-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Grant Galles of St. Edmond celebrates after running back a punt return against Newell-Fonda on Friday inside dodgers Stadium

Seven days after suffering a disappointing road loss, the St. Edmond football team answered the call with a dominating win Friday.

Kinnick Henning ran for 131 yards and two touchdowns as part of a 301-yard rushing performance, as the Gaels dominated Newell-Fonda inside Dodger Stadium, 64-28.

Aaron Hindt and Matthew Crimmins each had a rushing touchdown as Ethan Swisher tossed three TD passes and ran in one himself.

“Honestly, that first game of every season is always scary because you just don’t know what to expect,” SEHS head coach Matt Dillon said. “Preseason practice is nothing like game situations, and we found that out at Glidden-Ralston.

“But I thought we came out and had a great week of practice this past week. We got after it with everything we did including our tackling and our focus. It all was there, and that definitely showed (Friday night).”

St. Edmond (1-1 overall, 1-0 in district) took the opening kick and found the end zone in two plays, as Henning broke free for a 34-yard score. Following back-to-back punts and consecutive turnovers by both teams, the offenses kicked into overdrive.

Grant Galles hauled in a 17-yard pass from Swisher to cape another two-play drive that was set up by a second Koleman Hanson fumble recovery of the first half. Swisher threw for 65 yards and ran for another 48 on the night.

The Mustangs answered on a seven-yard TD pass by Trevor Tauber to Thomas Mercer, cutting the St. Edmond lead to 12-7 early in the second quarter.

“Newell-Fonda has a strong offense that is led by a really good quarterback in Tauber,” Dillon said. “He was out there on one leg for much of the night still giving us fits. He’s a really talented player and I hope he’s healthy for the rest of the season.

“Our defense did a nice job of keeping them in-check and not allowing a lot of explosive plays.”

Swisher and the Gaels put together a six-play scoring drive, as he hit Jakob Koopman this time for a 15-yard score. Galles made it 28-7 when he scooped up a punt and darted through the Mustang defense on a 47-yard score.

The scoring continued as both teams found the end zone in the final 90 seconds of the half. First, Tauber connected with Gunner Baron on a 17-yard scoring strike before Swisher directed the offense 50 yards in one minute, capped by a second TD pass to Koopman.

“I think you really saw what our offense is capable of,” Dillon said. “We ran the ball well, we threw the ball well and we finished plays. Our offensive line finished plays at the point of attack, our running backs finished plays and we were able to use our speed.

“Aaron, Kinnick Grant, Jakob and Ethan are all capable of taking it to the end zone. Those guys all had really strong nights.”

Swisher, Henning, Hindt and Crimmins all added rushing touchdowns in the second half around a pair of rushing TDs by Tauber.

Henning added a sack on defense around the two Hanson fumble recoveries.

Tauber threw for 126 yardsand ran for 43, Jackson Bellcock had 56 yards rushing and Jacksyn Hogrefe caught four passes for 61. Mercer also had an interception to go along with his receiving touchdown.

St. Edmond returns to the road next Friday night when they take on defending eight-player state champion Remsen St. Mary’s. Newell-Fonda finally plays its first home game, hosting GTRA.

SE NF

First Downs 14 21

Rushes-Yards 37-301 42-133

Passing 65 126

Comp-Att-Int 5-8-1 10-22-0

Total Offense 366 259

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 3-1

Punts-Avg. 1-45.0 4-37.5

Penalties-Yards 10-95 5-30

St. Edmond 6 30 6 22– 64

Newell-Fonda 0 14 14 0–28

Scoring Summary

St. Edmond — Kinnick Henning (34-yard run), 11:20 left in first. Kick failed.

St. Edmond — Grant Galles (17-yard pass from Ethan Swisher), 11:22 left in second. Conversion failed.

Newell-Fonda — Thomas Mercer (7-yard pass from Trevor Tauber), 9:40 left in second. Ayden Lullman kick.

St. Edmond — Jakob Koopman (15-yard pass from Swisher), 6:59 left in second. Henning conversion.

St. Edmond — Galles (47-yard punt return), 4:22 left in second. Swisher-to-Koopman conversion.

Newell-Fonda — Gunner Baron (17-yard pass from Tauber), 1:29 left in second. Lullman kick.

St. Edmond — Koopman (24-yard pass from Swisher), :29 left in second. Swisher conversion.

Newell-Fonda — Tauber (36-yard run), 7:33 left in third. Lullman kick.

St. Edmond — Swisher (29-yard run), 7;16 left in third. Conversion failed.

Newell-Fonda — Tauber (6-yard run), 2:10 left in third. Lullman kick.

St. Edmond — Henning (30-yard run), 10:12 left in fourth. Conversion failed.

St. Edmond — Aaron Hindt (8-yard run), 6:30 left in fourth. Galles conversion.

St. Edmond — Matthew Crimmins (31-yard run), 2:26 left in fourth. Crimmins conversion.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing — St. Edmond: Kinnick Henning 14-131, Aaron Hindt 15-83, Ethan Swisher 4-48, Matthew Crimmins 4-39. Newell-Fonda: Jackson Bellcock 14-56, Trevor Tauber 15-43, Jacksyn Hogrefe 4-27, Carver Brown 3-12, Gunner Baron 4-4, Team 2-(minus-9).

Passing — St. Edmond: Ethan Swisher 5-8-1-65, Thomas Ehn 0-0-0-0. Newell-Fonda: Trevor Tauber 10-22-0-126, Carver Brown 0-0-0-0.

Receiving — St. Edmond: Jakob Koopman 2-39, Grant Galles 2-22, Aaron Hindt 1-4. Newell-Fonda: Jacksyn Hogrefe 4-61, Gunner Baron 3-40, Jackson Bellcock 2-18, Thomas Mercer 1-7.