Edgewater High football overpowers Apopka, 27-0

Eagles win their 23rd consecutive regular-season game behind 4 TD passes from Michael Clayton and a stout defense

APOPKA, FLORIDA – To say that the Edgewater Eagles are soaring right now in high school football is an understatement.

Getting another superb passing performance from sophomore Michael Clayton, who threw four touchdown passes, and a stout defensive effort, the visiting Class 3 Metro Eagles shutout defending Class 4 Metro state runner-up Apopka, 27-0, to run their record to 5-0.

Edgewater, which has won an impressive 23 consecutive regular-season games dating to the second game of the 2021 season, did all of its damage in the first half as the Eagles took a commanding 27-0 lead. Edgewater, ranked No. 14 in the SBLive Florida Power 25, then went to a conservative attack in the second half and used its tenacious defense to run the clock out in the second half.

Photo by Jeff Gardenour

Apopka (3-1), ranked No. 18 by SBLive, suffered its first shutout loss since a 35-0 setback to Wekiva on Oct. 26, 2018. Cornelious Bass, Aiden Anderson and Solomon Tripline were among the defensive stars for the Eagles.

“They did great,” said Edgewater coach Cameron Duke. “Come on the road against a state power, come out with a win is really good. “(Apopka) battled the second half. We did enough in the first half to get the win, and we kept the shutout; that’s huge.”

Michael Clayton’s four TD passes in the first half set the tone

Clayton enjoyed one of his best games of the season, throwing four TD passes to three different receivers. Zion Mitchell caught two of them, and Brandon Paul and Semaj Fleming got the others.

“I thought we did good,” said Clayton, who passed for more than 140 yards. “I thought we prepared good in the week and that just allowed us to show what we did on the scoreboard.”

Clayton hit Mitchell on a beautiful 16-yard crossing pattern with 5 minutes, 46 seconds left in the first quarter to put Edgewater up 7-0.

The Eagles and Clayton struck again with 7:32 left in the second quarter when Brandon Paul caught a pass near the right sideline, and then made a nifty cut left to race into the end zone for a 34-yard TD.

Edgewater then scored twice in 2:09 late in the second quarter when Clayton threw a 16-yard TD pass to Mitchell, and a 20-yard TD pass to Fleming.

“They made me look real good,” Clayton said.

Apopka struggled with snaps, fumbles

The Blue Darters, meanwhile, seemed to lose their mojo as the first half wore on. Playing without starting quarterback Tyson Davison, who is out with an injury, they drove inside Edgewater territory twice in the latter stages of the first quarter and early second quarter, but missed a 43-yard field goal and then Nathan Jenkins slipped on a breakaway run at midfield. Four plays later, the Eagles stuffed Apopka on a 4th-down run.

Things went from bad to worse after Edgewater took a 14-0 lead. The Darters had a bad snap that resulted in a 15-yard loss and then lost a fumble two plays later, setting up Clayton’s third TD pass.

Apopka then botched another snap on its next series that resulted in a 12-yard loss, and three plays later hit a poor 27-yard punt. Taking over on the Darters’ 38-yard line, the Eagles got a short run and then took advantage of a 15-yard penalty on Apopka to set up Clayton’s final TD pass.

The Darters were never able to recover from the huge early deficit.

“We played a team that right now is more disciplined, right now, more physical, right now, better coached,” said Apopka coach Jeff Rolson. “It’s pretty simple because football is not difficult.

“They got some good players,” Rolson said. “We may think we’re pretty good and may have an (elevated) opinion of how good we are, or maybe how good of coaches we are. But the scoreboard tells you where you’re at. We got shutout and handled.

“We had turnovers, we had snap issues, we had penalty issues, and we gave up big plays,” Rolson said. “That’s a recipe for disaster.”

The schedule gets tougher for Apopka

Things don’t get any easier for the Blue Darters, who visit Seminole (4-1) on Friday, Sept. 29, and then travel to upstart Olympia (3-1) on Oct. 6. Last year, the Darters defeated Seminole, 24-23, on a last-second field goal to win the Class 4M-District 2 championship.

Meanwhile, Edgewater hosts Wekiva (3-2) in a key 3M-3 game on Sept. 29.

-- Jeff Gardenour | jgardenour1962@gmail.com | @sblivefl