By Tim Mastro

GEORGETOWN — The Smyrna High defense did it again.

The Eagles earned their second consecutive shutout, lifting them to a 42-0 victory at Sussex Central High on Friday night in a Class 3A, District II matchup. Smyrna improved to 2-0 in district and 3-2 overall.

It is the first time Smyrna posted back-to-back shutouts since the opening two games of the 2015 season.

“Our guys are playing inspired football,” said Smyrna coach Mike Judy.

Smyrna was coming off a 40-0 shutout of Caesar Rodney High last Thursday.

But the Eagle coaching staff still thought there was room for improvement on the defensive performance. Judy said that led to Smyrna having what he called its best week of practice of the season.

This defensive effort was even better as Smyrna prevented Sussex Central from reaching the red zone the whole game.

“We’re very critical in film and we saw some things we needed to fix and our kids set out to try to fix them this week,” Judy said. “It was a really impressive week of practice and defensively, they’re playing like their hair is on fire.”

“They shut out a very good team,” Judy added. “That team (Sussex Central) is dangerous now but watch out when we get to the playoffs.

Sussex Central dropped to 2-2 on the season.

These two teams played two games last year which came down to the final minutes, including a Sussex Central win at Smyrna in the state semifinals thanks to a go-ahead touchdown with less than 30 seconds left. But Friday’s night game was all Smyrna from the get-go.

The Eagles scored on their first possession as Cameron Edge launched a 67-yard touchdown pass over the heads of everyone on the Sussex Central defense, right into stride for Denim Smith. Smyrna forced a turnover on downs on Sussex Central’s next possession, which led to a 3-yard rushing touchdown by Wayne Knight and a 12-0 lead seven minutes into the contest.

Knight was just getting started, he would add two more touchdowns, from two and 13 yards out to continue building Smyrna’s lead. Edge recorded his second passing touchdown of the night with a 10-yard toss to Yamir Knight in the second quarter to give the Eagles a 28-0 halftime lead.

Wayne Knight’s final touchdown of the night made it a running clock with a 36-0 advantage with 7:50 left in the third. Tim Yancy capped off the scoring for Smyrna on a rushing touchdown from a yard out with 3:02 remaining in the game.