NEW WASHINGTON — Mohawk obviously was better than its record indicated.
The Warriors scored on their first possession here and went on to a 42-12 win over previously unbeaten Buckeye Central in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference opener Friday night.
“We’ve gotten better every week,” said Mohawk coach Eric Daniel. “We’ve got some kids starting to step up that needed to step up. We’ve had a lot of young guys in due to injuries. I’m just proud of our kids for just staying the course.”
Zaiden Fry’s 10-yard run got the scoring started. His 50-yard run to the Bucks 15 set up the touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
“Zaiden is a special player. We try to get him the ball…we don’t even hide it. We had some other guys step up and block for him. You know, he’s been an amazing leader for us the last couple games when things get tough. He’s in here filling on defense and he’s vocal in the locker room,” Daniel said.
Mohawk goes to 1-3, 1-0 and Buckeye Central is now 3-1, 0-1.
“Our hats off to Mohawk. They’re a heck of a football team. We knew that,” said BC coach Chad Jensen.
“I’m proud of our kids. We battled, we didn’t quit, and we didn’t give up. We could have easily let them have a running clock early, but that didn’t happen. We battled. I thought we kept grinding.”
Mohawk quarterback Ben Bogner directed his team downfield and capped the scoring with a 12-yard toss to Bryce Hannam that put the visitors ahead 15-0 at halftime. He hit 9-of-19 passes for 156 yards.
“Mohawk’s a good team, man. They give us problems on both sides of the ball. We told our kids there are things we got to clean up tomorrow in film,” Jensen said. “We’ve got to improve because we’ve got Carey (4-0) next week.”
Manny Mullins’ one-yard run put BC on the scoreboard in the third quarter. But penalties and dropped passes hurt the Bucks on several drives.
“A couple penalties here and there cost us. Our effort was there. The things we need to work on can be corrected. When you’re playing a better opponent, you see some of those flaws come out there,” Jensen said.
“There’s no easy games in the N10. Our Division VII games are over. Everybody we’re playing now is bigger than us. That’s no excuse. We’re gonna get after it and our kids are going to get better. They’re resilient here at Buckeye Central.”
Mullins entered the game as the second leading rusher in the N10 with 382 yards and 4 touchdowns. Mohawk’s defense limited him to 28 yards on 10 carries. He added another TD from 14 yards out in the fourth quarter and had an interception.
Mullins punted 5 times averaging 43.6 yards per kick, including a 60-yarder in the fourth quarter to pin the Warriors down at their 2-yard line.
Mohawk racked up 373 yards of offense and held BC to 161.
“We started out fast and had a little lull there, but that happens with a young football team,” Daniel said.
Trevor Johnson had two sacks, Kaleb Bish and Jace Margraf one each for Mohawk, which visits winless Wynford Friday night. Fry added an interception.
Landon Sherwood and Kenny Utz had a combined sack for Buckeye Central to stop a second quarter Mohawk drive.
“They buckled down in the second half and with 4:06 to go I told them, ‘I want you to finish.’ And they did. I love that momentum going into Wynford. We know how good they are. Their record is not truly indicative of who they are,” Daniel said.
“The N10 conference is a son of a gun. We wanted one last week and got close. There are no moral victories in football, but we got a win tonight.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Mohawk 15 7 12 8 — 42
Buckeye Central 0 6 0 6 — 12
Scoring summary
First quarter
M — Zaiden Fry 10 run (Ben Bogner kick), 5:35.
M — Bryce Hannam 80 pass from Bogner (Bogner run), 3:48.
Second quarter
M — Bogner 2 run (Bogner kick), 11:56.
BC — Manny Mullins 2 run (run failed), 7:37.
Third quarter
M — Jace Margraf 50 run (pass failed), 11:19.
M — Fry 5 run (run failed), 7:02.
Fourth quarter
BC — Mullins 14 run (pass failed), 6:01
M — Brayden Chester 12 pass from Bogner (Margraf run), 3:27.
Individual statistics
Passing
Mohawk: Ben Bogner 9-19-0 156, Zaiden Fry 0-1-0 0; Buckeye Central: Derex Dean 18-31-1 156.
Rushing
Mohawk Jace Margraf 9-76, Zaiden Fry 6-70, Ben Bogner 15-70, Liam Purcell 1-1, Trevor Johnson 1-0; Buckeye Central: Manny Mullins 10-28, Jack Phillips 1-0, Derex Dean 11-(-23).
Receiving
Mohawk: Bryce Hannam 1-80, Brayden Chester 7-67, Zaiden Fry 1-9; Buckeye Central: Trevor Kirgis 5-75, Tyler Sanderson 5-33, Manny Mullins 4-18, Landon Sherwood 1-12, Heath Jensen 2-11, J.R. Martin 1-7.
Team statistics
M BC
First downs 14 10
Rushing 33-217 22-5
Passes 9-20-0 18-31-1
Yards passing 156 156
Total yards 373 161
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties 4-35 3-35