broke out with the best game of his varsity career and one of the best games he’s had at any level, rushing for 194 yards on 27 carries and catching five passes for 60 yards while scoring six total touchdowns, four on the ground and two receiving, in Tompkins 48-27 win over Mayde Creek.

“Ethan is just becoming more relaxed and the game is slowing down for him, you can see it happening every week” said Tompkins head coach Todd McVey. “Anytime you play a young guy, they’re so eager and they just want to go, but you can see now after five games how he’s becoming patient, seeing the holes and hitting where he’s supposed to, we’re just really pleased with everything he’s brought to us. But none of that matters without the offense line and those guys, especially tonight, did such a great job as well.”

Meadows has improved each week and his career day came off of Tompkins bye week, but it was a performance that had been coming for the sophomore. There was no important time it could have come either, as the win stopped a three-game losing streak for the Falcons, including losing their first two district games.

Meadows was instrumental in that success, whether it was running the ball, catching it or blocking, he was a part of everything the Tompkins offense did and while his ability was apparent, it was the toughness of Meadows that stuck out. He fought through every tackle, broke huge gains on plays where he was hit behind the line of scrimmage and worked for every yard he got. Things like that don’t go unnoticed with teammates and coaches and it inspired others to play even harder, teammates blocked harder, finished runs harder and never gave up on plays because if this sophomore was doing it, then that expectation goes for everyone.

“The only thing I know when I get the ball is that I’m just not going down,” Meadows said. “I know that you are going to have to bring a couple of people to bring me down because I’ll keep fighting. That’s just the attitude I have, I never want to go down easily.”

Meadows has the ability, drive and desire, but he’s also set up for success by his team. The offensive line made holes for Meadows all night in the win and one thing that the Falcons want to do in every game is build off the run, they ran Meadows early and often and got him involved in the pass game as well.

Meadows also gains room on runs from the teams read option. The Falcons run it a lot and Justin Thierheimer is very adept at keeping the ball in the belly of Meadows until the very last second when he makes a decision on whether to pull it and run himself, or hand off to Meadows. That keeps defenses honest, makes them not dive in at the running back and gives Meadows extra room to maneuver in the backfield as the front seven of the defense has to stay flat footed and honor both players that might run the ball.

“It just forces so much from the defense,” Meadows said. “Justin is so good at keeping that ball for as long as he can and forcing them to make a decision. Obviously it forces whoever the read key is to stay but it does the same for the rest of the defense too. They don’t know who is going to get the ball and if they react one way then we’re going to make a big play going the other way.”

Meadows is showing no signs of slowing down as we hit the midway point of the regular season. Through five games, the sophomore has 524 rushing yards and 10 total touchdowns, averaging over 100 yards per game on the ground and two touchdowns per game. He knows he is just scratching the surface of what he can do and both he and the team are striving for greater heights down the stretch.

“The great thing about this level is that it doesn’t matter who you are, once you take a couple hits in a game you’re a varsity running back, age does not matter when we’re playing the game,” McVey said. “His seeing the game and understanding of the concepts the coaches put in front of him has been great. He’s seeing the running lanes, he’s making the right reads and once he does that the natural ability starts to take over. We’re starting to see that final part a little bit more and it’s been fun to watch. We’re looking forward to a lot more of it.”