When the joy of a playoff win over Walnut faded, Eupora coach Stephen Edwards realized his Eagles were going to have their hands full with undefeated Northside in the second round.
That was certainly the case as they jumped out to a 40-0 lead and took a 54-0 win over the Eagles in the second round of the Class 2A playoffs on Friday.
With the loss, the Eagles fall to 4-8 on the season while Northside improves to 12-0 on the season.
The Gators did what they have done all season long to teams and that’s score plenty of points while not giving any up as they posted their ninth shutout of the season.
“They are really good on both sides of the football,” Eupora coach Stephen Edwards said. “We tried to do some things on defense to help counteract some of that speed and we didn’t line up right and that’s on me. We may have tried to do too much. They got in a lot of different formations and really challenged us. I felt like we had a good scheme to stop the best things they do but for whatever reason, we just couldn’t get it done.”
The Gators scored two first-quarter touchdowns with a punt return for a touchdown and a 25-yard run to take a 14-0 lead at the end of the first.
The Gators had a 25-yard touchdown run, a 20-yard TD pass and a 6-yard TD run and led 40-0 at the half.
“It was really a speed thing,” Edwards said. “They had a lot of it and we really don’t. We thought we could do some things on offense but our freshman quarterback played like a freshman. We had some turnovers and they think kind of snowballed on us. Even when it looked like we had a gap, their linebackers were so fast that what should have been 10-15 yard run would be a 2-yard gain.”
Eupora fumbled at their own 20 to start the second half and Northside scored to go up 46-0 with 8:00 left in the third. After taking the ball over on downs, Northside scored on a 40-yard run with 2:00 left in the third to go up 54-0.
“I told our kids at halftime that we were going to finish this thing,” Edwards said. “It becomes a matter of pride and character when you are down 40-0 at the half. When you are down 40-0, you find out what you are made out of. I was extremely proud of the way those five seniors finished.”
Edwards said in the end, the relationship with the five seniors on the team will be the thing he takes away from this season.
“I told those seniors that no matter what happened out there, I was proud of them,” Edwards said. “They are like family. I told them they will always be a part of my family. People who don’t coach don’t really understand what that’s like. They know I will always be there for them. I’m very fortunate to consider those five seniors part of my family.”
