Twinsburg tramples Aurora

It’s frightening to think what Twinsburg might have done to Aurora on Friday night had it actually played well.

Despite playing a mistake-filled game, the host Tigers did plenty right in a 27-6 nonleague victory over No. 19 Aurora at Tiger Stadium.

"We shot ourselves in the foot on offense," said Twinsburg coach Mark Solis, whose team improved to 2-1. "We had a ton of mistakes — bad snaps, ill-timed penalties."

None of it mattered much, thanks to a defense that bent a bit, but gave up just one big play and little else.

The Greenmen either lost yards or gained none on half of their 42 offensive snaps.

"We preach to our kids about controlling the line of scrimmage," Solis said. "We did that tonight."

Twinsburg’s offense was all Cory Eden, all the time. The senior quarterback ran for 164 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries. He completed 12 of 18 passes for 169 yards and another touchdown.

His numbers would have been greater, but five plays totaled 47 yards in losses. In four cases, either bad snaps or teammates’ missed assignments did him in.

When Eden did head up field, the Greenmen were nearly powerless to stop him.

"You know what they’re going to do," Aurora coach Bob Mihalik said. "You rep it all week in practice. But it’s kind of hard for the scout kids to copy their speed."

Aurora (1-2) was still in the game at halftime, despite being completely dominated, save for one play. Even that play seemed destined to go nowhere.

Trailing, 14-0, Greenmen senior quarterback Brandon Gallagher threw a short pass to Mike Ganoe. The Tigers appeared to stop Ganoe for little gain.

The junior somehow escaped a host of tacklers, one of whom had him by the facemask, and raced 75 yards for a touchdown. Aurora missed the extra point, but had a pulse.

Twinsburg snuffed that out with a five-minute, 76-yard drive. Eden’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Croom-Francisco capped the drive. The Tigers missed the extra point and led, 20-6, at halftime.

Outside of the bizarre touchdown, the Greenmen could do little. They ran just 12 other first-half plays for 31 yards.

The Tigers, meanwhile, were churning up yardage if not scoring a lot. They had 284 first-half yards, 273 of which could be attributed to Eden. Short touchdown runs by Joe Hiller and Dion Johnson gave the Tigers the 14-0 lead.