Edwardsburg falls to Paw Paw 16-7 in opening round of playoffs

Published 11:47 pm Friday, October 27, 2023

By Max Harden

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PAW PAW — Fans in attendance for the Division 4 pre-district game between Edwardsburg and Paw Paw Friday Night were treated to a hard-hitting slugfest.

In a game that saw Paw Paw on the ropes, the Red Wolves came from behind to beat the Eddies 16-7 in a battle decided in the final moments.

The Red Wolves will fact Niles next week in D4 district championship play.

“They brought it tonight,” said Edwardsburg Coach Dan Purlee. “They came to play. We believed; we’ve been playing much better. We expected to come over here and win. That’s part of the reason it hurts so bad. The other part is you got a group of seniors that you don’t get the opportunity to share this game with and move forward, and that’s hard. I have a ton of respect for these guys; they’ll be missed.”

The game was a rematch between the two Wolverine Conference foes. The Red Wolves defeated the Eddies 35-0 in Week 6. Unlike the first matchup, Edwardsburg found the end zone and struck first. Capitalizing on a Paw Paw fumble, quarterback Zeke Pegura found Grant Griffin for a 2-yard touchdown pass to go up 7-0 in the second quarter.

The Red Wolves responded a few minutes later with a 36-yard touchdown pass to tie the game with 1:20 left in the half. With 11 seconds remaining, Pegura was tackled in the end zone for a safety that gave Paw Paw a 9-7 halftime lead.

With 7:16 in the third, DeYoung punched in a 1-yard touchdown run to round out the scoring for the game.

Trailing in the fourth quarter, the Eddies continued to battle. Edwardsburg’s final drive of the season took them to the Paw Paw 15 with a chance to make it a one-score game. On the ensuing possession, Pegura was sacked for a loss to stymie the drive with just over a minute left in the game. A Houseworth field goal attempt was no good.

The Eddies finished the season with a 5-5 record. After losing their first two games, the Eddies won five of their last seven to earn a playoff berth. For Purlee and his coaching staff, saying goodbye to the seniors after the game was difficult.

“The first thing that comes to mind is the quality of people they are and just great kids,” he said. “They’re dedicated, committed, and fun to be around. They’re  just a classy group of guys, you know that I enjoyed coaching.”

While the season fell short of traditional standards, Purlee was impressed with the way his team handled adversity.

“It was a different season for Edwardsburg football,” Purlee said. “We had a challenging schedule; we graduated 28 seniors a year ago, and we had a group of guys that lacked experience at the varsity level. I would say their ability to come work every day and do whatever we coaches asked of them and to do it to their best ability was phenomenal.

“We had a lot of injuries and a lot of adversity to overcome throughout the year. We finally got a little bit healthy towards the end of the year, so things went a little bit better. We got some experience, and we were just playing at a higher level. They came with a good work ethic all week in practice and with the mindset that we’re going to win this game. It’s just hard because we expected to win.”

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