NEW WASHINGTON (Crawford County Now) — There isn’t anything conventional about the Fairport Harding football team.

They travel in micro-buses. They don’t put on their shoulder pads until about five minutes before kickoff. Most importantly, however, the Skippers run a multi-formation offense with an emphasis on quickness and pre-snap movement.

All that aside, the 2-hour trip produced a convincing 47-6 win over Buckeye Central in a rare Saturday afternoon non-league game.

“We knew they were going to have a lot of speed. We just didn’t play well today,” head coach Jordan Phillips said.

“They got off blocks. They caught the ball in space. They are a very explosive football team. They’re in the playoffs year-in and year-out.”

Buckeye Central (2-1) managed just 116 yards in total offense while yielding 427 yards.

Much of that explosiveness came in the form of the Castellano family.

Sophomore Abraham Castellano ran 10 times for 103 yards, and junior Yomar Castellano added 94 rushing and 47 more receiving. Both are shifty runners once they get in space.

Abraham Castellano found the end zone twice in the opening quarter on runs of 3 and 4 yards. Sandwiched in between was a 19-yard scoring strike from Brady Lawson to Diego Dambolena, a rangy tight end.

Castellano also had an interception to end the Bucks’ first drive of the game. Lawson threw for 223 yards, hitting 12-of-16 passing attempts.

“I felt like we got lined up right. We just didn’t recognize things, and they’re so explosive that a second or two late reacting makes you behind,” Phillips said.

Fairport Harding (3-0) held Buckeye Central to 75 yards on the ground on 31 attempts.

Austin Bogner led the way with 67 stripes on 20 carries.

Bogner’s 3-yard run in the second quarter came after quarterback Jack Phillips left the game for a series with a minor injury.

“We ran the ball OK at times. We struggled to get up to the second level because of their speed,” Phillips said.

Skippers head coach John Nagle said his team will enjoy the long bus ride home, something his team is used to doing.

“We had to leave early to do this, and the kids stayed locked in. They know our goal, and we’re not done yet,” he said.

“We have worked this off season about coming together as a family. Everybody has worked and we do have some skilled guys. And they work hard in practice to become even better.”

Fairport Harbor is a Division VII school.

“We are undersized with linemen. So this year we have worked on technique and speed and it’s paying off,” Nagle said.

The Skippers play Middlefield Cardinal on Friday.

Buckeye Central travels to Bucyrus (1-2) to open Northern 10 Athletic Conference play next Friday.

“Lots to clean up. Obviously, you’ve got a bad taste in your mouth from playing poorly today. But I tried to tell the kids we’re 2-1 and we’ve got a lot of good stuff ahead of us,” Phillips said.

“You’ve just got to learn from this. We’re a day behind playing on Saturday, but we’ve got to play a better brand of football.”

The league and country rivalry is always a test.

“They (Bucyrus) are averaging a lot of points; I think in the mid-20s. Defensively, we have got to tighten things down and we have to tackle better, react to stuff better,” he added.

“We’ll have our hands full, and we have to play better football next week.”

Bogner led BC with six tackles and Lance Cole added five.

Box score

Scoring summary

First quarter

FH — Abraham Castellano 3 run (kick failed), 4:50.

FH — Diego Dambolena 19 pass from Brady Lawson (Brandon Gibson Jr. pass from Lawson), 3:00.

FH — Castellano 4 run (Aman Abdymalikov kick), 1:31.

Second quarter

FH — Gibson 75 pass from Lawson (Abdymalikov kick), 10:20.

BC — Austin Bogner 3 run (run failed), 5:24.

Third quarter

FH — Brandon Gibson Jr. 18 pass from Brady Lawson (kick failed), 7:56.

FH — Shane Greenwood 25 pass from Brady Lawson (Abdymalikov kick), 1:40.

Fourth quarter

FH — Yomar Castellano 18 pass from Lawson (kick blocked), 6:10.

Individual statistics

Passing

Fairport Harding: Brady Lawson 12-16-0 223; Galion: Buckeye Central: Jack Phillips 6-14-1 41.

Rushing

Fairport Harding: Abraham Castellano 10-103, Yomar Castellano 5-94, Evan Murphy 1-12, Brady Lawson 9 (-5); Buckeye Central: Austin Bogner 20-67, Jack Phillips 6-0, Alec Phillips 3-9, Donnie Fortner 2 (-1)

Receiving

Harding: Brandon Gibson Jr. 3-114, Yomar Castellano 5-47, Shane Greenwood 1-25, Diego Dambolena 1-19, Jan Castellano 2-18; Buckeye Central: Alec Phillips 3-24, Hunter Caudill 3-17.

Team statistics 

FH              BC

First downs                      14               12

Rushing                        25-204         31-75

Passes                            12-16-0         6-14-1

Yards passing                  223               41

Total yards                      427              116

Fumbles-lost                   1-0               1-0

Penalties                         7-60            3-25