GALION — Jacob Chambers and his Galion teammates answered a few questions Thursday evening.
Chambers caught eight passes for 129 yards and three touchdowns in the first half as the Tigers roared to a 49-13 win over Wynford on Thursday night at Unckrich Stadium to kick off the high school football season.
Galion reached the second round of the Division IV playoffs last fall, but lost a wealth of talent to graduation.
That group included first-team All-Ohioans Holden Hunter, Linkon Tyrrell and Landon Campbell and third-teamers Gabe Ivy and Carson Frankhouse.
The new-look Tigers silenced their doubters with an overwhelming offensive performance. Galion led 34-7 at the half and triggered a running clock midway through the third period.
“It was the first game of the season and you don’t know what to expect, especially with this young of a team,” said Chambers, who qualified for the Division II state track meet in two individual events and as a member of the state-placing 4×100 relay team last spring.
“There’s definitely a lot of new kids, but everyone is really stepping up and playing their role.”
It didn’t take long for Chambers and the Tigers to take control of this one.
Galion received the opening kickoff and quickly marched the length of the field before Chambers hauled in a 32-yard touchdown pass from Ayden Schmidt for a 7-0 lead with 8:16 to play in the first.
Wynford fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Galion’s Trevor Shifley pounced on the loose ball at the Wynford 9-yard line. On the first play after the turnover, Galion quarterback Braxton Prosser, who sat out the first series for undisclosed reasons, darted into the end zone for the score and a 13-0 advantage.
Wynford stopped the bleeding when quarterback Brayden Campbell found running back Anthony Evans on a wheel route on fourth down for a 33-yard touchdown to cut Galion’s advantage to 13-7.
That’s as close as the Royals would get, however, as the Tigers scored three second-quarter touchdowns to put it away.
Chambers, a speedy 6-foot-1 junior, jump-started the second-quarter charge when he hauled in a 24-yard TD pass from Prosser. After an Allen Carver interception, Prosser scored on a 22-yard run to make it 27-7 with 4:14 to play in the opening half. Prosser hooked up with Chambers on a 25-yard TD strike to cap the onslaught.
“We’ve got a lot of explosive kids,” Galion coach Matt Dick said. “There’s a lot of new faces who can make a lot of plays.
“We’re blessed to have a lot of guys who, once they touch the ball make big plays. Jacob Chambers, when he touches the ball, I bet you it’s about 50 percent of the time he’s going to score a touchdown.”
Galion got scoring runs of 23 yards from Sam Evans and 20 yards from Kale Early in the third quarter to make it 49-7. Evans scored on a 4-yard run in the fourth for Wynford’s final score.
“Galion is a great football team. They do some really good things on offense,” Wynford coach Cyle Skidmore said. “They put their kids in the right position to be explosive and make big plays.
“We’ve got to get better. It’s just plain and simple. As a team we have to learn and get better.”
