Edwardsburg firing on all cylinders in 55-0 win over Wildcats

Published 8:50 am Friday, September 3, 2021

By Ryan Haines

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EDWARDSBURG — The Eddies looked to have all the answers against the Three Rivers Wildcats during its convincing 55-0 Wolverine Conference win Thursday night.

This comes after Edwardsburg Head Coach Kevin Bartz said his Eddies played good, not great, against the defending Division 6 state champions Montague last week. A game in which the Eddies also won, 38-0.

“Compared to last week, we played a great game today,” Bartz said. “We dominated all aspects from kicking to defense to offense. We didn’t nearly have as many mistakes in this game offensively and defensively.  We were able to get a lot of kids involved tonight, an improvement from last week.”

The Edwardsburg (2-0) defense set the tone immediately in the first quarter forcing three consecutive three-and-outs and pushing the Wildcats’ offense to minus six yards, while the offense continued to click on all cylinders. Brett Allen and Connor Ostrander had touchdown rushes of 14 and 6 yards, respectively, to put the Eddies up 14-0.

Allen scored two more times in the second quarter. One a 19-yard pass from senior quarterback Jacob Pegura, and the other on a 26-yard run. Jacob Walker (9-yards) and Brenden Seabolt (3-yards) had scores as the Eddies’ lead ballooned to 41-0 at halftime.

Defensively, the Eddies held the Wildcats’ offense to 37 yards, who were without their starting quarterback Caleb Quake. He suffered a shoulder injury in the 36-34 overtime win against Paw Paw last week.

“Anytime you lose your starting quarterback, your offense will slow down,” Bartz commented.  “But I don’t think it changed this game that much.”

With a running clock throughout the second half, Edwardsburg was able to let other players get in on the action. Thirteen different Eddies had rushing attempts and finished with 341 rushing yards on 53 carries and seven touchdowns. Seabolt added his second score on an 8-yard rush in the third quarter, and backup quarterback Zach Bartz, muscled his way on a 22-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Overall, the Eddies totaled 384 yards and 27 first downs compared to the Wildcats’ 113 yards and four first downs. Edwardsburg also recovered a fumble and had an interception on defense.

On special teams, Edwardsburg senior kicker Trevor Houseworth went 7-of-8 on point-after attempts and consistently gave Three Rivers’ poor starting field position with six touchbacks on kickoffs. The only miss of the game was a blocked kick.

Edwardsburg travels to Niles Friday. The Vikings (2-0) defeated Buchanan 26-0 Thursday night. In his almost 30 years at Edwardsburg, Bartz has never faced the Vikings.

“This is going to be an exciting game,” Bartz said. “We are right next door and it will be an exciting time.  A lot of these kids know each other and have grown up playing different sports together.  This will be something our kids will get up for.”

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