Chelsea High School running back Berkley Edwards gladly accepted the Big Day Prep Showdown team MVP award following Chelsea’s 24-12 victory over Novi at Eastern Michigan’s Rynearson Stadium Friday night.

With 25 rushes for 119 yards and three scores, Edwards deserved the award. But make no mistake, he was a consolation pick, as the organizers of the event couldn’t make 11 of the plaques for the entire Bulldogs defense.

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As a collective, the Bulldogs defense was not just valuable, it was dominant, allowing Novi just 187 yards of total offense and six first downs the entire game.

Four of the first downs came late in the fourth quarter, with Chelsea comfortably ahead.

“Our defense played great,” said Chelsea coach Brad Bush, who went beyond the starting 11 with his praise. “We were able to rotate a lot kids into the game and the fact that we were much fresher than them was a big factor.

“As the game wore on we wore ‘em down,” Bush said.

Chelsea’s offense, by contrast took a while to get going, having to punt on two of its first three possessions and settling for a field goal on the other. Bush credited Novi (0-1) with coming out in schemes he hadn’t seen in tapes of them.

But on its fourth possession, trailing 6-3, Edwards and the running game got going. Chelsea drove 86 yards in nine plays with Edwards eventually scoring on a 13-yard run.

A Zack Rabbit extra point gave Chelsea (1-0) a 10-6 lead, which it would never relinquish.

Though Edwards was the workhorse of the offense on the drive -- with seven of the nine carries -- and for the night, the outside running by Andy Nelson and Colton Platt really opened up the middle for Edwards. Sweep and counters to Platt and Nelson forced Novi to defend the outside, giving Edwards some more breathing room.

“It’s been a while since we had a lot of complimentary pieces to the tailback,” Bush said. “We’ve got some guys in the backfield that can really play and I think they played well tonight.”

Edwards scored in each the second and third quarter, which was more cushion than the defense needed.

“The offense kind of struggled at first so the defense had to set the tone,” said defensive lineman Michael Steinhauer. “Once the defense set the tone, the offense picked it up, got a couple of scores and the defense just shut ‘em down the whole game.”

Contact Pete Cunningham at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.