French’s 41-yard FG lifts St. Edward
GENOA — Joe French was confident he could connect on a 36-yard field goal.
St. Edward coach Mike Rolando asked the sophomore if he had it when he lined up for the kick as the Green Wave trailed 14-12 with 5 minutes left at Genoa Field Friday night.
He double checked after St. Edward was whistled for a 5-yard penalty.
“I looked at him and said, ‘You got this,’ ” Rolando said. “Then we lost 5 yards and I said, ‘You still got this?’ That’s his range in practice.”
French easily cleared the goal post from 41 yards out to give the Green Wave a 15-14 lead which held as the defense stymied a late Genoa-Kingston run to win the season opener.
The Cogs’ next series set up from their own 20 and they drove down to the Green Wave 28-yard line on 11 plays. With 19 seconds left, Cogs’ quarterback Adam Price looked for Eli Thurlby on a swing pass.
Senior Joe Stump came up with a perfect read and picked off the pass to secure the win. He recovered one of 3 G-K first-half fumbles and an onside kick.
“I read the guy going out on the flat,” Stump said. “It was the pass that we read all week in practice. Coach told us to read pass.”
G-K running back Sal Lopez had given the Cogs a 14-12 lead with a 3-yard scoring run with 4:55 left in the third quarter. The score culminated a 15-play, 6 minute, 45 second drive after St. Edward led 12-7 at the half.
The Wave defense did its share of reading the run during the first half. On three consecutive Genoa-Kingston series, St. Edward recovered a Cogs’ fumble. Will Bothwell scooped up a Thurlby fumble on the Genoa-Kingston 49-yard line. On the ensuing play, Davontae Elam rushed 51 yards through the G-K defense for a touchdown. A failed 2-point conversion left St. Edward down 7-6.
Andrew Yarwood wrestled the ball away from Lopez with under 5 minutes left in the first half. Elam pounded the ball at the Cogs’ defense, rushing 5 times during St. Edward’s 9-play 41-yard drive. He capped off the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run. A second failed 2-point conversion gave the Green Wave a 12-7 lead.
Elam finished the game with 166 yards on 26 carries. He accounted for all but 19 yards of the St. Edward offense.
“The offense was working for it,” Elam said. “I want to give a lot of credit to the line. I kept telling them to give me the ball and I’ll take care of it and they did.”