GALION — The Galion offense, featuring junior speedster Jacob Chambers, was in high gear.

The Tigers put up seven touchdowns in a 49-13 season opening non-league win over Wynford at Unkrich Stadium on Thursday night. Chambers grabbed 8 passes for 123 yards and three first-half touchdowns to spark the win.

“We’ve got a lot of explosive kids. Jacob Chambers, Allen Carver, Braxton Prosser running. We’ve got a lot of depth, and we just keep subbing them in and out. Coaches did a good job keeping everybody fresh,” Tigers head coach Matt Dick said.

Chambers had touchdown receptions of 33, 24 and 25 yards as the hosts built a 34-7 halftime.

“We’re blessed to have a lot of guys who once they touch the ball they make big plays. When Jacob Chambers touches the ball, I bet you about 50 percent of the time he’s going to score a touchdown,” Dick added.

“There’s a lot of new faces that can make a lot of plays. To be honest with you, there’s still a couple of freshmen we can mix in and they can make some plays as well,” Dick said.

Galion amassed 342 yards of total offense, while holding Wynford to 201 yards.

Galion scored twice in the opening quarter on Chambers’ first TD catch and a Prosser 9-yard run. The second score was set up when Galion recovered a Royals’ fumble after the first score.

But Anthony Evans caught a nice wheel route from Bucyrus transfer quarterback Brayden Campbell and went 33 yards for Wynford’s first TD.

Chambers added two more touchdown catches and Prosser went in from 22 yards as Galion built a 34-7 halftime lead.

Royals head coach Cyle Skidmore acknowledged the Tigers’ prowess.

“Galion’s a great football team. They do some really good things on offense and put their kids in the right position to be explosive and make big plays. Obviously, they did that tonight,” he said.

“I thought they controlled the line of scrimmage up front. That’s something our kids have to learn. You can’t show up and think you’re going to control the line of scrimmage because of what we do on offense. We’ve got to get better.”

Galion showed its depth as junior Sam Evans and sophomore Kale Early added third quarter touchdowns before Evans went in from 2 yards out for Wynford in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve had a good week of practice. I expected that and probably expected it last year too. When you’ve got a senior quarterback, it makes it easy and hats off to Ayden Schmidt he got to play that first series. For him to go down and throw a touchdown pass was pretty awesome,” Dick said.

Galion’s offensive line did a solid job against a big Wynford team.

“Our O-line is not super huge. But a kid like Zach Sallee is probably 6-feet, 200 pounds but he runs a 4.5 40; so, he’s a freak human being. He doesn’t look like the 6-4, 280 tackle, but he plays like it and that’s pretty neat.

“Michael Drake at center, Sam Estep on the other side. Luke Garverick, Cameron Kuehlman and Jacob Martin. All those guys have really played above my initial expectation through the first two scrimmages and one game,” Dick said. “But it only gets tougher.”

Galion forced three Wynford turnovers and turned those into points. Kurt Hay and Carver added interceptions, along with a fumble recovery by Trevor Shifley.

“We’re gonna spread the ball around a little more this year and keep guys fresh. Our offensive staff has bought into that idea. It was pretty impressive today.”

Galion visits Carey next Friday.

“Our D-line need to get more pressure. I know what Carey brings to the table. We’ve had some great games with them,” Dick said. “That’s an incredible place to play; a scary place to play and I just love every part of it.”

Last year the Tigers prevailed at home, 21-14.

“They were the most physical team we played last year. Their running back is like 250 and he outruns some of our guys. It’ll be a tough challenge for week two but that’s why we play ’em.”

Skidmore needs his squad to turn the page when it hosts East Knox in Week 2.

“I’ve been preaching to the kids to be consistent and not turn the ball over. The way I look at that is we can get better with that. We can learn from that and that’s all we can do,” he said.

“Being down at halftime we told our kids to keep fightin’ and we’re gonna keep fightin’ till the last play,” he said.

Box score

Score by quarters

Wynford         7           0          0          6   — 13

Galion           13         21        15         0   — 49

Scoring summary

First quarter

G — Jacob Chambers 32 pass from Ayden Schmidt (Allen Carver kick), 8:16.

G — Braxton Prosser 9 run (kick failed), 8:00.

W — Anthony Evans 33 pass from Brayden Campbell (Victor Cazares kick), :42.

Second Quarter

G — Chambers 24 pass from Prosser, (Carver kick), 11:47.

G — Prosser 22 run (Carver kick), 4:14.

G — Chambers 25 pass from Prosser (Carver kick), 1:18.

Third quarter

G — Samuel Evans 23 run (Carver kick), 6:19.

G — Kale Early 20 run (Prosser run), :53.

Fourth quarter

W — Anthony Evans 2 run (kick failed), 4:51.

Individual statistics

Passing

Wynford: Brayden Campbell 3-11-0 45; Galion: Braxton Prosser 8-12-0 129, Ayden Schmidt 3-4-0 50.

Rushing

Wynford: Bryce Locker 19-86, Anthony Evans 14-27, Zaiden Zier 1-11, Aiden Mason 2-4, Gage Massey 1-2, Brayden Campbell 2-(-4); Galion: Braxton Prosser 5-47, Sam Evans 5-36, Camden Kuehlman 4-28, Kale Early 3-28, Ayden Schmidt 3-25, Kane Hay 1-19, Ian Sumpter 3-14, Braxton Stuckman 4-11.

Receiving

Wynford: Anthony Evans 1-33, Bryce Locker 1-10, Aiden Mason 1-2; Galion: Jacob Chambers 8-123, Allen Carver 3-50.

Team statistics

W                G

First downs                   14                17

Rushing                     39-155         26-169

Passes                         3-11-2         11-17-0

Yards passing              46                173

Total yards                  201               342

Fumbles-lost               3-1               0-0

Penalties                      4-22             2-23