'This is How We Do It': Edison football has it way over Gregori in SJS playoff game

Montell Jordan’s “This is How We Do It” will never be the same for the Gregori football players and staff.

The 90s hip-hop classic blared out after every Edison football touchdown during Friday’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division 1 first-round playoff matchup in Stockton. Gregori heard the song play a total of seven times as Edison overpowered it for a 48-6 blowout victory.

“Oh man, I feel excited,” said Marcus Harrison, Edison’s junior wide receiver. “Shoot, this is my first playoff win in high school and the first time the school has won a playoff game since 2019. We got a big game ahead of us, but we handled business tonight.”

Here are the key takeaways from the Vikings' first-round victory that punched their ticket to the SJS Division 1 quarterfinals.

Third-quarter takeover

Edison is known for its fast-scoring offense, led by sophomore quarterback Berrell Staples, but playoff nerves and little mistakes gave Gregori life in the first half. The Vikings scored on defense thanks to a pick-six from Anthony Billberry and then once on offense on a 55-yard touchdown pass from Staples to Harrison.

The Jaguars' power back Michael Marsden cut into the lead on a 17-yard screen pass to bring the halftime score to 14-6.

“It’s a lot of growth with these guys, and they started off hesitant tonight,” said Tony Gomez, Edison’s offensive coordinator. “We told them during halftime, ‘We have to execute. This team is good, but we should be able to do what we want.’ They took that to heart, and they came out ready to play, and I really appreciate that.”

Before Gregori could relish in the fact that the game was so close, the Vikings went on a scoring rampage in the third quarter. Harrison kickstarted things bursting out for a 50-yard rushing touchdown as he finished with a score in the air and on the ground.

Also punishing the Jaguars' rush defense was junior Kiaza Calhoun, with whom who no defender could keep up. He rushed for 184 yards on six carries and two touchdowns. The passing game was just as lethal for the Vikings. Staples added another long touchdown pass to round out his night, this time from 60 yards out to junior Isaac Sagapolu.

“Players really stepped up,” Harrison said. “Once we realized that if we don’t step up then it's going to be a tight game, we really locked in. We picked up the game from there and killed them.”

Edison's stingy defense

As explosive of an offense Edison has, its defense may have stolen the show in this victory. From the first couple of snaps, they proved that the tougher players in the trenches would determine how this game would go.

“I think we had to match their physicality,” said Lamar Wallace, Gregori’s head coach, before the start of the game. “We got to play with energy, and we got to execute. We didn’t beat them the last time we were here, so we’re trying to run it back.”

The Jaguars' offense struggled to move the ball consistently against the big bodies on Edison’s defense. Marsden, who ended the regular season averaging close to 170 rushing yards per game, was held to just 107 rushing yards tonight.

When they couldn’t get Marsden going, they took to the air, which turned out to be even more damaging to them. Senior quarterback Conner Bailey threw two interceptions in the second half following the Jaguars' first interception. Both misfires were snagged by Billberry; one of them he took all the way home for his second pick-six of the night.

The Vikings will look to continue its hard-to-get-by defensive outing in next week’s quarterfinals matchup against the No. 2 seed Central Catholic.

Record reporter Shannon Belt covers sports. She can be reached at sbelt@recordnet.com or on Twitter @ShannonBelt3. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Edison football blows past Gregori to advance to SJS D1 quarterfinals