Last season the St. Edward Eagles traveled to Euclid and came within an extra-point of coming home victorious. The 2008 Eagles made sure this year’s game would not be that close. St. Edward combined an overpowering offensive attack with a stifling defense and rolled to a 37-7 victory over the Panthers in a non-league game last Saturday night at Lakewood Stadium.

Defense and field position were the weapons of choice for the Eagles. St. Edward held the Panthers to just eight first downs in the contest and intercepted a pair of Euclid passes. At the forefront of the Eagles defense all night was senior defensive end Brad Weisenseel. Weisenseel recorded three sacks of Euclid quarterbacks and intercepted a pass. One of Weisenseel’s sacks resulted in a safety that gave St. Ed’s a 23-7 lead on the final play of the third quarter.

“Last season’s start has been in the back of our minds. But we just want to go out and execute and get better every week,” Weisenseel said.

Euclid was forced to start three drives inside its own 5-yard line and had an average starting position of its own 16.

The Eagles scored on the opening drive when Jeffrey Burke was on the receiving end of a 40-yard Alex Lavisky touchdown pass. Ramsey Ataya’s extra point made the score 7-0 with 9:47 remaining in the first quarter.

On the Eagle’s first offensive play of the second half, Burke and Lavisky hooked up again on a 53-yard scoring strike to put St. Edward up by two touchdowns. “Alex and I, with the year of experience we had together last year are on the same page,” Burke said.

Lavisky finished the night 10 of 15 passing for 163 yards and three touchdowns. Lavisky’s other touchdown pass went to junior wide receiver Nate Stanley Jr.

St. Edward was also able to run the ball with ease as the Eagles offensive line wore down the undersized Euclid defense. Germany Woods led the Eagles ground attack. Woods, a 5-9 190 pound junior, had nine carries for 77 yards and a touchdown. Dominique Goodwin rushed for 59 yards on 14 carries.

Sophomore Terrell Bates came off the bench to score his first touchdown as an Eagle with 4:01 remaining in the fourth quarter. Another sophomore, Mike DiNunzio added the extra point to make the final score 37-7.

“This team got better this week,” second-year St. Edward coach Scott Niedzwiecki said. “We were physical up front and we didn’t turn the ball over. We have eight new starters who now have another week of experience.”

Saturday night the Eagles will take on Howard D. Woodson High School from Washington D.C. at Lakewood Stadium. The Warriors, 2007 DCIAA runners-up, will be making their second trip in as many weeks to the Buckeye State. Last Friday Woodson lost a 42-35 decision at Lancaster.