By By ROB BABLER / Niles Daily Star
NILES - From the opening kickoff, it was evident it was going to be "one of those nights" for the Brandywine football team against the Edwardsburg Eddies.
The Bobcats kicked off first in their home opener and kicked the ball out of bounds.
The Eddies declined the penalty and back David Daniels ran the ball to Edwardsburg's 41-yard line.
Two minutes later, Jeff Mortimer ran in the Eddies' first of seven touchdowns en route to a 53-0 whitewashing.
Edwardsburg scored three more times in the first quarter alone to take a 27-0 lead, figuratively putting out Brandywine's lights early, even as the team played its first game under its new actual lights.
Eddie coach Kevin Bartz said he felt comfortable having his team decline that first penalty.
Bartz said that got his whole team going. "From the first quarter right from the first kickoff we set the tone," he said. "Our offensive line blew them off the ball. Defensively, we stuffed them."
Brandywine's first possession lasted as long as the kickoff return, when the ball was fumbled and Edwardsburg recovered it on its 26-yard line. One play later, the score was13-0 as quarterback Steve Gowen hit tight end Scott Walker in the end zone, over a Brandywine defender. Walker was tightly defended, but held onto the ball after bobbling it twice.
Following a Bobcat punt from a three-and-out series, the Eddies scored on its third possession when running back Randy York, who had three carries, 48 yards on the night, crossed into the end zone, giving the visiting team a 20-0 lead. This, just five minutes into the first quarter.
Borr also said the key to the game was in one place – the line of scrimmage.
While Edwardsburg tacked on another touchdown late in the quarter, Brandywine could not even muster a single first down in the stanza.
Still, the Bobcats refused to quit. They kept attacking the Eddies with their running game.
In fact, Brandywine mounted its strongest scoring threat of the night in the second quarter. Following an Eddie punt, the Bobcats started on their own 15 and took five minutes off the clock, getting as far as Edwardsburg's 30-yard line.
Brandywine used a mix of runners that included Taylor Brenner, who had four runs, eight yards, Matt Duckett had 12 yards on six carries and and Caleb Frazier had 24 yards, 10 carries.
Even this ended in frustration, as the Bobcats fumbled the ball.
A few minutes later, with eight seconds left in the half, the Bobcats had the ball on their own 15, and lost the ball into the end zone, thus giving Edwardsburg a safety.
On the kickoff, Monty Ort returned the ball five yards, but then as he was being tackled, lateralled the ball to Mortimer, who took the ball 35 yards into the end zone to give Edwardsburg a 36-0 lead, which was just enough to cause a continuously-running clock in the second half. "That's something they ad-libbed at the last second," Bartz said of the lateral. That was a lucky play. The fact that we got the ball back was lucky. We got lucky with our little circus play."
The Eddies added a score in the third quarter, and two more in the fourth for the final score. Borr said after a loss like that, his whole team will need to examine itself.
The Bobcats host Buchanan next Friday for a Lakeland Conference game set to begin at 7 p.m.