-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Klay Baker of St. Edmond score a touchdown against Collins-Maxwell on Friday inside Dodgers Stadium

The St. Edmond football team put on a show for their fans here Friday night inside Dodger Stadium.

Before the first quarter had even expired, the Gaels had scored four touchdowns and recorded a safety as they picked up a district-opening 70-14 victory over Collins-Maxwell.

Senior Klay Baker accounted for three of those TDs in the opening seven minutes, converting on short fields presented to St. Edmond (1-1 overall, 1-0 in district) by its defense.

“We executed very, very well,” SEHS head coach Matt Dillon said. “We had a great week of practice and it showed. We felt like we could use some of the Wing-T offense with success against their defense.

“Listen, last week was last week. That was a very tough matchup against a Bishop Garrigan team that is going to be difficult to beat. But we focused on Collins-Maxwell and starting district play off with a win.”

Baker touched the ball on the first three offensive plays from scrimmage for the Gaels after they recovered a fumble on a punt attempt by the Spartans (1-1, 0-1). On the second drive, he hauled in an 11-yard pass for a TD from Ethan Swisher.

Swisher, making his second career start, hit on his first three passes of the game and five of his first six overall, finishing 7-for-9 for 107 yards with a pair of two-point conversion runs.

“Ethan is only going to get better and better each week,” Dillon said. “We went back to more of our spread offense and that helped him use his skills to the best of his ability.”

Sam Myer had the other first quarter score before leaving the game early with an ankle injury. Koleman Hanson recorded a safety and made a 27-yard field goal as St. Edmond built a 36-0 lead in the second quarter.

Aaron Hindt, who missed the game vs. Garrigan due to an injury, scored on a 55-yard just before the half while junior wide receiver Grant Galles added two long touchdown catches in the second half from Swisher.

Hindt finished the night with 93 yards rushing and 109 total yards on just six touches while Galles had four receptions for 66. Swisher added 35 yards rushing and freshman Thomas Ehn capped off the night with a 42-yard rushing score on his first career carry.

“Aaron really makes a difference out there with his speed and field vision,” Dillon said. “We lost Kinnick (Henning) to injury so we really needed Aaron.

“And what a play for Thomas. He hasn’t even ran that in practice but we saw what the defense was doing and he showed off his speed.”

Collins-Maxwell was coming off a 64-0 victory over GMG in Week one, a game in which they did not attempt a single pass and ran for almost 400 yards. The Spartans started out with four passes on their first drive, but the Gaels were ready.

Jakob Koopman picked off two of Cooper Wierson’s attempts with Dominic McClain and Myer each recording one interception. The St. Edmond defense held C-M to negative-13 yards net rushing in the first half.

“I thought our defense really attacked,” Dillon said. “They made plays happen and we won the turnover battle.”

The Gaels have now won both meetings with Collins-Maxwell all-time, adding to their 61-14 triumph a year ago.

St. Edmond returns to the road next as they travel to Baxter on Friday night. The Bolts (1-1, 0-1) fell to Coon Rapids-Bayard last night, 28-20.

SE CM

First Downs 16 10

Rushes-Yards 29-257 30-83

Passing 107 116

Comp-Att-Int 7-9-0 8-19-4

Total Offense 364 199

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 5-1

Punts-Avg. 0-0 1-35.0

Penalties-Yards 4-30 5-30

St. Edmond 33 9 7 21– 70

C-M 0 6 0 8–14

Scoring Summary

St. Edmond — Klay Baker (5-yard run), 8:38 left in first. Ethan Swisher conversion.

St. Edmond — Safety (Koleman Hanson fumble recovery in end zone), 7:11 left in first.

St. Edmond — Baker (11-yard pass from Swisher), 6:14 left in first. Swisher conversion.

St. Edmond — Baker (4-yard run), 5:10 left in first. Baker conversion.

St. Edmond — Sam Myer (3-yard run), 4:09 left in first. Hanson kick.

St. Edmond — Hanson (27-yard field goal), 10:28 left in second.

Collins-Maxwell — Josef Dvorak (2-yard run), 2:43 left in second. Conversion failed.

St. Edmond — Aaron Hindt (55-yard run), 1:33 left in second. Kick failed.

St. Edmond — Grant Galles (20-yard pass from Swisher), 6:42 left in third. Hanson kick.

St. Edmond — Galles (24-yard pass from Swisher), 11:49 left in fourth. Hanson kick.

Collins-Maxwell — Dvorak (46-yard run), 3:03 left in fourth. Dvorak run.

St. Edmond — Thomas Ehn (42-yard run), :44 left in fourth. Jack Webster kick.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing — St. Edmond: Aaron Hindt 5-93, Klay Baker 13-67, Thomas Ehn 1-42, Ethan Swisher 5-35, Sam Myer 3-20, Matthew Crimmins 2-0. Collins-Maxwell: Josef Dvorak 13-105, Reed Oswalt 4-7, Cooper Wierson 11-(minus-9), Seth Bell 2-(minus-20).

Passing — St. Edmond: Ethan Swisher 7-9-0-107, Thomas Ehn 0-0-0-0. Collins-Maxwell: Cooper Wierson 8-19-4-116.

Receiving — St. Edmond: Grant Galles 4-66, Aaron Hindt 1-16, Dominic McClain 1-14, Klay Baker 1-11. Collins-Maxwell: Josef Dvorak 6-91, Reed Oswalt 2-25.