St. Edmond will travel to face Collins-Maxwell

MAXWELL – The St. Edmond soccer team hits the road for the first time this week while also opening district play.

The Gaels (1-0 overall) take on Collins-Maxwell (1-0) here on Friday night in an eight-player District 9 contest. Kick-off is scheduled for 7pm.

Last week, St. Edmond defeated rival Bishop Garrigan inside Dodger Stadium, 42-34, beating the Golden Bears in the second half, 22-13.

JT Laufersweiler passed for 226 yards and accounted for four touchdowns, including two touchdown passes to Klay Baker. Baker had 78 rushing yards with a score and 120 passing yards.

“Those two are great players and they made great plays for us.” SEHS head coach Matt Dillon said. “We have to lean on them to keep doing that and get better as the season goes on.”

Kinnick Henning added 57 yards as the Gaels rushed for 167 overall and averaged over five yards per carry. In addition to Baker, four other players caught passes from Laufersweiler.

“It’s hard to put into words how important that game (vs. Garrigan) was,” Dillon said. “It was a war for 48 minutes and an incredible victory for our guys.”

The defense was led by sophomore Koleman Hanson, who came off the bench to record two sacks. Baker had 13 tackles, Adam Walker had seven, four of them for loss, and Henning had 7.5 stops, including five solos.

Laufersweiler now has 41 career touchdowns, including 23 passes. He also surpassed 2,000 passing yards, reaching 2,170 to start this week.

Collins-Maxwell used a 32-point second quarter to put GMG ahead, 60-28. Cooper Wierson passed for 231 yards, rushed for 116, and had six total touchdowns. The sophomore found classmate Reed Oswalt four times for 107 and one score and junior Josef Dvorak five times for 99 with two TDs.

Wierson completed 45 percent of his passes last year for 387 yards and five touchdowns while rushing for 241 and seven scores. He was also the second best receiver with 18 catches for 312 and a pair of scores.

Dvorak led the team with 329 yards and 11 touchdowns.

The Spartan defense also forced four turnovers, including three interceptions, two of them from Dvorak.

Collins-Maxwell went 3-5 last year in its sixth season as a program. Previously, the school was combined with Baxter, who is also in the district and will travel to St. Edmond next Friday night.