AUBURN — Chalk it up to a case of the jitters.

Edward Little overcame three early fumbles — two lost — and an interception on its first three drives and came back from an early three-point hole to score 33 consecutive points and run away with a 33-11 victory over Cony in the Red Eddies’ home opener at Walton Field on Friday night.

“We had to calm the offense down, find a rhythm and just stay with that rhythm,” EL coach Dave Sterling said.

Hairston, Edward Little’s workhorse in the backfield all night, was responsible for some of the early trouble, dropping a pair of balls that resulted in turnovers. The Rams capitalized on the second of those chances on a 30-yard field goal from Zack Lachance to take a 3-0 lead in the first quarter.

“We didn’t score last game, so I thought it was pretty important that we get on the board early,” Cony coach Robby Vachon said.

After another turnover, this time an interception on a Josh Delong pass into the end zone, the Eddies clamped down on defense. Cony’s next two possessions resulted in booming punts from Lachance.

“We’re really young right now. We have a young football team with some young kids,” Vachon said. “The mistakes are what really bother me, but they were mistakes by young kids. We just have to play those guys and they’ll gain the experience. You just can’t make those mistakes against a good football team.”

EL finally figured things out, and Hairston led the charge. On a drive starting at the EL 38, Delong scampered for 13 yards, then completed a pass across the middle to Alphonso Belnavis to put the Eddies in Cony territory.

Hairston took over from there, earning the next 41 yards on six consecutive carries and finally punching the ball into the end zone with 3:46 remaining in the first half. Luke Farrago’s extra point put EL on top to stay, 7-3.

An ill-advised heave over the middle from Cony sophomore quarterback Ben Lucas gave EL the ball back with 2:32 on the clock, and the Eddies tacked on another TD and extra point on a Dylan Deconzo run and Farrago kick with 50 seconds to play in the stanza.

The second half was all Edward Little. The Eddies forced Cony to fumble the ball on its first two possessions of the second half, and scored touchdowns on the ensuing drives. Hairston had the key run on the first EL strike in the third quarter — a Delong 5-yard run — and Delong found Gage Clavet for a passing TD later in the quarter.

“The first half, we came out, I was a little bit nervous,” Hairston said. “First home game with everyone watching me. I don’t even know what was going through my head, but I wasn’t clearing my mind like coach asked us to in the locker room. The second half, we all just got serious.”

EL turned to junior Sean Ford at quarterback to finish the game, and he led the Eddies to another score, another Hairston run, in the fourth quarter.

“We wanted to get our first-string quarterback some looks early, he’s being looked at by some schools, and we wanted to give both kids some time to play,” Sterling said.

Cony used a pair of big plays late against EL’s second defense to set up the Rams’ lone touchdown, a keeper by Lucas. Brandon St. Michael led the Rams with 77 yards on 12 carries, while Lucas finished with 80 yards passing.

In addition to Hairston’s yards, EL got 53 from Delong, 48 from Deconzo and 19 from freshman Steven Beland.

“Bangor coming in here next week is a real tough one to go up against,” Sterling said. “We haven’t had a win against Bangor in 20-plus years. We’re looking forward to it.”