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St. Edward defense shuts down Genoa-Kingston
| Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media |
ST. EDWARD 21, GENOA-KINGSTON 0
SE . 0 . 7 . 0 . 14 -- 21
GK . 0 . 0 . 0 . 00 -- 0
SE - Brockner 8 pass from B. French (J. French kick), 5:26
SE - Duffy 5 run (J. French kick), 8:09
SE - Duffy 66 run (J.French kick), 1:07
Team Stats---------------SE----------GK
First downs--------------11-----------4
Comp.-att-int.---------5-10-0 ------1-5-2
Passing yards-----------123----------10
Rushing att.-yards-----31-217-------46-69
Total yards-------------340----------79
Fumbles-lost------------5-5---------3-1
Penalties--------------1-15---------3-15
Individual Statistics
Rushing
SE - Duffy 13-162, Elan 12-61, Gudino 2 -(-6), Johnson 2-5, French 1 -(-5)
GK - Scumacher 8-34, Williams 20-30, Ruiz 2-10, Price 11-0, Mazza 5-(-2)
Passing
SE- French 5-10-0-123
GK- Price 1-4-1-10, Camargo 0-0-1-0
Receiving
SE - Brockner 3-93, Jaimes 1-31, Gudino 1 -(-1)
GK- Williams 1-10
The five turnovers committed by St. Edward on Friday night could have been disastrous if it wasn’t for the Green Wave’s stingy defense bailing out the mistake-prone offense.
The Green Wave was able to overcome the setbacks, and behind 162 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns from senior Luke Duffy defeated visiting Genoa Kingston 21-0 on Friday at Greg True Field. The loss for the Cogs snaps a nine-game win streak in season openers.
The St. Edward defense held the G-K to just 79 yards of total offense. Defensive lineman and Division-I recruit Evan Finnane led the effort with six tackles for losses, including a pair of sacks.
The Green Wave’s defense was called upon early to keep G-K off the scoreboard. St. Edward fumbled the opening kickoff, giving the Cogs the ball at the St. Edward 44-yard line. However, the Cogs were unable to take advantage as they were forced to punt after three plays that netted only three yards.
On St. Edward’s first offensive play from scrimmage, Duffy coughed up the ball at his own 15-yard line to give the Cogs another golden scoring opportunity. However, Duffy redeemed himself with an interception inside the 5-yard line on a fourth-down play.
“We have a lot of faith in our defense,” said St. Edward coach Mike Rolando. “It was certainly put to the test tonight and they responded in a big way. They made some big plays when we really needed them.”
After weathering the early storm, the Green Wave’s offense was able to get on track, and Duffy played a key role in all three scoring drives.
His 29-yard punt return to the G-K 31-yard line midway through the second quarter followed by an 18-yard run set up the Wave’s first score. Three plays later quarterback Bob French (5-of-10 for 123 yards) found Matt Brockner in the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown pass to put St. Edward up 7-0 with 5:26 left in the half.
St. Edward had a chance to add to the lead just before halftime but fumbled the ball away at the Genoa Kingston 1-yard line, leaving the Wave with a narrow 7-0 advantage until finally putting the game away in the fourth quarter.
Duffy had runs of 18, 11, and 23 yards on St. Edward’s first possession of the final quarter before finally scoring on a 5-yard run with 8:09 left to play to put the Wave up 14-0. Duffy capped his big night with a 66-yard touchdown run with less than two minutes left to play.
“I have to give the credit to my offensive line and my fullback Ryan Johnson,” said Duffy. “Early on (G-K) was doing a good job of filling the gaps. But the guys in front of me made some nice adjustments to give me some room to run. You know we had to show a lot of mental toughness tonight. We weren’t going to let the mistakes bring us down.”
G-K was unable to get anything going offensively as it managed just four first downs. The Cogs also had three turnovers of their own
“You would like to see the turnovers created by the defense carry over to the offense,” said first-year G-K coach Travis Frederick. “But we just never got the big play to spark us. Their defense really took away a lot of what we were trying to do with running the ball.”
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