Edgemont Football Drops Opener to Croton 21-0

Croton-on-Hudson – The Edgemont Panthers football team's season opener against Croton Harmon was one they would like to forget, and fast.

Even with the excitement of a new season, and the head coaching debut of local legend Matt Bernstein, a former standout fullback for Edgemont and Wisconsin University, Edgemont just couldn't muster up anything substantial against the Tigers on their home field.

The Tigers dominated in all facets of the game, and cruised to the 21-0 victory in yesterday's Class C matchup.

There was some controversy regarding the game's start time, and that could have been one reason for Edgemont's sluggish start. With a couple of Edgemont players taking standardized tests, the game was proposed to be pushed back to 2 p.m. from its original slated time of 1:30 p.m. but the game did in fact start at 1:30. Edgemont arrived at 1 p.m. and appeared a bit rushed to start.

One of Edgemont's star players is senior fullback Ed Jung and he was one of the players who rushed to the game after taking a test in the morning. He didn't get much of a chance to warm up and two plays into the game he suffered an injury.

"I don't really want to get in to the particulars because it gets me upset thinking about it, but I take full responsibility for it," Bernstein said. "I shouldn't have let my guys go until they were ready and I feel bad because now my senior is out with an ankle injury. I don't care if we have to take a penalty or give up a touchdown but believe me that will never happen again."

Croton scored a touchdown on each of its first three possessions. Its running game was controlling the time of possession, the field position game, and wearing the Edgemont defenders down.

 "It's only one game, it's not the end of the world," Edgemont senior quarterback Joseph Hoffman said. "We have to get back to work and correct a few things. It's a long season and this is just the first one."

Edgemont will have a short time to implement its corrections and adjustments with a short week. Its next game is this Thursday against Westlake, but Bernstein is optimistic that his team can be better and play better.

"We had some guys really step up today and especially in the second half so we have to build off that. We had some over throws, missed assignments, and turnovers that we have to do a better job of," said Bernstein. "Joseph is a really good quarterback and we believe in him and hopefully we can get Eddie back and continue to improve as a team."