AUBURN – Shane Ciriello is hard to miss.

Standing better than 6-foot-3, it’s easy to see why Edward Little quarterback Cody Goddard finds him “easy to spot” from the pocket.

“I can pick him out when I’m deep in the pocket,” Goddard said. “On the fade ball, I can throw it up to Shane, or to any of my receivers, and they can go up and get it.”

Goddard worked that connection to perfection Friday night, hooking up with Ciriello six times for 150 yards and three touchdowns as the Red Eddies opened up at home with a 33-7 win over Mt. Blue at Walton Field.

Ciriello wasn’t Goddard’s only target, either. The senior quarterback finished the game completing 11 passes on 17 attempts for 234 yards and four touchdowns, the other coming on a 26-yard play to Dominique Bailey.

“Goddard throws the ball as good as anyone in this league that I’ve seen for a while,” Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin said. “He’s got weapons to throw to, but the fact is, they’re tough because you have to play the run and play the pass.”

Dylon Therrion led a balanced ground game for Edward Little, carrying the ball 13 times for 101 yards, while Buddy Foss rumbled for 79 yards on 14 carries. Backup Brandon Vye saw action late in the game, and he scampered for 61 on the ground.

“We do believe we can score against anybody,” EL coach Darren Hartley said. “We try to be balanced and try to get after them.”

Three times, Mt. Blue pushed the Eddies to the brink on defense, but the young Cougars stalled, twice at about the EL 25 and once inside the 5-yard line.

“We still know we have a long way to go on defense, and our special teams were average,” Hartley said. “Everybody wants to say we’re one of the elite teams, but we’re not there yet. The elite teams play great defense and they play great special teams, and our guys know we just haven’t got there, yet.”

EL found the end zone three times in the first half, with Ciriello accounting for a pair and Foss scampering 17 yards for the other to put the home team ahead 20-0 at the half.

The Eddies added seven more on another Ciriello catch early in the third, and converted on a Mt. Blue turnover early in the fourth to build a 33-0 lead.

Running back Derek Rowe shouldered the load late for the Cougars, and finally broke the team’s scoreless streak to begin the season at 92:15 when he trotted home from two yards out with 3:15 to play in the game.

“We knew what we were up against these first two weeks,” Parlin said. “We came out of this with no injuries, and hopefully that will lead into something good for us going forward.”