By Brian FeesSouthern Tier Sports Report
ELMIRA HEIGHTS — All game long yards, and points, were hard to come by for the. Edison and Morrisville-Eaton football teams.
In the end, one touchdown run by Greg Golden in overtime was the difference as the Spartans shut down Morrisville-Eaton on their way to an 8-0 overtime win.
“It’s awesome, when you play a game that sloppy to pull out a win is really impressive,” Edison coach Kyle Erickson said. “Our kids overcame a lot of adversity today. We put ourselves in bad positions. Just a sloppy game by us, we made a lot of mistakes and to be able to be there at the end of the game and go to overtime 0-0 win the toss, go in and shove it right down into the end zone and then come out and do what our defense has been really good the past year and it looks like we are going to be good this year, we came out, shut the down got the ball back and it was game over. I couldn’t be more happy, I mean I’m upset with some of our kids with some of our decisions we made during the game, but as a team I couldn’t be happier with the way we came together at the end of the game and really fought hard.”
For the players the win was special.
“Feels wonderful, especially taking down a team that lost by two points to the defending state champs,” Golden said. “It was a dog fight and we worked together and came out on top.
“It was tough, it was a mental game, we stayed in there mentally, we just worked together as a team.”
Both teams had chances to score in the game, but the defenses were up to the task. At the end of the half Edison had a long fumble recovery, but Morrisville-Eaton got a turnover themselves and raced down to the three. But, the Spartans defense stood tall, stopping the on four straight plays.
That gave the Spartans confidence for the rest of the game.
“I think after shutting them down, they had three yards to score a touchdown, they had four plays to score, we shut them down and then after halftime we said we are going to come out and score and it’s going to be our game,” Golden said.
In the third quarter Morrisville-Eaton got to the six yard line, but Ze’Quan Mosley recovered a fumble to end the threat.
“Ze’Quan, he’s a new football player to us this year, he didn’t play last year he had a great game,” Erickson said. “Marcus Bradley is back on our team this year, he had a great game. That’s a really good team. They took the defending state champs in eight-man to the wire last week and they took us to the wire today and the only thing I hope this does is let everyone in the eight-man world know hopefully we are for real this year.”
With 7:29 left Mark Cornacchio had an interception to stop a scoring threat and Golden took off for a 66-yard touchdown on the next play. However, a holding penalty brought the play back, keeping things scoreless.
The Spartans had a drive inside the Morrisville-Eaton 20 in the final minute, but an interception ended the threat.
In overtime the Spartans turned to Golden on all three plays, and he capped the drive with a 12-yard touchdown run. Marcus Bradley then ran in the two-point try to make it 8-0.
“Talk about a kid that was doing everything he can to put the team on his back and it’s nice to know you have a kid that’s willing to do that for the team,” Erickson said of Golden. “I’m just more than impressed with him. Paxton Hoover started the first half, because we knew we were going to struggle on the offensive line, he went down on the offensive line today and played great in the first half, with situations and personnel we had to move him out. Our offensive line, we are young, we struggled at times, but man when it came down to the time, rushing in the touchdown to win, that has to be a little on our linemen, they were successful, but Greg Golden is a beast and he carried us today.”
Golden saw an opportunity and one his teammates would open a whole.
“I just knew they were going to be heavy on the right side, I knew my boys were going to open up a gap and I ran through it and there was the end zone waiting for me.
“I just trusted my brothers and we did it and won the game.”
After the touchdown run was called back earlier in the game Golden saw opportunities to make plays.
“I knew for sure they were breaking down, they were getting tired and we were only getting better, so I knew it was going to be soon after that,” Golden said.
Morrisville-Eaton then got their try from the 20-yard-line, where Mosley came rushing in, got the sack and forced the fumble and Golden recovered to seal the win.
“I jumped on it, and I knew he knocked it out and that’s all we had to do, I told him knock it out and I’ll recover it,” Golden said.
The recovery was in Golden’s legs.
“It was between my feet and they tried ti rip it out and I was holding it between my feet,” Golden said.
Golden ran for 95 yards on 21 carries. He had nine tackles, five for a loss, a half sack and a fumble recovery.
Niko Cheplick had 57 yards on two catches, five tackles on defense, one for a loss and a fumble recovery.
Jace Schiller threw for 35 yards and ran for 14.
Bradley had a catch, ran for 13 yards, had six tackles two tackles for a loss, 1 1/2 sacks and a fumble recovery.
Cornacchio had 10 yards rushing, a tackle and an interception and Mosley had six tackles, two sacks, a tackle for a loss and a forced fumble. Daniel Cruz had three tackles and a tackle for a loss.
This win is special.
“Greatest victory I’ve ever had playing at Edison for sure,” Golden said. “Gives us a lot (of confidence), I feel like a lot of people had doubt of us winning, not the team, but other people. But, I feel like this put us on the map and now they know who we are.”
Next week the Spartans take on Lansing.
“Just building upon what we need to do, keep working hard this week,” Erickson said. “We have Lansing on Saturday, they are going to be a tough opponent. Start the week over, 0-0, and hopefully be 1-0 next week again.”
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES
PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE GAME:
