EAST STROUDSBURG — All week leading up to Edinboro’s first-round NCAA Division II playoff game with East Stroudsburg, the talk had been about senior quarterback Trevor Harris.

Would Harris, who underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee on Nov. 5, get to play in the game he dubbed the biggest of his career? And if he played, how would he do? Would he be limited? Would he risk further injury?

It didn’t take long for the Harlon Hill regional finalist to answer that question.

Harris completed 28 of 39 passes for 298 yards and three touchdowns as he led Edinboro to a 31-16 come-from-behind win over the Warriors Saturday at Eiler-Martin Stadium.

With the win, the Scots advance to the Super Regional One semifinals where they will face No. 1 seed West Liberty. Edinboro handed the Hilltoppers a 42-30 loss at Sox Harrison Stadium back on Week 1. It is West Liberty’s only loss of the year.

“If you had told us weeks ago that we would be sitting here like this, I don’t know that any of us really truly believed that,” Edinboro coach Scott Browning said.

“(Harris) did a heck of a job getting himself ready, both mentally and physically, and did a heck of a job for us.”

Harris came right out of the gate firing, completing a 44-yard pass to Gary Nolen on Edinboro’s first offensive play of the game.

The Scots marched right down the field from there and finished off a seven-play, 56-yard drive with a 32-yard field goal by Alex Romanias. In business, right?

Not so fast.

East Stroudsburg answered right back with a three-play, 77-yard drive of its own, capped by a 77-yard touchdown pass from Matt Marshall to Sam Shuman.

Drew Reinhard followed with the point-after-touchdown kick to give East Stroudsburg a 7-3 lead.

Despite ending ESU drives with a fumble recovered by Kenny Pettis and an interception by Branden Williams, Edinboro struggled to regain any momentum, and with 7:32 left to play in the first half found itself trailing 13-3 thanks to a 3-yard touchdown reception by Bryan Ogden. Edinboro’s ensuing possession ended on a three-and-out. Enter Harris.

Harris took control on Edinboro’s next possession, completing 6 of 8 passes for 63 yards with eight yards rushing. His last completion went to Nick Marino in the corner of the end zone. That allowed the Scots to pull to within a field goal. Then came the play of the game.

Harris’ touchdown pass to Marino happened with 41 seconds left in the half. The Warriors did the best with the time they had left and were in Edinboro territory with just over 20 seconds to play.

But two plays later, the Warriors were faced with a choice with just four seconds left and the ball at the Edinboro 29-yard-line.

East Stroudsburg coach Denny Douds decided to take his chances on a 46-yard field goal attempt by Reinhard.

Williams, who had already blocked a point-after-touchdown kick earlier in the game, got his hands on Reinhard’s attempt, scooped up the loose ball and ran it back 61 yards for the touchdown, giving the Scots a 17-13 lead, a lead they would not relinquish.

“I didn’t really get a good piece of it coming off the edge,” said Williams, a sophomore cornerback. “I just stuck my hands out and kind of prayed and it popped right in front of me. (I) scooped it up and took it to the house.”

The block was the seventh of Williams’ young career.

It was the fifth touchdown of his career.

“That really helped us going into the locker room,” Williams said. “We were a little bit shaky in the first half. We didn’t really get things rolling and we were kind of like getting ourselves together, picking ourselves up and that kind of picked up our morale for the second half.”

East Stroudsburg, meanwhile, had no answer.

“It was a great effort on the part of our kids,” Douds said. “We tried to execute, but we made some mistakes.

“And when you make mistakes in this level of competition, you pay the price. (Yesterday), it cost us a game.”

East Stroudsburg did finish the game with 452 yards of total offense to Edinboro’s 391.

But 322 of those yards came in the first half.

In addition to Harris, Edinboro also got a huge game from Nolen, who closed the books on East Stroudsburg with a 46-yard touchdown reception from Harris.

Nolen, who, like almost every other member of the Edinboro team, has faced injury this season, had three catches for 110 yards.

Josh Brown made five catches for 55 yards and Michael Battles, who got the start at tailback for the injured David Bostic, caught seven passes for 45 yards and ran the ball nine times for 59 yards.

For East Stroudsburg, Marshall was 15-of-26 for 301 yards and two touchdowns. Ed Kiser caught five passes for 121 yards.



Lisa Byers can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at lbyers@meadvilletribune.com.