Hard Work Pays Off: Edina vs. Eden Prairie

The Edina Hornets have had quite a 2019 so far. After a Week 1 win against Centennial, the Hornets lost four straight games against tough West subdistrict opponents in Wayzata, Maple Grove, Prior Lake, and St. Michael Albertville. Two of those four loses had a difference of less than a touchdown, and none of the loses were by more than a few scores. The Hornets showed that they were one of the toughest 1-4 teams in the state yesterday as they beat Eden Prairie for the first time since 2012 and handed the Eagles their first back-to-back loss since 2012. In what was an exciting and competitive game all the way through, the Hornets took a page out of the Eagles playbook and used their running attack to beat the ball into the end zone and put EP in a position they aren't used to being in at the end of a game. Let's dive into the recap of the game and see how Edina broke their losing streak against the perennial 6A squad Eden Prairie. On a windy Friday night at Kuhlman Field in Edina the hometown Hornets received the opening kickoff and promptly began to run the ball behind on Oline led by junior OT Bastian Swinney (6'6, 270) who holds offers from Iowa State, Kansas State, and Kansas, and got a couple first downs to begin the opening drive of the game. After a deep slant could not be completed on a 3rd and 9, the Hornets punted the ball back to EP where the Eagles began a drive led by Cade Kramer (6'1, 175) who was EP's WR1 all night and got their offense going with a long reception. Following that catch Eden Prairie's RB Johnny Hartle (6'0, 180) followed his blocks and a took a handoff 63-yards for the first score of the game to put the Eagles up 7-0 with 5:49 left in the 1st quarter. After receiving the ball, Edina used a bootleg pass by 2021 QB George Sandven (6'3, 190) to WR1 Hamza Malim (6'0, 170) for a big completion but yet again the Hornets stalled out after some great team defense by Eden Prairie. A 3rd down pressure by EP's junior DE Trent Jones (6'3, 235) who got a good hit on the QB led to another punt and Edina found themselves once again on defense to begin quarter #2. Led by #44 Jonathan Bunce (6'3, 210) the Hornets were physical at the point attack and used their speed to elude the bigger EP offensive lineman. After holding strong on defense and forcing an EP punt Edina turned to Bunce on offense who began pounding the rock into the heart of the Eagle defense. Choosing not to tackle low on the big back all night, Eden Prairie could get the big man down and the senior ran over a few Eagle defenders on his way to a 30-yard TD run with 10 minutes left in the half to tie the score at 7. [caption id="attachment_13501" align="alignright" width="300"] Credit: MNFootballHub[/caption] Following that drive Eden Prairie went to work in classic Eagle fashion and ran the ball over 10 times in a row taking over 6 minutes off the clock and finding the end zone on a handoff to Fred Zach (6'0, 205) with less than four minutes remaining in the half. Finding themselves down 14-7 Edina converted a couple nice passes to Malim to get the Hornets down to EP's 26 to attempt a field goal but the kick was blocked and the half ended with Eden Prairie up 7. In what turned out to be a critical drive for the Eagles, Hartle got to work early with a couple nice runs on some counters following his gigantic OG Logan Tyler (6'3, 320). Coupled with a nice screen pass to Kramer and the Eagles found themselves at the Edina 25-yard line to begin the 2nd half of the game. However, two concurrent flags on Eden Prairie led them to find themselves with a 3rd and 40 all the way back at their 41-yard line. After the Eagles punted in back to Edina, a 40-yard fade to Malim brought the Hornets down to the EP 30 where Bunce took over again and plowed into the end zone to tie the score at 14 with less than a minute left in the 3rd quarter. Beginning the 4th still tied at 14 Bunce and his fellow Hornet defenders got Eden Prairie behind in the sticks and forced them to punt the ball back to them where Edina fashioned themselves an Eden Prairie drive that took over seven minutes off the clock in the 4th quarter and ran the ball down the Eagles throat with Bunce while mixing in effective completions to Malim. Bunce finished with 122 rushing yards on the night and once again found the end zone to put Edina up 7 with 3:33 left in the game after a long and disheartening drive for the Eden Prairie defense. [caption id="attachment_13499" align="alignright" width="300"] Credit: MN Football Hub[/caption] The Eagles made a valiant attempt to tie the game with a few nice runs by Zach and a timely TE dump to Will McGinley (6'5, 205), but Edina held strong and senior DL Will Davis (6'4, 225) read another attempted dump and picked the ball off sweetly sealing the victory at home for the Hornets. It was their first win against the Eagles since 2012 and will potentially drop the previously #4 ranked Eagles in the Metro Top-10. It was another great Friday night covering football for Northstar Football News.