“It’s one of those games,” Cougars coach Scott Clemmons said. “We knew it was going to be tough. We asked the kids to play tough and physical for 48 minutes, and they did what we asked.”
Senior Landon Howell scored Edgewood’s only touchdown on a 50-yard return of a fumble with 6:48 left in the game. By then, Winton Woods already had rolled to a 34-0 lead.
“I thought the defense did a good job, but we kept giving them short fields,” Clemmons said.
Edgewood (4-4) finished with 72 yards of total offense, exactly 200 fewer than Winton Woods.
The top-seeded Warriors (8-0) advanced to play Kings (7-0) in a semifinal on Friday at Winton Woods. The fourth-seeded Knights advanced earlier on Saturday with a 17-0 win over fifth-seeded Turpin in a matchup of Eastern Cincinnati Conference teams.
In a game postponed from Friday due to weather concerns, Winton Woods took a 14-0 halftime lead while squandering other opportunities with penalties. Senior Tyvon Boler’s 62-yard return for a touchdown of Edgewood’s first punt was nullified by a penalty, as was senior Tyrek Spikes’s burst around left end from the Edgewood 40-yard line to inside the Edgewood 5-yard line. Boler made a diving catch of junior quarterback Mi’Chale Wingfield’s 20-yard pass on the next play, but that also was called back.
The Warriors also missed a shot when Spikes fumbled on second-and-goal from the Cougars' 3-yard line with Edgewood senior linebacker Sammy Huff recovering, but Spikes redeemed himself and gave Winton Woods the lead for good with a three-yard touchdown run two plays into the second quarter.'
The Warriors took over on the Edgewood 6-yard line after senior Jeremiah Anderson tackled senior punter Anthony Scott before he could get the ball off. Wingfield converted on the first play, pulling down a high snap and getting to the corner of the end zone with 4:55 left before halftime.
Winton Woods was whistled in the first half for six penalties, costing the Warriors 55 yards. Edgewood suffered no first-half penalties.
The Warriors took command with an impressive eight-play, no-setback, 61-yard drive on the first possession after halftime. Spikes gained 46 yards on five carries before Wingfield capped the drive with a 2-yard plunge on fourth-and-1 less than three minutes into the quarter.
Spikes added a 10-yard touchdown run on Winton Woods’ next possession with 6:07 left in the quarter before senior Emoni Steele scored on a 1-yard run to push the margin past 30 points and send the game temporarily to a running clock with 1:51 left in the quarter.
Edgewoodis finished in the playoffs, but the Cougars might not be done playing. The Ohio High School Athletic Association is allowing teams to play games, even after they’re eliminated from the playoffs.
“We’ll discuss it this week,” Clemmons said. “We promised them 10 games. We want to give them the opportunity to play 10 games.”
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