CMS Football Knocks Off No. 18 Chapman Behind 4-TD Effort from Edwards

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Justin Edwards had a huge game with 32 carries for 204 yards and four touchdowns as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps football team defeated No. 18 Chapman 29-21 in a non-SCIAC game on Saturday afternoon at Zinda Field.

With the win, the Stags improve to 3-1 on the season at the end of non-conference play, while Chapman suffers its first loss and slips to 3-1 on the year. 

Edwards scored on touchdown runs of one yard, one yard, three yards and five yards, but also helped set up most of his touchdowns with long runs, including a high of 55 yards, and caught three passes for 32 yards. Holden Thomas was 14-20 passing for 164 yards, including a 52-yard catch-and-run throw to Anderson Cynkar, while the CMS offensive line of Jacob Lyle, Kamarion Porter, Andre Nesbit, William Zhang, and Anthony Carrano helped pave the way for 403 yards of total offense, 239 on the ground. 

The CMS defense also had to come up big at the end, stopping Chapman in the red zone in its final chance to tie. After the Panthers spiked the ball to stop the clock at the CMS 15-yard line, Dylan Porter had a quarterback hurry to force an incompletion, Stiles Satterlee, who had a team-high 10 tackles, broke up a third-and-10 pass near the first down marker, and Ben Cooney had tight coverage on the final incompletion that sealed the win for the Stags with 11 seconds left. 

CMS led 15-0 at the half, setting the tone right from the start with a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that ate up 6:50 of game clock. Thomas had a 12-yard pass to Cynkar on 4th-and-2 to bring the ball down to the 12-yard line, and Edwards carried the ball the next four plays, gaining three yards, five yards and three yards, before plunging in from a yard out. 

CMS stopped a Chapman drive later in the first quarter when Michael Colangelo broke up a pass, and the ball bounced up in the air off a player's back and was intercepted by Kirby Baynes. Thomas then threw his 52-yarder to Cynkar, which set up a 22-yard field goal from Alessandro Maiuolo, making the score 9-0.

The Stags added the final score of the first half, after Edwards had a 15-yard run, and then took a quick breather while Joshua Martinez scampered 17 yards to the Chapman nine-yard line. After Martinez picked up two more yards, Edwards carried it six yards down to the one, and then went over for his second score of the day, making the score 15-0 at the half. 

Chapman responded to the challenge by picking up a touchdown on its first drive of the second half, driving 66 yards in 12 plays and scoring on a two-yard touchdown reception from Spencer Corona. Edwards, though, broke through for a 55-yard run to the Chapman 18, and after Jacob Fenton ran twice for eight yards, Edwards picked up three yards on 3rd-and-2, and then scored from three yards out to put CMS back up by 15 at 22-7. 

The Panthers again responded with a touchdown drive as Caleb Henshaw scored on a 13-yard touchdown reception to close to within 22-14. A Grant Braught punt pinned Chapman at the nine-yard line, and Baynes and Jacob O'Connell broke up passes to force the Panthers to a three-and-out. CMS then took advantage of a short field after taking over on the Chapman 37, with Thomas finding Mason Cotton for 24 yards to the nine, before Edwards scored his fourth touchdown of the day from five yards out. 

Chapman again closed to within eight points at 29-21 with 5:45 to go, and got the stop they needed before starting on the 27-yard line. A 21-yard pass to Corona got the ball down to the CMS 15-yard line, but the Stag defense was able to hold as CMS earned the win. 

Satterlee finished with 10 tackles to lead the defense, while Baynes had nine, and Colangelo, Emmett Thomas King III, and Dylan Porter each had eight. 

CMS will be back in action next weekend when it opens SCIAC play with a home game against Redlands at 1 p.m.