NORTH ROBINSON — The Colonel Crawford Eagles entered their game Friday night with Wynford with the Northern 10 Athletic Conference’s top running game.

It was the Royals, however, who had the dominant running attack.

Wynford put nine men in the box defensively to slow down Crawford halfback Tristan Cross and rushed for 350 yards themselves in 31 carries in a 56-14 win over the Eagles.

The win was the sixth straight for Wynford over the Eagles. The Royals have held the Iron Plow each year. Crawford hasn’t beaten Wynford since October 2013.

Wynford improved to 2-0 in the conference, 3-2 overall, while the Eagles fell to 1-1 in the conference, 3-2 overall.

The Eagles entered the game with the league’s top rusher in Cross, who ran for 628 yards on 85 carries. But the Royals made Cross work for every yard he gained. Cross finished with 112 yards rushing but he did it on 25 carries.

“Defensively we wanted to minimize what they do well,” Wynford coach Gabe Helbert said. “That Cross kid is a great back and they have some pretty dynamic athletes and, for the most part, we kinda kept them in check.”

Colonel Crawford coach Ryan Teglovic said that Wynford put nine players in the box to limit Cross.

“That’s a good football team and they played more physical than us, they jammed the box which is what you would do,” Teglovic said. “We have pretty good running backs back there and they have good coaches over there, and they do good things. So, yea, that’s absolutely what they did.”

Offensively, Wynford back Cody Taylor led the Royals with 135 yards on the ground and sophomore Kendall Blair finished with 106 on six totes.

But Helbert wanted to talk about two other players.

“We’re really proud of our physicality and I thought we did a lot of things really well,” Helbert said. “I thought that was key. I’ll shout out a name right now, (tight end) Avery Langenderfer, we haven’t played a ton with a tight end and tonight we went with Avery, who is steadily getting better and I thought he had a phenomenal game. Things look better when we started to play, and I think that was one of the keys.

“I thought (quarterback) Dustin Brady needs to be talked about,” Helbert added. “This was the game last year where he got yanked for about two or three games and there was no one bailing him out this year. Dustin doesn’t need to be bailed out, he played well, and I am proud of his effort tonight.”

Wynford scored in the first period on a 17-yard pass from Brady to Blair, before the Eagles tied the game early in the second period on a 15-yard Cross run.

The Royals put the game away in the second period when Taylor scored on a five-yard run and a 14-yard run. After a Seth Benedict interception late in the period, Brady hit Benedict from 31 yards out as the Royals held a 28-7 lead at the break.

Taylor scored from 17 yards out early in the third period and Cross scored from the six for the Eagles, cutting the lead to 35-14.

Wynford scored three more times in the fourth period, as Nate Imbody raced 70 yards for a score. After Wynford scored on a fumble in the end zone, Kolton Bils raced 49 yards for the final score.

“I thought our kids played with great energy,” Helbert said. “It started during practice on Tuesday and our desire to continue to get better. Obviously, there are things we can still clean up, but I am extremely proud of our kids’ efforts tonight. Also, Cody ran really hard between the tackles and he broke some big plays and explosive plays and he’s a tremendous competitor. We’re happy he’s a junior and going to be a part of our program this year and next year.”

Teglovic said that his team wasn’t as physical as the Royals.

“The game was won upfront,” Teglovic said. “It was won upfront by them. Hats off to those guys they out-physicaled us tonight.”

Box score

Score by quarters

Wynford                          7         21         7        21   — 56

Colonel Crawford         0          7          0         7   — 14

Scoring summary

First quarter

W — Kendall Blair 17 pass from Dustin Brady (Trent Greene kick), 6:32.

Second quarter

CC — Tristan Cross 15 run (Drew Krassow kick), 10:55.

W — Cody Taylor 5 run (Greene kick), 5:18.

W — Taylor 14 run (Greene kick), 2:47.

W — Seth Benedict 31 pass from Brady (Greene kick), :55.

Third quarter             

W — Taylor 17 run (Greene kick), 8:30.

Fourth quarter

CC — Cross run (Krassow kick), 11:55.

W — Nate Imbody 70 run (Greene kick), 11:38.

W — Blair fumble recovery in end zone (Greene kick).

W — Kolton Bils 49 run (Greene kick), 3:27.

Individual statistics

Passing

Wynford: Dustin Brady 7-10-0 131.

Colonel Crawford: Brock Ritzhaupt 11-23-1 117.

Rushing

Wynford: Cody Taylor 18-135, Kendall Blair 5-106, Nate Imbody 1-70.

Colonel Crawford: Tristan Cross 25-112.

Receiving

Wynford: Seth Benedict 4-110.

Jordan Fenner: 6-54.

Team statistics

W         CC

First downs           14           14

Rushing             31-350    43-112

Passes                   7-10-0     11-23-1

Yards passing        131         117

Total yards           481         229