Favela, big plays lead St. Edward to win
GENOA - No matter what, St. Edward was bound and determined to win its opening game of the season here on Friday night.
Despite a struggling offense that turned the ball over 3 times and generated just 7 first downs the Green Wave managed to pull out a 24-20 nonconference victory over Genoa-Kingston in large part because of big plays from the defense and special teams and one big run by junior Danny Favela.
The game was delayed at halftime for nearly 2 hours because of a thunderstorm, but on the third play from scrimmage in the second half Favela broke free off left tackle to ramble 79 yards for a touchdown that put the Green Wave up 24-14 and proved to be the difference in the margin of victory.
Earlier in the first half Favela scored on a 39-yard punt return which gave St. Edward a 17-7 lead at the time with 3:01 left in the second quarter.
"Thank God for Danny Favela tonight," St. Edward coach Mike Rolando said. "He really saved us. We struggled at the line of scrimmage and just couldn't get any thing going offensively. But we came up with enough big plays to escape with the win."
Favela finished with 90 yards rushing on 5 carries and also had 5 receptions for 71 yards.
"I got some great blocking on both of my touchdowns," Favela said. "It wouldn't have happened without my teammates. It was a big win for us. They gave us a run for our money, but it was very important for us to get out of here with a win."
St. Edward's biggest play may have come on the first play from scrimmage when Dan Howell forced a G-K fumble that the Green Wave's Jake French pounced on at the Cogs' 12-yard line. On the next play Dwayne Allen scored on a touchdown run to give St. Edward a quick 7-0 lead.
"We felt like we had a lot of momentum coming into the game," Allen said. "We definitely wanted to land the first big punch and we did right at the start."
Joe French added a 35-yard field goal for St. Edward in the first quarter to make it 10-0.
G-K had touchdown drives of 80 and 64 yards in the first half. Quarterback Griffin McNeal scored the Cogs' first touchdown with a 2-yard run. Jesse Bade added a 7-yard touchdown run to pull the Cogs to within 17-14 at the half. McNeal added a 14-yard touchdown pass to Ian Fell in the second half.
However, the Cogs' final opportunity ended with a fumble at the Green Wave 40 that was recovered by Christopher Kelly with just over a minute to play.
"We got punched in the nose early on," said G-K coach Travis Frederick. "I thought we responded pretty well after that. We just allowed too many big plays."