AUBURN — Oxford Hills was stopped on the opening drive of the game and on three consecutive drives at the end of the first half.
In between, the Vikings couldn’t be stopped.
Oxford Hills scored touchdowns on five straight possessions, and faced only two third downs in the process, and rolled to a 49-0 Class A football victory over Edward Little on Friday night at Walton Field.
Wyatt Knightly (3 yards) and Peter Morrison (4 yards) ran for first-quarter TDs, and Eli Soehren connected with Isaiah Oufiero from 10 yards out.
“Once our line — they started slow, but once we came out that second time, really got fired up, they were driving guys off the ball, doing their thing,” Oufiero said.
Soehren found Dakota Grassi in the end zone from 20 yards out in the second quarter and Knightly added a 2-yard touchdown run to make the lead 35-0. Soehren kicked extra points after all of Oxford Hills’ (5-0) scores.
“This week, we had some adversity in practice, without having (head coach Mark) Soehren around,” Oxford Hills assistant coach Nate Danforth said, noting that Soehren was out after undergoing a medical procedure. “So I think having him not here, it had us kind of skittish a little bit. So once we figured out we’re going to be OK, we started putting things together, and it really started clicking, and the guys fed off each other and it turned out to be a great game for us, so we’re happy about that.”
After Oxford Hills’ five-TD spurt, the Red Eddies’ (0-5) defense forced a fumble after a long Oxford Hills passing play — it was recovered by Edward Little’s Zack Therriault — stopped the Vikings on downs thanks to a Jacob Grealish pass breakup, then brought down Grassi short of the goal line on a 50-yard pass on the final play before halftime.
“They kept their (starters) in late in the game, and our defense resisted really well and made some guys make plays in spots, and that’s great to see,” Edward Little coach Dave Sterling said.
Eli Soehren threw for 245 yards on 14-of-19 passing in the first half.
Morrison ran in a TD from 5 yards out in the third quarter, and Soehren capped off the scoring with a 52-yard run in the fourth.
Soehren added 17 more passing yards in the second half to give him 262 for the game. He ran for 73 yards on four carries. As a team, the Vikings racked up 208 yards on 22 carries.
The Oxford Hills defense held the Red Eddies to minus-44 yards rushing.
“The offense and the defense feed off each other, and we take a lot of pride in our defense and we work hard at it. And it’s nice to have games like this so we can showcase what we can do,” Danforth said. “Coming off the Bonny Eagle performance, we wanted to be really tough this week, as well, so just trying to hang in there and stop teams and get our offense on the field as much as possible.”
Edward Little’s passing game started clicking toward the end of the first quarter, with senior quarterback Jack Keefe completing five straight passes across the first and second frames. He finished the game 14-of-33 passing for 138 yards, dishing out mostly to Jason Brooker, Ben Dubois and Tyler Grenier, but he was picked off twice by Tanner Bean-Bickford and Soehren.
“We’ve got some excellent kids that are really motivated and can play well, and if they stick with it we can be a very good football team,” Sterling said. “That’s the thing, we all get a playoff game in this division. If we can continue to build and get better and find ways to improve our organization, you don’t know what can happen.”
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