Justin Edwards Named to D3football.com Team of Week for Second Time This Season

CLAREMONT, Calif. - First-year running back Justin Edwards earned a spot on the D3football.com National Team of the Week for the second time this season, both after wins over Chapman, the website announced this morning.

Edwards earned his latest honor after running for 211 yards and three touchdowns in a 42-34 win over the Panthers on Saturday evening, improving the CMS record to 7-2 on the season with one game to play. He had scoring runs of 30 yards, 1 yard, and 39 yards as he increased his total to a program-record 16 rushing touchdowns this season, seven of which have come in the two games with Chapman. 

Chapman, which began the year in the national top 25, has allowed less than 70 rushing yards a game to its other opponents besides CMS, while Edwards has twice gone over 200 yards against them, including 204 yards and four touchdowns in the first meeting against them on Sept. 25. 

The 16 rushing touchdowns breaks the old CMS record of 15, which had stood for 35 years since Chris Dabrow set the mark in 1986. Edwards also became only the ninth running back in school history to register a 1,000-yard season, and he currently has 1,090 with one game left to play, as the CMS offensive line (Jacob Lyle, Kamarion Porter, Andre Nesbit, William Zhang and Anthony Carrano) has continued its recent tradition of paving the way for running backs with big numbers. 

That one game will come against Pomona-Pitzer in the annual season finale on Saturday at Zinda Field at 1 p.m., as the teams will battle for the Sixth Street Trophy. It will actually be the second time they play this season, after the two teams met in a non-league game in the season opener back on Sept. 4, which CMS won 25-3, retaining the trophy which it won in 2019. 

In addition to the usual stakes for the Sixth Street Trophy, the Stags also have a chance to tie the school record for wins in a season with eight, and could share the SCIAC title with Redlands if the Bulldogs fall in their finale to Cal Lutheran, although Redlands has already clinched the SCIAC's bid to the NCAA Tournament.