In the 2021 championship game, St. Edward had touchdown drives of 72, 51 and 92 yards, during which almost 13 minutes elapsed on the clock. On top of that, Eds controlled the ball for just under 6 minutes as game time ran out.
Last year, the Eagle TD drives were 65, 56, 87 and 78 yards, consuming nearly 15 minutes on the clock. Once again, they possessed the ball for the last 4+ minutes as the clock expired.
For the two games combined, the Eagles ran the ball nearly 80% of the time, with over 75% of their yards gained on the ground. They averaged 5.9 yards per rush, 10.8 yards per completed pass and 6.1 yards per play overall.
Their run-heavy approach should be expected again in this year’s championship contest. If the Wildcats are to have any chance of winning, they must find a way to contain Eds prolific ball control game. That’s a very tall task. To date, only Massillon has been successful in doing that.