By Skip Weaver
Contributing writer
ST. CLAIR TWP. — Edgewood had upset on its mind when Bellbrook – the state’s No. 1-ranked team in Division III – came to town on Friday night, but the Golden Eagles were able to shake off a slow start and pull away in the second half for a 27-6 win spoiling Homecoming night for the Cougars at Kumler Field.
The Edgewood defense played well in holding its opponent to just a field goal and one touchdown in the first half, but in the second half Bellbrook found the end zone twice on rushing plays and also garnered a safety after its own defense forced an Edgewood fumble that went out the back of the end zone.
“Our defense really battled tonight,” Edgewood coach Matt Root said. “That’s such a hard offense to stop, you know, but they kept battling. They forced them into some penalties to get off the field and get us the ball back offensively with chances to get back into the game. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t hit that play that we needed to get back into it.
“I’m proud of our guys because of the way they fought, but we just didn’t play well enough tonight to get the ‘W’,” he added.
It was Edgewood that scored the first touchdown of the game. The Cougars trailed 3-0 after holding Bellbrook to a 26-yard field goal at the start of the second quarter, but two possessions later started at their own 39-yard line and used a run-pass mix of plays to march down the field and score on a 1-yard run by Brody O’Banion to take the lead. The extra-point try failed, however, and the Cougars lead was 6-3.
Bellbrook took its next possession with 3:02 left in the half and used 12 plays to go 54 yards and regain the lead 10-6 when JT Frantz caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Grant Diorio with 8 seconds left in the half.
It was all Bellbrook in the second half as the Golden Eagles got touchdown runs from Jack Kosins and Bronson Epifano in addition to the safety.
“That’s such a good football team Belbrook has, but it’s just the critical little mistakes that we unfortunately kind of made, and a team like that’s going to take advantage of every one of them because they’re so good on defense,” Root said. “And they’re so fundamentally sound on offense it’s hard to get them off the field and once you get down and behind, it’s really hard to come back on them because they force you into some things you don’t want to do.
“We are both similar style teams,” he continued. “We’re both going to run the football and be physical and be aggressive, and the same thing on defense, very, very aggressive defenses. They just outplayed us a little bit tonight. They were able to get their run game going a little more than us, and defensively they just kept making things really hard for us tonight. They forced some turnovers on us there in the second half which really hurt us as well.”
Bellbrook looked to be headed into the end zone on its first possession of the second half after driving all the way to the Edgewood 4-yard line, but the Cougars’ defense stopped Diorio for a 3-yard loss back to the 7 and then Carter Canaan broke through the line not once but twice on back-to-back plays to sack Diorio for a combined loss of 26 yards pushing them back to the 40 and forcing a punt.
That punt landed at the 1-yard line, however, and the Cougars moved the ball out to the 9 before a penalty and a negative run play put them back on the 3. Bellbrook then caused a fumble that went out the back of the end zone for the safety. The Golden Eagles also received the free kick and five plays later scored on a Jack Kosins 4-yard run to go up by two scores, 20-6.
They scored their final points with 5:43 left in the game when Epifano ran the ball on four consecutive plays including a 33-yard gain on third down. The next play he scooted into the end zone for the final points of the game.
“It’s a great win for us,” Bellbrook coach Jeff Jenkins said. “Edgewood is a very good football team. That was undeniable when we watched the films of them. I think they’ve got a tremendous group of players. They are some tough, hard-nosed kids.
“We knew going into this game it was going to be a massive test for us with it being their homecoming and they’ve had two wins in a row,” he continued. “They got it rolling over here so this was a big test for us and I think we passed. There’s still a lot we need to improve on, but we passed the test.”
Unofficially, Epifano led the Golden Eagles ground attack with 21 carries for 149 yards and a touchdown. Kosins also had 8 carries for 63 yards and a score and Diorio had four completions for 40 yards and a touchdown.
Edgewood was averaging 255 rushing yards per game coming into the contest. Against Bellbrook, the Cougars ran for just 56 yards. O’Banion ran it 10 times for 29 yards and a touchdown and Carter Breedlove also had 10 touches for 24 yards.
“They did a great job defensively of just keeping us at 3, 4, 5 yards, you know, not letting us break free,” Root said. “They were fundamentally sound in making tackles on us. We were able to hit some passes on them, but not consistently enough. It was such a low possession game at first, too, and that made it a little harder to get where we wanted to go.”
Bellbrook’s ranking in last week’s state poll was the first time in school history they had been ranked No. 1 in the state. With the win, they continue their perfect season at 6-0 and gain an advantage in the Southwestern Buckeye League’s Southwestern Division standings at 1-0.
“It’s something we talked about a little bit,” Jenkins said of the state ranking. “The kids earned that ranking with what they’ve done, but it’s not something we’re, you know, wearing on our chest or anything. We’re just trying to win our next game. That’s reality.”
Bellbrook will host Franklin next Friday, while Edgewood will travel to Ross.
Box score
Bellbrook 0 10 10 7 – 27
Edgewood 0 6 0 0 – 6
Individual scoring
Second quarter
B – Noah Kosins 26 field goal
E – Brody O’Banion 1 run (Kick failed)
B – JT Frantz 15 pass from Grant Diorio (N. Kosins kick)
Third quarter
B – Safety
B – Jack Kosin 4 run (J. Kosins pass to Diorio)
Fourth quarter
B – Bronson Epifano 3 run (N. Kosins kick)
