BASCOM (Crawford County Now) — Carey found out just how good Hopewell-Loudon is at full strength.

In his first game back from an injury, Kellen Frankart rushed for 198 yards and two touchdowns and threw a scoring pass as the Chieftains took advantage of three Blue Devils turnovers and rolled to a 42-14 victory in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference football showdown Friday night at Hopewell-Loudon.

Brody Brickner, who returned to action last week, added a pair of touchdowns for the unbeaten Chieftains (8-0, 6-0 N10).

“With Kellen coming back, what obviously a difference maker in the game,” Hopewell-Loudon coach Brian Colatruglio said. “We got speed and now we got the, you know, we kind of got the hammer, and just, you know, they’re really good football players, and, yeah, I’m glad they’re back healthy.”

Tripp Phoenix scored both of the touchdowns for the Blue Devils (5-3, 5-1 N10) on long runs, and the first one, a 41-yarder, gave his team a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

But the second quarter belonged entirely Hopewell-Loudon, which found the end zone four times. It started with Frankart’s 2-yard touchdown run just four seconds into the period. Jacoby Ellis’ conversion pass to Brickner put the Chieftains up for good at 8-7.

“We didn’t do well enough in the second quarter,” Carey coach Jonathon Mershman said. “Can’t lose the turnover battle, and I’m going to assume that we probably learned the lost the explosive plays, the number of explosive plays. So when you lose those two things, it’s a tough night because they’re getting first downs, and it’s just leading to touchdowns. Short fields lead to touchdowns. You could go analytical on all this stuff. Giving the ball away leads to touchdowns.”

Hopewell-Loudon’s first score was set up by a fourth-down conversion on a 12-yard pass from Ellis to Frankart.

It did not take long for the Chieftains to extend their lead. One play after recovering a fumble, Hopewell-Loudon went up 14-7 on an Ellis 16-yard pass to Braylon Ramirez.

Carey had a chance to keep it a one-score game in the closing minutes of the first half, but Brickner tossed a 3-yard touchdown pass to Sam Humphrey on fourth-and-goal, and a conversion pass that followed made it 22-7 with 1:14 left.

It got even worse for Carey, though, as Phoenix threw an interception, giving the Chieftains one more chance that they took advantage of. After two straight 11-yard completions from Ellis to Brickner and then a spike, Ellis hit Brickner again for a 14-yard touchdown with 13 seconds left, making it 28-7.

“Once we get ahead that allows us to just kind of grind away and kind of puts them — makes them uncomfortable and that was a big, big end of the half there,” Colatruglio said. “We get the two scores right at the end, both with the interception then, and obviously, once we get that lead, then it kind of lets our old line and tight ends and running backs just kind of go to work and kind of put it away.”

Frankart’s 46-yard run on the opening drive of the second half set up Brickner’s 1-yard touchdown run and a 35-7 lead.

Phoenix busted a 70-yard touchdown run on Carey’s next play from scrimmage, and the Blue Devils got a couple of stops on defense, but the offense could do nothing to get any closer. Phoenix was intercepted a second time and then turned the ball over on downs.

Finally, Hopewell-Loudon put the game away with a long scoring drive that ended with 6:57 left in the game on a Frankart 3-yard touchdown run.

“Their offense 8 (Frankart is) a dog, man,” Mershman said. “I don’t know what else to say. Yeah, he makes a heck of a difference on their team. (Brickner) 7, heck of a receiver. They had a good game plan, you know, so they played, played really good defense, and their offense played really well.”

Brickner finished with seven catches for 77 yards and a touchdown, all of that in the first half, and he rushed 16 times for 39 yards and a touchdown. Ellis was 9-of-12 passing for 117 yards and a pair of scores.

Phoenix led Carey with 107 yards on eight carries, but he was just 3-of-8 passing for 39 yards with two interceptions. Mace Puckett rushed 13 times for 43 yards.

The Blue Devils had just six first downs in the game, and outside of Phoenix’s two long runs, they managed only 97 yards of offense.

With Hopewell-Loudon facing Lucas and Buckeye Central in its final two games, it should have no trouble finishing out an N10 title, but Carey still has plenty to play for, beginning with a big game against rival Mohawk next week in which it can deny the Warriors a chance at sharing the championship.

“We’ve got a good Mohawk team,” Mershman said. “We’ve got to go there. It’s their homecoming, so you’ve got all that stuff to go for. And then, we win the next two games, my math isn’t probably correct, but I think we have a pretty good chance of having a home first-round playoff game. So there’s a lot of things to hold our heads up and get out of here and go after.

“That’s my job to go in there and fix some things and put it back together and see what happens.”

Carey plays at 7 p.m. Friday at Warrior Field.

Box score

Score by quarters

Carey                          7          0          7         0   — 14

Hopewell-Loudon    0        28          6         8 — 42

Scoring summary

First quarter

C – Phoenix 41-yard run (Kloepfer kick) 5:59.

Second quarter

HL – Frankart 2-yard run (Ellis pass to Bro. Brickner) 11:56.

HL – Ellis 16-yard pass to Ramirez (run failed) 11:29.

HL – Bro. Brickner 3-yard pass to Humphrey (Ellis pass to Rogier) 1:14.

HL – Ellis 14-yard pass to Bro. Brickner (run failed) 0:13.

Third quarter

HL – Bro. Brickner 1-yard run (run failed) 9:08.

C – Phoenix 70-yard run (Kloepfer kick) 8:51.

Fourth quarter

HL – Frankart 3-yard run (Frankart run) 6:57.

Individual statistics

Passing

Carey: Phoenix 3-8-2.

Hopewell-Loudon: Ellis 9-12-0, 117, Frankart 2-2, (-3).

Rushing

Carey: Phoenix 8-107, M. Puckett 13-43; Summit 3-17; Sherman 1-2.

Hopewell-Loudon: Frankart 20-198, Bro. Brickner 16-39, Bry. Brickner 3-29, Link 1-3, Hoover 2-2, Ellis 1-(-2); team 2-(-11).

Receiving

Carey: M. Puckett 2-33, Summit 1-6.

Hopewell-Loudon: Bro. Brickner 7-77, Humphrey 2-9, Ramirez 1-16, Frankart 1-12.

Team statistics

C               HL

First downs                         5                18

Rushing yards               25-169       45-258

Passing yards                     39              114

Total yards                       208             372

Passes                              3-8-2           11-15-0

Fumbles-lost                    1-1                0-0

Punts                              3-34.3           2-35.5

Penalties                          2-20              4-45