NORTH ROBINSON — Everyone expected Thursday night’s Hannibal River-Colonel Crawford game to be close and very physical. After all, the Eagles went down to Hannibal last year and came away with a tough 21-20 win.

And, for about the first 16 minutes, the game played right to script, as the Eagles held a 21-13 lead.

From that point on, however, the game was all Crawford.

The Eagles piled up 629 yards of offense. Tailback Connor McMichael rushed for 162 yards and finished with 205 scrimmage yards, while running mate Dom Dean, a transfer from Buckeye Central, added three touchdowns as the Eagles scored the final 34 points of the game in a 55-13 win.

Crawford simply wore down the Pilots’ defensive line and controlled the game for the final 32 minutes.

Colonel Crawford coach Jake Bruner felt that he had some concerns about how his young team would respond to the physical Pilots.

“Give (River) credit, I mean, they’re a really physical, tough, well-coached football team and we knew that,” Bruner said. “And talk about size. They have a guy who is 6-6, 369 pounds. And they have a quarterback that runs the ball in the single-wing and weighs 280. And number five for them (Lucas Dennis); we were really scared of him going in, and he hurt us last year.

“I was happy that our young team, we only have eight seniors, were able to stay composed when they smacked us in the mouth,” Bruner added.

McMichael said that it was important for the Eagles to make a statement.

“We came out here and we showed people we’re physical,” McMichael said. “Even losing all those seniors; it’s nice to show people that we’re still here and we can show up,

“Our linemen love to hit. It’s nice. They take pride in blocking for me and, when I see the holes, I just go.”

It was the Pilots, however, who struck first and put pressure on the Eagles early.

Quarterback Peyton Blue hit Wyatt Stackler for a 50-yard score and River grabbed a 7-0 lead.

The Eagles responded quickly as quarterback Peyton Baker found John DeGray from 16 yards out, and Dean scored on a one-yard run as the Eagles held a 14-7 lead.

On the first play of the second quarter, McMichael raced 65 yards for a score and Crawford’s advantage moved to 21-7.

After the Pilots cut the lead to 21-13 when Dennis scampered 59 yards for a score, Crawford got a 19-yard run from McMichael, a three-yard Dean run, and a 42-yard McMichael scoring run to take a 42-13 lead at the half.

“We like our young skill,” Bruner said. “It is good. We have a lot of different weapons. When we got punched in the mouth, I was glad to see that. We got to see us come back and be resilient and how we did it.”

Despite a running clock, Crawford scored twice in the second half.

Parker Weithman grabbed an 84-yard scoring pass from Baker and Dean added a 58-yard run. It was Dean’s third touchdown of the game in his Eagles’ debut.

“I was happy that our young team, we only have eight seniors, were able to stay composed when they smacked us in the mouth,” Dean said.

Bruner said that his team’s performance answered any pre-game jitters he may have had.

“We were all nervous,” Bruner said. “The coaches were nervous, the kids were nervous, and the community was nervous. It didn’t start out the way we wanted; we had a three-and-out and didn’t look too good. Then they came back and went down and scored. And even when we came back and got the lead, they came back and scored on that long run.”

One clear advantage the Eagles had was the number of players they could use. Crawford entered the game with 58 players to just 36 for the Pilots, despite their physical players.

“I really thought we would wear them down at the end,” Bruner added. “I think we’re a physical team or becoming one. We just have to continue to get better and I think we have a nice football team if we can continue to improve.”

Box score

Score by quarters

Hannibal River             7            6           0         0   — 13

Colonel Crawford      14          28         13         0   — 55

Scoring summary

First quarter

R — Wyatt Stackler 50 pass from Peyton Blue (Wyatt Majors kick), 9:17.

CC — John DeGray 16 pass from Brayden Holt (Joe Zizzo kick), 6:16.

CC — Dom Dean 1 run (Zizzo kick), 1:16.

Second quarter

CC — Connor McMichael 65 run (Zizzo kick), 11:57.

R — Lucas Dennis 59 run (kick blocked), 10:44.

CC — McMichael 19 run (Zizzo kick), 10:14.

CC — Dean 3 run (Zizzo kick), 5:58.

CC — McMichael 42 run (Zizzo kick), 2:10.

Third quarter

CC — Parker Weithman 84 pass from Peyton Baker (kick blocked), 8:56.

CC — Dean 58 run (Zizzo kick), :28.

Individual statistics

Passing

Hannibal River: Peyton Blue 8-14-2 74, Crestyn Isaly 0-1-0 0; Colonel Crawford: Peyton Baker 5-10- 132 0, Brayden Holt 4-6-1 81.

Rushing

Hannibal River: Lucas Dennis 11-78, Wyatt Stackler 2-2, Beau Charlton 2-0, Peyton Blue 2-(-8), Crestyn Isaly 2-(-14); Colonel Crawford: Connor McMichael 11-162, Dom Dean 7-68, Kamden Phelps 3-75, Madden Tesso 3-27, Brayden Holt 2-3, Roen Thew 1-2, Gabe Stratton 1-(-3).

Receiving

Hannibal River: Wyatt Stackler 1-50, Lucas Dennis 5-21, Beau Charlton 1-3, Braden Johnson 1-0; Colonel Crawford: Parker Weithman 2-87, John DeGray 3-53, Connor McMichael 2-43, Dom Dean 1-18, Lucas Foy 1-11.

Team statistics

HR              CC

First downs                    3                12

Rushing                     20-58         27-333

Passes                        8-15-2        10-17-1

Yards passing               74              296

Total yards                  132              629

Fumbles-lost               1-1               3-1

Penalties                     5-37             6-55