SHELBY — The closest competition at W.W. Skiles Field on Friday night came when the marching bands from Shelby and Willard staged a battle of the bands after the game.

That’s because the game itself … not so much.

The unbeaten Whippets (3-0) ended their long rivalry against the Crimson Flashes (1-2) with a resounding 63-0 win in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score indicated.

Shelby, which built a 49-0 halftime lead, washed away any bad feelings after last week’s narrow win against Lexington.

“Last week left a pretty bad taste in our mouth,” Shelby coach Erik Will said. “You would have thought we lost last week the way some of the people responded and the way our kids were being talked to. I told them, guys, part of that is our fault because we didn’t come out and finish the game (against Lexington).

“We thought we played a decent game (last week), but we didn’t play four quarters (against the Minutemen, who rallied from a 27-10 deficit to lose 27-24). In that fourth quarter, we were a hot mess.

“That’s what I challenged them to do tonight. We need to get off to a fast start, as we have done in the first two weeks, but a fast start isn’t good enough. We have to finish and we did that tonight.”

SPECIAL PLAYERS: Junior quarterback McGwire Albert and sophomore running back Owen Fisher certainly finished what they started.

Albert tossed three TD passes to Uriah Schwemley, Tanner Stephens and Marek Albert, connecting on 10-of-16 passes for 113 yards. He also rushed for three TDS of his own.

Fisher rushed for 164 yards on just 16 carries, including two TDs. The 5-foot-8, 165-pound Fisher also had a 50-yard punt return for a TD and had an even longer return for a score that was wiped off the board on a penalty.

“You can see how special Owen is,” Will said, “not only as a running back, but in the return game. He is only a sophomore and he is learning and getting better and better. Tonight was a credit to our offensive line, too. When you can get Owen to the second level, he’s a pretty special back.

“He is kind of the next special running back in Shelby. Shelby is a running back factory. If you look at the history of Shelby football, there have been some dudes running through here. He kind of fits that mold,” Will said.

As a team, Shelby finished with 398 yards of offense, including 285 yards rushing on 31 carries.

TOUGH TESTS: The Whippets face a tougher part of their schedule in the next three weeks with games against Bellevue, Norwalk and Huron.

“Shelby and Bellevue are like peanut butter and jelly. It’s a huge rivalry. The implications of that game the past two or three years have been huge. We know Norwalk is a very good team (including a 42-21 win against Mansfield Senior). Huron is really good. If we don’t get better, we could be 3-3,” Will said.

“We know we have some beasts (waiting) on the other end of this thing.”