Cedric Edwards knew his Soddy-Daisy teammates were depending on him. He knew Cleveland defenders had heard his name and number from their coaches all week.
He knew he had to have a good night.
He had that and a whole lot more, rushing for 312 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries to lead the Trojans to a 42-21 District 5-AAA victory over the visiting Blue Raiders.
“I just played for all the guys on the team,” Edwards said. “I have to thank God, and I sure have to hug my hogs’ necks.”
The offensive linemen were there all night, but Edwards’ dipsy-doodle two-step left more than one Cleveland defender grasping air.
“Cedric’s our workhorse and I knew we were going to have to run him some,” Soddy-Daisy coach Kevin Orr said. “We needed that [performance and win] in the worst way.”
The Trojans had plenty of motivation. They were playing at home on senior night and knew they needed to win to assure themselves of a postseason spot. Many of them also were facing their former head coach, E.K. Slaughter, and at Soddy-Daisy for the first time.
“That No. 32 (Edwards) is a good football player, and they have a good offensive line,” Slaughter said.
He didn’t have much to say about returning to Soddy-Daisy, worrying more about his Blue Raiders who dropped passes, missed blocks and tackles and overthrew targets.
“I didn’t enjoy losing the game one bit,” Slaughter said. “Our performance was disgusting and disappointing. but we had an outstanding coaching staff and some outstanding young men that didn’t play very well. But I’ll tell you this – we’re going to do some outstanding things in the playoffs.”
They’ll have to play better than they did Friday. Blue Raiders quarterback Chad Voytik and his receivers were out of sync early, Voytik overthrowing early and receivers dropping some passes late. Running back JaMarcus Mobley, a former Trojan, was held to a single yard in the first half but came back with 65 in the second. He and Voytik were pressured all night by a blitzing Trojans defense led by linebacker/tackle Jake Ables, who also doubled at fullback.
Defensively, Edwards made them look quite inept, breaking some tackles, stepping through some and sidestepping others.
The Trojans finished with 485 yards of offense, 404 coming on the ground. In addition to Edwards, Spencer Stewert had a 64-yard run.
The game was scheduled for Thursday but was moved back to Friday when Soddy-Daisy’s Tuesday practice was canceled by Hamilton County Schools officials because of predicted severe weather.
As for the playoffs, going into Friday’s game each was projected as a No. 6 seed for its respective classification postseason playoffs, Cleveland in 5A and Soddy-Daisy in 6A. Cleveland was grouped with Columbia, Anderson County, Tullahoma, Knoxville Catholic, Shelbyville, Lenoir City and Clinton. Soddy-Daisy was in with Blackman, Riverdale, Bradley Central, Cookeville, Oak Ridge, Franklin County and Lincoln County.
The playoff pairings are to be announced by the TSSAA at 1 p.m. EDT.