Eudora High School football won its season opener in dominant fashion, holding Baldwin scoreless at home. 

The defense forced multiple three and outs against Baldwin, which had issues securing the ball in the rain with numerous fumbled snaps in the wet conditions. 

On offense, Eudora picked up where they left off last year with a strong rushing attack led by senior Brayden Beerbower with three rushing touchdowns Friday night. The Cardinals scored on eight consecutive drives with five players scoring touchdown runs. 

Junior Octavius Lyles exploded for the longest play of the game with a 72-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

“I just saw a big wall by my guys,” he said. “I saw the wall, got up towards them and then I kinda just took off and used my track speed.”

Lyles said the win at home felt nice because the team usually doesn’t score as many points as they did Friday night.

“We’re on a mission,” he said. “We’re out on a mission, and we’re here to execute what we got to do and put up them points like we did.”

Senior Silas Etter had a 44-yard touchdown run and senior quarterback Gage Hayden added a couple of touchdowns on the ground.

Eudora scored its final touchdown on a 36-yard run by freshman Errol Siemon at the start of the fourth quarter. Head coach Sean Hayden pulled the starters following the score with nine minutes left, which allowed more players to get time on the field.

“Everybody works hard, everybody practices and we want to see the reward of everyone playing in the game,” he said. “We really wanted to do that for them.”

Eudora starts 1-0 on the season and will play next at 7 p.m. Friday at Piper.

Reach sports editor Chris Fortune at [email protected].

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