by PARMA, Ohio – The St. Edward Eagles defeated Medina tonight by a score of 42-7 to advance to the Division One Semifinals. This win is their third consecutive Regional Championship as well. The night belonged to Brandon White who went off for 3 rushing touchdowns as he compiled 256 rushing yards on 20 carries for an incredible 12.8 per carry. This was all part of a 341 rushing yard night for the Eagles.
Casey Bullock who started the game in surprising fashion for the first time in over a month, also had a nice night as Bullock passed for 126 yards with 2 touchdowns on 7 of 12 passing. His main target was Zack Hackelman with 3 catches for 58 yards including a 41-yard touchdown. Brian Sullivan finished with two catches for 27 yards with a touchdown, he also had a rushing touchdown as well.
The Bees stuck to the pass, but it proved to be tough at times. Danny Stoddard went 13 of 26 for 154 yards with a touchdown. His main target was Austin Knowles who had a huge night with 8 catches for 121 yard including a 77-yard touchdown catch. Stoddard also ran for 45 yards on 8 carries.
Medina started with the ball and faced a fourth and short from their own 27 when they decided to go for it and convert on a 3-yard pass to Knowles. A few plays later a 22 strike to Hathaway got them cooking. Eventually the drive would stall however, and a turnover on downs occurred after moving the ball to the 29 of St. Ed’s but they just couldn’t move it any further. Knowles did catch 5 passes on the drive.
The Eagles stuck to the run on their first time with the ball, as Brandon White plowed ahead for one first down after another. They cashed in on a wideout end around run as Brian Sullivan took the toss and went 24 yards for the touchdown. They went 71 total yards on 9 plays with 8 of them runs.
Medina wasted no time striking back, the Bees stung the Eagles with a 77-yard pass to Knowles, who took off with it after he caught it a about 20 yards from the line of scrimmage. Knowles made a fingertip catch and then hit the jets! This tied it at 7-7 with 4:25 to play in the first. It was a one play 19 second strike.
After 3 and outs from both teams, the Eagles began to drive again. Once again it was Brandon White doing all the damage. He had 3 runs for all 53 yards as he concluded it with a 9-yard touchdown run to put the Eagles back up 14-7 with 1:10 to play in the opening quarter. The quarter ended by that same score.
The Eagles took flight on their next drive with big plays including a 35-yard pass to Kyan Mason and a 30-yard run by Brandon White. They found the endzone with a Brandon White 5-yard touchdown run. The drive went for 80 yards on 5 plays to extend the lead to 21-7 with 9:46 to play.
The Brandon White performance continued on the next Eagle drive as it only took two plays to score, both from White. The first a 21-yard run, and the next, a 52-yard touchdown run to make it 28-7 Eagles with 7:05 still to play in the opening half. The game went to half by that same score.
It took 3 plays and 56 seconds for St Ed’s to score in the second half as a 41-yard touchdown pass to Zach Hackelman made it 35-7. Two runs by Brandon White of 16 and 19 yards set up the score. White had accumulated over 225 yards at this point.
The next time the Eagles got the ball, it was time to set the clock, the running clock that is as a Bullock to Brian Sullivan 12-yard touchdown pass put the game out of reach with 8 plus minutes to play in the third quarter.
