The weather conditions weren’t ideal Friday for the Division IV pre-district football game between Edwardsburg and Paw Paw.

But playing in 30-degree temperatures didn’t affect Edwardsburg, which refused to have another early exit from the state playoffs.

Behind 540 yards rushing, the Eddies rolled past the Redskins, 60-34, to snap a three-year losing streak in the first round of the playoffs.

Edwardsburg (9-1) hosts Vicksburg (8-2) in a district final next Friday at 7 p.m.

“We were very focused coming in going up against a very strong Paw Paw team,” Edwardsburg coach Kevin Bartz said. “We dominated most aspects of the game.

“It’s a huge win and it gets us going in the right direction for the rest of the playoffs.”

Leading Edwardsburg offensively was Isaiah Miller, who rushed for 241 yards on 21 carries with four touchdowns. Dustin Vires added 157 yards rushing on 20 carries with three touchdowns, while quarterback Dante Razzano chipped in 71 yards on the ground on nine carries.

“(Miller, Vires and Razzano) did a tremendous job,” Bartz said. “We had great balance up the middle and around the edges. We didn’t have to put the ball up in the air against them.”

On special teams, Edwardsburg attempted six onside kicks against Paw Paw and recovered two of them.

“We didn’t want the ball to go to No. 2 (Ian Vandenberg) because he’s a great return man,” Bartz said. “We didn’t want the ball anywhere near him. With the wind tonight it was going to be tough to control anything in the air. We were going to keep the ball down on the ground. After we got one or two of them we felt we had a 50-50 chance of getting them. We weren’t going to give up a big play and we had a chance to make a big play and we did it.”

The Eddies blew the game open by scoring 24 unanswered points in the third quarter to stretch their lead to 46-18 with 4:00 left in the third quarter.

“We feel like we’re a second half team,” Bartz said. “We start taking over physically in the second half over most teams.”

 

Paw Paw                      6          12       8          8 – 34

Edwardsburg            8          14       24       14 – 60

E – Dustin Vires 5 run (Isaiah Miller run)

P – Jack Pelletier 28 run (run failed)

E – Miller 2 run (Vires run)

P – Jacob Vorce 7 pass from Jay Doll (pass failed)

E – Miller 23 run (pass failed)

P – Doll 3 run (pass failed)

E – Miller 28 run (Vires run)

E – Jackson Gaideski 17 run (Razzano run)

E – Vires 9 run (Razzano pass to Shaun Elliott)

P – Ian Vandenberg 18 run (Pelletier run)

E – Miller 5 run (Miller run)

E – Vires 37 run (run failed)

P – Doll 1 run (Doll pass to Dominick Reo)