Joe Mullen, Dwayne Allen fuel St. Edward rout of Clark

All it took was a 1-2 punch.

Joe Mullen threw for three touchdowns and Dwayne Allen ran for 141 yards and a score to lead host St Edwards to a 56-0 win over Clark at Greg True Field.

The win moves the Green Wave to 2-0 on the year, the sixth time in the last seven years St. Edward started the season with two wins.

Clark, who dressed only 17 players and started a freshman quarterback, drops to 0-2.

After Allen opened the game with runs of 12 and 30 yards, Mullen found sophomore Trevor Loewen wide open down the right side for an 18-yard TD just 76 seconds into the game. It was Loewen’s first varsity catch.

“I believe in Trevor as a receiver,” said Mullen, a 6-3 senior. “He runs routes as well as anyone on the squad.”

St. Edward went up 14-0 just 1:49 later when a third-down snap went over the head of Clark quarterback EJ Spraggs and was recovered by Brandon Ostrander in the end zone. Ostrander also recovered a fumble in the second quarter.

When Mullen found Loewen open again three minutes later for another 18-yard, pitch-and-catch TD, the Green Wave had a quick 21-0 lead at 7:05 on the first quarter.

“Joe threw the ball well,” Green Wave coach Mike Rolando said. “We spread the ball around.”

Mullen was efficient in his passing, getting the three TDs in just six passes. The Green Wave finished with 403 yards and 17 first downs.

On Clark’s next possession, Santos Gomez picked off Spraggs and ran 15 yards untouched into the end zone to increase the lead to 28-0. Clark gained just 41 yards, zero rushing, and had just two first downs.

“We wanted to jump on them early,” Rolando said. “We showed a lot of improvement from the first week. Our defense played well, it was a good team effort.”

Nick Duffy hauled in a 37-yard touchdown pass from Mullen at the start of the second quarter and Allen ripped off a 61-yard TD run four minutes later to put the hosts up 42-0. That was Allen’s second TD of the year.

David Groves ran in from the two with 55 second left in the half. Patrick closed out the scoring in the third quarter with a 20-yard run that made the score 56-0.

“We have a young squad, all freshman and sophomores and one senior,” said Clark coach Kevin Simmons. “It’s a learning process.”