It was homecoming for the Edgewater Eagles and the Lake Minneola Hawks were looking to spoil the festivities.

The Hawks got close to crashing the party, but the Eagles survived, 26-19, in double-overtime.

The game was a hard fought battle between both teams and the deciding factor came down to who would make the bigger plays.

Both teams saw strong quarterback play, but even bigger plays by their top receivers. Leading the way for Edgewater was Brandon McLaughlin, who had eight catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns.  Buck Watkins also had two touchdowns for the Eagles on eight catches.  The two combined for all of the touchdowns. 

Lake Minneola also saw strong offensive play by their quarterback Jesse Fiske, who went 15 of 32 for 219 yards and one touchdown.  

Down 13-0, Lake Minneola pulled out their bag of tricks to get on the scoreboard.  On a fourth and nine, Fiske threw a backwards pass to Jahmari Walden, who then hit Bryndan McCoy for a 47-yard touchdown pass. McCoy ended the night with 158 yards on six catches.  

Down 19-12 with about six minutes to play, Lake Minneola went on a 15-play drive that ended on a three-yard touchdown pass by Friske to Desmond Johnson.  Edgewater’s defense could not stop the Hawks on a fourth and thirty-six that put the Hawks on the three-yard line.  The touchdown came with only seconds left to play in the game. 

In the first overtime, Edgewater stopped the Hawks on three downs and forced a 32-yard field goal attempt.  The kick by Dalton Ray went wide left and the Eagles had their chance to win.  After two false start penalties, Edgewater finally moved the ball to the one-yard line.  But again, penalties cost the Eagles the chance to clinch the win.  After being stopped on third down, Edgewater’s coach Rich Bedesem sent his kicker MJ Butler to attempt the game-winning 30-yard field goal.  Like Lake Minneola, the kick sailed wide left.

Edgewater got the ball to start the second overtime and went straight to work.  On third and goal from their 14-yard line, Cortez Pembleton capped off his night with a touchdown pass to McLaughlin.  Pembleton finished the night 14 of 25 for 186 yards and four touchdowns.  The Hawks got their chance, but could not put the ball in the end zone on fourth and goal.

With the victory, Edgewater improves to 5-2 and 2-0 in the district and sets up a big district matchup in two weeks against undefeated South Lake.  Lake Minneola drops to 2-5 and 0-2 in the district.