Eagles leave no doubt in rout at Buffalo

The speculation is over.

If anyone was wondering how the Eden Prairie Eagles would start their 2024 football campaign, they won’t have to use their imaginations any longer.

Head coach Mike Grant’s team traveled to Buffalo to kick off the new season and responded with a resounding 40-6 win over the Bison on Thursday.

“Buffalo, coming out and looking at their players, they’ve got a couple D1 scholarship kids over there,” Grant said after the game. “I thought our kids just played hard, played with great focus. We did our assignments and for a first game, that’s great.”

From the opening kickoff, the Eagles left little doubt of the outcome, with the Eden Prairie defense holding Buffalo to a three-and-out with negative eight yards on the first series of the game.

“It felt great,” senior linebacker and co-captain Matthew Ivey said. “Every single play we got out there and we stopped them on the three-and-out, three-and-out the entire first quarter. I don’t think they got a single first down the entire first quarter; we just shut them out.”

Not only did Eden Prairie hold Buffalo without a first down until six minutes remained in the second quarter, but the Eagles’ defense stymied the Bison, holding them to negative 14 yards through the first quarter and a half of play.

“They couldn’t get out of their own 25 yard line. So it felt great,” Ivey said.

Ivey led the defense with five solo tackles. Junior Luke Henry added 1.5 sacks in the game. Overall, 17 Eden Prairie defenders recorded tackles in the contest, as the Eagles held the Bison to just 103 total yards.

Grant was quick to give credit to his defensive staff, as well as his players, for playing with greater quickness compared to previous seasons.

“We’re much faster than we were last year. We have really good speed at all positions,” Grant said. “I thought our defensive coaches really got them ready throughout the summer to play a faster game than we did last year. And I think that showed tonight.”

The Eden Prairie offense was as prolific as the defense was dominating. The Eagles scored touchdowns on their first three possessions of the game.

Senior running back and co-captain Jeremy Fredericks scored a pair of first-quarter touchdowns, rushing for 71 yards on 10 carries to lead the Eagles.

“I think we executed really well, especially with our Eagle unit,” Fredericks said, referring to Eden Prairie’s short-yardage offensive scheme. “If we need a couple yards, we put in the big boys, and we got the job done at the end of the day.”

Fredericks shared carries with fellow co-captain Elijah Rumph, who also scored on a pair of first-half touchdowns. Rumph’s first was a 49-yard romp that gave Eden Prairie a 14-0 lead with 3:22 remaining in the first quarter.

“Our team made the plays,” Rumph said afterward. “I’m very proud of our offensive line. They’ve been down there all season, so I’m very proud of the performance that they had today.”

The Eagles generated 345 yards of total offense, including 18 first downs, leaving Grant pleased with what he saw from his running back tandem. 

“I think they’re the best pair in the state. I really do. And it showed tonight,” he said. “They ran hard, but the kids blocked well too. But they made some plays when we didn’t have a huge hole. They just kept running hard.”

Quarterback Jackson Bakkum made his varsity debut with a steady performance in the season opener. The junior was 7 of 10 passing for 92 yards with no interceptions.

“He delivered the ball a few times where we dropped the ball. We can’t be doing that. I thought he handled it really well,” Grant said.

Grant felt that Bakkum showed poise and control in his first start, pointing to the many details that go with the quarterback position between the whistles, which Grant believed Bakkum handled extremely well.

“Half of it is knowing how to get lines up, knowing how to call the play, being in the huddle,” Grant said. “Those are all things that are new to a quarterback. So I thought he did a great job.”

Senior Max Lorenson led the Eden Prairie receivers with two catches for 53 yards.

Before the first half ended, Bakkum and the offense were given an added cushion thanks to the Eagles’ defenders.

Senior defensive tackle Erik Anderson stepped in front of a Buffalo pitch and returned the ball 29 yards for an Eden Prairie touchdown. 

The pick-six gave the Eagles a 27-0 lead with 6:06 remaining in the first half.

“I went to the B gap, and I knocked my guy’s arms down,” Anderson recalled. “There was a running back there; they were pitching it to him and I just got in front of the ball and intercepted and ran it in.”

Rumph followed up the defensive score with his second touchdown on a 22-yard run in the final minutes of the first half to give Eden Prairie a commanding 34-0 lead at halftime.

“You just gotta be an athlete and make the play,” Rumph said after finishing with 64 yards on five carries. “So I’m just confident in my ability to make those types of plays.”

The Eagles certainly showed confidence in their abilities on both sides of the ball throughout the second half as well.

Senior running back Johnny Kleis rushed for 68 yards on seven carries, including a second-half touchdown to give the Eagles a 40-0 lead with 6:33 remaining in the third quarter.

The 40-point cushion allowed a number of players to see action in the game, while Buffalo didn’t put any points on the board until the 3:01 mark of the fourth quarter.

The thorough dismantling of the Bison erased any uncertainties about Eden Prairie’s young but capable lineup.

“There’s always nerves going into the first game,” Ivey said. “But we took those nerves and we turned it into energy, and we played great. We brought aggression to them.”

With the opening week in the rearview mirror, the Eagles turn their focus to Edina and a date they’ve had circled on the calendar for the past nine months.

The Hornets handed an undefeated Eden Prairie team a shocking 28-7 defeat in the state semifinals last November. The loss followed a regular season contest in which the Eagles trounced Edina 36-14 in Week 2 of 2023.

The wait is finally over for the Eagles, who will travel to Kuhlman Stadium in Edina for the rematch at 7 p.m. on Friday. 

“We always have good games against Edina,” Grant said. “And they’ve got some really outstanding players. But trust me, we didn’t give our best effort last year, the last game we played.

“They will get our best effort on Friday.” 

Editor’s note: EPLN photographer Rick Olson contributed to this story.