Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
La Conner High School senior C.J. Edwards reigned last week as the school’s Homecoming King, but his crowning achievement came Friday night when he led the Braves to a convincing 56-26 eight-man grid victory over Muckleshoot Tribal School at Whittaker Field.
Edwards, La Conner’s dual-threat quarterback, threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more as the Braves remained unbeaten at home and pushed their season mark to 3-4 while playing an independent non-conference schedule.
The versatile Edwards also returned a pass interception 80 yards for a TD.
On a night when the home squad trailed only briefly, at 6-0, Edwards had plenty of help.
Braves running back Yandel Rojas got the hosts on the board with a 20-yard scoring burst at the 2:36 mark of the opening period. His scoring jaunt capped a drive aided by a horse-collar tackle penalty on Muckleshoot, which hurt itself throughout with ill-timed penalties.
La Conner took the lead 14-6 late in the first quarter on a two-yard Edwards blast and two-point conversion toss to Marlin Edwards.
That score literally set off fireworks. The sky east of La Conner was lit up with an impromptu display between the first and second quarters.
The Braves unleashed fireworks of their own leading up to halftime.
Responding to a 15-yard touchdown pass from James Fryberg to Cedar Korndorfer that pulled Muckleshoot within 14-12, Rojas again reached paydirt with a 43-yard TD romp to extend La Conner’s edge to 20-12.
The Braves’ lead stretched to 26-12 midway through the second quarter when Edwards delivered his pick-six.
Holding a two-touchdown lead, La Conner delved into some Halloween trickery before the break. Wide receiver Jimbo Bobb threw a perfect 79-yard touchdown pass to Duran Clark off a double reverse. Rojas ran in the conversion attempt for a 34-12 Braves advantage.
La Conner nearly went into halftime with another touchdown. As time expired in the half, Rojas reeled in a long pass from Edwards and appeared to glide into the end zone. But a trailing official ruled that the Braves’ freshman had stepped out of bounds before reaching the goal line.
In the end, that call didn’t matter.
In the third quarter, La Conner answered a 30-yard fumble recovery return for a touchdown by Muckleshoot’s Michael Anderson with a four-yard Edwards TD run.
Edwards’ touchdown and ensuing conversion dash, set up by another long pass reception by Clark, swelled the Braves’ lead to 42-18.
A fumble recovery TD return by Muckleshoot linebacker Jack Crowell split a pair of long fourth-quarter TD passes by Edwards to Charlie Jackson and Bobb. Braves’ lineman Chas James powered in for the deuce following Edwards’ hook-up with Jackson.
The 50-yard touchdown strike to Bobb came with less than a minute to play and provided La Conner’s 56-26 margin of victory.
La Conner head coach Charlie Edwards wasn’t surprised by his club’s scoring outburst.
“We’ve shown we can play with everybody who’s on our schedule,” he said before kickoff. “This is basically a young team and they’re learning to execute on each and every play.”
La Conner has no other games slated, though coach Edwards said it’s possible the Braves could add November matchups with either Darrington or Entiat depending on those teams’ availability.
Reader Comments(0)