Strong performance gets Edison by Toronto, 35-19

AROUND THE EDGE — Edison quarterback JD Henderson gets around the edge past Toronto’s Drake Bouscher during Friday’s game. Henderson threw for two scores and ran for another to help the Wildcats to a 35-19 victory. – Andrew Grimm

TORONTO — Those questioning whether Edison’s offense could keep up with Toronto’s high-powered offensive unit going into Friday’s game may have been overlooking something — the Wildcats defense is pretty good, too.

While it did give up yards, the Edison defense came up with three key interceptions and a couple big stops when it needed them, while the offense did more than enough to lift the Wildcats to a huge 35-19 rivalry win at Clarke Hinkle Stadium.

“I’m really proud of our defense and our defensive coaches,” Edison head coach Mike Collopy said. “We had a game plan and our kids executed. A team like Toronto, they have so many weapons, you’re not going to stop them, you just have to try to contain them and try to get some turnovers, which we did.

“I’m just really happy for our kids. They played really hard; they played physical. I think we just keep getting better and we need to keep getting better. Every week we need to learn and it’s better to learn after a win.”

Zack Vangosen, Nolan Haught and Matt Evans each had an interception, and the Wildcats also forced and recovered a key fumble in the second half.

On offense, quarterback JD Henderson was up to the task, going 8 of 13 for 204 yards, including a pair of long touchdowns in the second half that helped Edison take a multi-score lead, and added another 79 yards and a score on the ground.

Brett Worrels (68 yards) and Evan Kimmerle (41 yards) each ran for a touchdown, while Cole Pittman hauled in a 64-yard score to finish with 80 yards on three catches and Nolan Haught hauled in a 47-yarder, netting 68 on two grabs.

“In the first half we wanted to run the ball and then try to open some things up … coach (Anthony Pierro) and the offensive coaches did an outstanding job,” Collopy said. “Coach (Jason) Fogle and (Pierro) had an excellent game plan.

“It was a complete team effort; a lot of guys made some big contributions. Nolan made some nice catches, JD had some nice throws and runs, Brett had some nice runs, our special teams, Matt Evans forced a big fumble … our D-line gave it everything they had, our secondary made plays. We knew it was going to take the whole the team and that’s what it took.”

Zeb Kinsey had another night of 400-plus yards of total offense, passing for 323 and two scores and rushing for 108 and another TD, but his three interceptions — two ending the first two drives of the game for the Red Knights — were costly and several other mistakes by Toronto, including an ineligible man down field penalty that negated a touchdown right before halftime, were too much to overcome.

“We had some mistakes but ultimately the responsibility for that falls on me as the head coach,” Toronto coach Jaret Aubiel said. “Maybe we could have done some things different, but that falls on me. That’s the way it goes sometimes.

“The illegal man down field penalty really hurt us, it was a miscommunication and that is something we have to be better at.”

Kimmerle capped Edison’s first drive with a 1-yard plunge for a 7-0 lead, which the picks by Evans and Vangosen made stand up at the end of the first quarter.

The Red Knights (4-2) got a big fourth down stop in the red zone, then Kinsey fired his first of two TD passes to Mason Marchbank (149 yards on eight catches) on a fourth down play the other way to knot the score with 1:01 to play before the break.

Edison (5-1), though, went right down the field in a short amount of time to answer, Henderson running for a 2-yard score after hitting back-to-back completions for 58 yards to set it up.

Toronto appeared to have answered again with five seconds left after Kinsey marched them down the field with a couple big completions, but the aforementioned penalty negated the score, and the subsequent pass was broken up as time expired, leaving it 14-7 Wildcats at halftime.

The Wildcats forced a turnover on downs on the first Toronto drive of the second half, then Henderson scrambled out of the pocket and fired a 47-yard bomb to Haught, who made the catch in double coverage on the goal line to make it 21-7 Wildcats.

After Toronto answered with a 5-yard Kinsey scoring run, Edison went to the trickeration to go back up two scores as Henderson got the ball back on a flea flicker and fired a perfect dime to Cole Pittman in stride wide open behind everyone for a 64-yard scoring connection.

Toronto fumbled the ensuing kickoff but got some life back when Aiden Filby intercepted a pass on the next play on a deep shot to the end zone.

However, that was short lived as Haught intercepted a Kinsey pass on the next drive.

The Knights did force Edison to punt, and this time scored as Kinsey fired a 20-yard strike to Marchbank, but a conversion run failed leaving it a two-score game at 28-19.

Worrels then capped a final Edison scoring drive with a 3-yard run with under five minutes to play and the Wildcats defense forced a turnover on downs with just over a minute to go to seal the deal.

UP NEXT

Edison: Returns home to host 2-4 East Liverpool next Friday.

Toronto: Welcomes 2-4 Buckeye Local next Friday.

Edison 35, Toronto 19

E 7-7-14-7 – 35

T 0-7-6-6 – 19

SCORING PLAYS

First Quarter

E: Kimmerle 1 run (Kirkman kick) 5:48

Second Quarter

T: Marchbank 16 pass from Kinsey (Henry kick) 1:01

E: Henderson 2 run (Kirkman kick) :36

Third Quarter

E: Haught 47 pass from Henderson (Kirkman kick) 4:09

T: Kinsey 5 run (pass failed) :34

E: Pittman 64 pass from Henderson (Kirkman kick) :11

Fourth Quarter

T: Marchbank 20 pass from Kinsey (run failed) 7:59

E: Worrels 3 run (Kirkman kick) 4:44

RUSHING: Edison 41-188-3TD (Henderson 15-79-TD; Worrels 18-68-TD; Kimmerle 8-41-TD); Toronto 27-162-TD (Kinsey 16-108-TD; Fair 6-39; Bouscher 5-15)

PASSING: Edison 8-13-2TD-INT (all by Henderson); Toronto 20-35-323-2TD-3INT (all by Kinsey)

RECEIVING: Edison 8-204-2TD (Pittman 3-80-1; Kirkman 2-47; Haught 2-68-TD; Freeman 1-9); Toronto 20-323-2TD (Marchbank 8-149-2TD; Filby 5-94; Fair 4-54; Henry 1-16)

FIRST DOWNS: Edison 14; Toronto 21

FUMBLES-LOST: Edison 2-0; Toronto 2-1

PENALTIES-YARDS: Edison 4-46; Toronto 8-65

PUNTS-AVG: Edison 2-40.5; Toronto 0-0