BY BRIAN FEESSouthern Tier Sports Report
SOUTHPORT — Nearly every time Jace Schiller touched the ball he made something happen on Friday night as the Edison football team opened the year with a 50-6 win at Notre Dame.
Schiller had seven total touchdowns, in one half, racking up 256 yards and six touchdowns on the ground in the first 16 minutes of the game.
“It’s great, great feeling,” Schiller said. “Better than I thought coming out here. Give it to my team for allowing me to come out here and do that. The preparation was great.
“It feels great coming out here and doing this. But, I can’t do this without my team. We come out here with the same intensity every game.”
Every Edison drive ended the same way on Friday as Schiller ran in for a touchdown everytime the offense was on the field.
“Jace Schiller is an outstanding young man and watching him blossom through this program the last couple of years, coaching him in Little League, and having him here and having the performance he had in the first half tonight, it’s awesome,” Edison coach Kyle Erickson said.
“But, to me it’s all on Jace. He’s put in the hard work trying to make himself better. He’s got some big goals this season and if he continues to have football games like that he’ll accomplish those goals.”
For Schiller a big key to his success was the play of the line in front of him.
“All day, free holes everywhere,” Schiller said. “It’s awesome. It makes everything so easy. I just have to keep running fast and hope no one catches me.”
Everyone on the line came up big in the game.
“I have to be impressed with all my offensive linemen,” Erickson said. “Not just the starting three in Daniel Cruz, Connor McNeely and Michael Grow, but also Landon Baumgardner, Ethan Barrett, Colton Erickson and Caleb Howard all got in there on the offensive line and I didn’t miss any beats with any of them in there blocking and it was a great day for the offensive line.”
For Notre Dame it was tough facing a talented, veteran team.
“Jace is a special player, Paxton (Hoover) is a special player. They are a really good team,” Notre Dame coach Donald Wainwright said. “I have to give them credit. We are young. We are growing, but we are young. We’ve got a long way to go.”
While Schiller had 256 yards on 17 carries in the game, with the six touchdowns, his final touchdown of the game came on the other side of the ball as he had a 97-yard pick six late in the second quarter.
“I wasn’t playing defense for that second quarter, then coming out and being able to get in for those last 5-6 plays and coming in and doing that,” Schiller said. “I have never had a pick six like that in varsity so it was nice to be able to do that.
“I saw daylight and I went. I wasn’t slowing, I was going hard.”
Schiller had two interceptions in the game. His earlier interception the Crusaders stopped him short of the pick six.
“I wanted that pick so bad,” Schiller said of the 97-yard score. “I wanted the first one bad, but being able to make that up and getting that second one feels great.”
Being a two-way player is special to Schiller.
“I pride myself a lot,” he said. “Being able to play both sides of the ball. It’s a blessing. I’ve just got to stay healthy.”
Schiller also completed passes for three two-point conversions in the game.
For Schiller it’s special to get a chance to be one of the senior leaders now.
“It feels great,” Schiller said. “I was taught since my sophomore year being taught by the seniors and seeing the things they went through and myself being able to put that on for this team and show the younger kids what it means to be a leader.”
The game was called at the half after a number of Notre Dame players took some hard hits, and one player left the game in an ambulance.
“We took some pretty bad lumps and we kind of made the decision based on our numbers to end early,” Wainwright said. “I don’t want to, but I’ve also got to look out for the safety of our players.
“They are in a different level than us. They are senior heavy and we are freshman heavy. It is what it is. But, we are going to keep fighting. We are going to keep going. It’s game one, we only can go up from here.”
The coaches know that it was probably best for the game to end when it did.
“They approached me with it,” Erickson said. “It’s probably for the best. It’s hard for us to coach our kids to not be aggressive. It’s probably the best situation to get both our teams through the season.”
Notre Dame got on the board in the second quarter at 9:58 when Brenzel McLaurin had an 81-yard kick return for a touchdown.
“That return is great,” Wainwright said. “Brenzel really broke that off. We thought he got wrapped up, but he got through it. That return is big. It’s a motivating factor for this team. Hopefully we can build off it.”
The Crusaders ran for 66 yards in the game with McLaurin leading the way with 24 yards. Archer Choi ran for 19 yards and Dominic Capriccio had 16 yards.
“Our ground game is there,” Wainwright said. “We are playing a little timid. Edison is a good team. They came out and were fighting and our kids kind of got an eye opener. I think there is a lot to work with, especially our ground game. Our ground game is going to be very strong.”
Next it’s on to face Moravia for the Spartans, the team that ended their season in the playoffs a year ago.
“We played Moravia in that playoff game and we play them next week,” Schiller said. “We are excited to see what we do against them next week.
“We saw this game on the schedule and then we saw Moravia. Tomorrow we are onto that game.”
With. Moravia week two it was important to not look past the opener, but opening with a rivalry game made it easier to stay focused on week one.
“It’s hard, but when we are coming out here playing Notre Dame, cross town rivals, love to come out week one Friday Night Lights,” Schiller said.
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES
