ONTARIO — Ontario sophomore Kooper Kilgore carried the ball just six times on Friday night.
It was enough for the Warriors. It was more than enough for Madison.
The 5-foot-11, 195-pound fireplug ripped off 173 yards and two touchdowns, then added seven PATs for a total of 19 points to lead Ontario to a 57-6 pounding of the Rams at Copeland Field.
“In preseason he showed a little bit of that (big-play potential),” Ontario coach Aaron Eckert said of his feature back. “For a sophomore, he’s starting to figure some things out. For a lot of our guys, the Friday night lights, this is the first time for them, and it’s an adjustment.”
The Warriors offensive line looked like a veteran, savvy unit, opening gaping holes that led to 390 yards rushing on 38 carries for the home squad.
Kilgore set the tone early, ripping off touchdown bolts of 27 and 67 yards in the first quarter. In the opening 12 minutes, Kilgore had five carries for 136 yards. He only got one more touch, and turned that into a 37-yard sprint.
“There were some huge holes,” Kilgore said. “We just wanted to ground and pound.”
Eckert said his squad needs to carve out a reputation as a physical team.
“I think we made a jump between Week 2 and Week 3,” Eckert said. “(Our offensive line) was just fantastic. We imposed our will on them.”
The Warriors built on a 14-0 first-quarter gap by erupting for four second-period touchdowns. Trey Remy tossed a 23-yard TD pass to Cardae Brown. Then the sophomore QB scored on a 1-yard plunge.
Madison’s lone scoreboard dent came on a trick play with Camden Moysi tossing a 36-yard turnaround touchdown pass to Justin McRaney to slice the margin to 28-6.
“Outside of that one play, I thought we were pretty sound defensively,” Eckert said.
The Warriors answered when Zane Curry finding paydirt on a 15-yard run, and Max Ciroli added a 7-yard TD blast. That pushed the score to 43-6 at halftime, and set a running clock in motion for the entire second half.
Gavin Miller added a 4-yard TD scamper in the third quarter, and Roman Hardy’s 17-yard touchdown dash in the final period finished it.
Ontario improved to 2-1 and will travel to Clear Fork next week.
The Rams fell to 1-2 and will bus to Wooster on Friday night.
(Photos below were taken by Tom Theodore)
