Lancers still winless, fall to No. 5 Eastern Greene

For the Daily Journal

Edinburgh got two touchdowns from Zach Murphy, but it couldn’t contain Eastern Greene’s running game and suffered a 61-16 defeat at home.

The Thunderbirds, ranked fifth in Class A, improve to 7-0, while the Lancers fall to 0-7.

“We played a very good team that has an extremely physical defense,” Edinburgh head coach Jason Burton said.

“We are young and inexperienced, so we have a lot of work to do before we can beat a team of that caliber.”

Edinburgh’s defense gave up two touchdowns in the first five minutes of the game, but quarterback Murphy scored minutes after, setting up his touchdown with a 13-yard run. A two-point pass to Dakota Balthazor cut the deficit to 13-8 with 4:09 left in the first quarter.

Eastern Greene kept Edinburgh from scoring the rest of the half, though, and added five more touchdowns before halftime.

The Lancers didn’t get on the board again until there was a minute left in the game.

Before next week’s game against Wes-Del, Burton said he expects the team to continue working hard at practice despite the tough loss.

“Wes-Del is good as well,” Burton said, “but if we work hard, we can get better and will have a chance to better compete with them.”