HOLMES TOWNSHIP (Crawford County Now) — Mohawk accomplished its goal of a league win, topping Wynford 35-7 in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game Friday night.

In doing so the Warriors (4-0, 5-1) won their fifth straight contest and remain tied with Hopewell-Loudon and Carey atop the N10 standings, one game ahead of Seneca East.

Mohawk opened with a bang as quarterback Andon Clouse connected with Jagger Ekleberry on a 55-yard touchdown just 6 plays into the game. Clouse ran in one from 2 yards out and added two more second-quarter TD tosses to Levi Tiell covering 22 and 13 yards to take a 28-0 halftime lead.

“They were loading up the box. Our guys made plays on the perimeter when we had to. Running the ball was tough to come by at times tonight,” Warriors head coach Eric Daniel said.

“I’d like to see our guys be able to dig guys out and be more physical in the trenches, be able to finish runs … it’s a mentality. They’re a very physical football team.”

Clouse passed for 168 yards and ran for 73 more as the visitors compiled 329 offensive yards.

“Andon put the ball on the money tonight and did a great job,” he said. “We have to bring it every week. I felt we lacked a little emotion and that’s on me and us to get our guys ready and fired up.”

Wynford (1-3, 2-4) struggled to contain the passing attack.

“We made too many mistakes to compete with them. At times we did and we fought very hard,” Wynford head coach Andy Amlin said.

“We’re not a team that can make many mistakes against a team like Mohawk. Their quarterback is good. The Tiell kid is a real good receiver. We kind of changed some things defensively to try and stop him.”

Aden Patrizi added an 11-yard run in the third quarter. He had 62 yards rushing on 13 carries and kicked all 5 PATs.

Wynford got on the board to stop a running clock when Braylon Wells found the end zone with just under 5 minutes to play.

“Braylon is tough to bring down. He does not quit,” Amlin said.

“I appreciate our kids came out in the second half and didn’t lie down. We made them punt a couple times and we had a nice drive. We’ve got to be more disciplined, especially on offense.”

The sophomore ran for 129 yards on 17 carries, including a 42-yard run, breaking several tackles, to set up the score.

Memphis Routson and Jamison Crall combined for one sack for the Royals.

Wynford hosts Colonel Crawford (2-2, 3-3) next Friday night.

“They are a well-coached team. They don’t throw the ball a lot, I don’t think, but I haven’t watched film on them yet. We’ll have another tough one next week,” Amlin said.

Mohawk is a young team overall.

“You look out there at one point and we got 3 freshmen playing varsity, which is never a good thing. Those kids are battling their butts off. We’re not particularly deep,” Daniel said.

“I’m a little disappointed in our tackling, to be honest. We had more missed tackles tonight than in the previous weeks combined. A lot of fits and then not driving through. Not a lot of gang tackling. It was good at times.”

The Warriors visit Willard (1-3, 3-3) next week.

“They were a skosh away from going down and taking the lead on Seneca East with a minute or 2 to go last week. I hope our guys understand the challenge in front of you because it’s substantial. And it only increases,” Daniel said.

“They’re good enough to beat you. They’re good enough to beat anybody.”

Box score

Score by quarters

Mohawk      14        14          7         0 — 35

Wynford        0          0          0         7 — 7

Scoring summary

First quarter

M — Jagger Ekleberry 55 pass from Andon Clouse (Aden Patrizi kick), 9:01.

M — Clouse 2 run (Patrizi kick), 3:28.

Second quarter

M — Levi Tiell 22 pass from Clouse (Patrizi kick), 2:39.

M — Tiell 13 pass from Clouse (Patrizi kick), :33.5.

Third quarter

M — Patrizi 11 run (Patrizi kick), 5:45.

Fourth quarter

W — Braylon Wells 3 run (Victor Arellano kick), 4:49.

Individual statistics

Passing

Mohawk: Andon Clouse 10-15-0 168, Liam Martinez 0-1-0 0; Wynford: Braylon Wells 1-3-0 12.

Rushing

Mohawk: Andon Clouse 12-73, Aden Patrizi 13-62, Liam Martinez 5-19, Kade Bish 2-5, Parker Hill 1-2; Wynford: Braylon Wells 17-129, Deegan Lutz 10-34.

Receiving

Mohawk: Levi Tiell 6-87, Jagger Ekleberry 1-55, Chance Collene 2-23, Riley Coffman 1-3; Wynford: Gage Massey 1-12.

Team statistics

M                W

First downs                  15                 8

Rushing                     33-161         27-163

Passes                         10-16-0         1-3-0

Yards passing             168                12

Total yards                  329              175

Fumbles-lost               0-0               0-0

Punts                           3-33.6        5-29.4

Penalties                       7-20           2-20