ONAWAY – After suffering a bit of let down at the end of last season, the Onaway Cardinals opened the 2016 season firing on all cylinders and looked impressive doing so as they shut out Pellston by a final score of 45-0 on Friday in Onaway.

“I’m proud of the boys. They have been working real hard and we have some things that we need to work on, but for the most part I was very happy and proud of the way they looked tonight,” Onaway assistant coach Pat Horner said.

The Cardinals started their first drive around midfield and faced a fourth down and long early, but Horner decided to go for it and put the ball in the hands of Jeremiah Crawford who ripped off a 38-yard touchdown for the Cardinals’ first score of the new campaign.

Once Onaway grabbed the momentum, they refused to let up as the Hornets made several mental mistakes, committing costly penalties and turnovers throughout the course of the game.

Pellston’s first turnover came half way through the first quarter as it attempted a fake on fourth down that was stopped by the Cardinals.

Onaway wasted no time, scoring on the next play as Crawford broke off another huge run, reversing field and eventually found pay dirt on a 50-yard score.

The Hornets’ next possession ended in a punt that was blocked and recovered by Onaway at the seven yard line and again it took the Cardinals and Crawford just one play to find the end zone for the third time in the opening quarter.

Onaway started the second quarter off with a bang and continued to pour it on as Josiah Crawford returned a punt 56 yards to the house and the team later ended a near perfect half with a 26-yard field goal by Nick Byrne to put the Cardinals up 31-0 after one half of play.

“I know we can run the outside and that’s what we did well tonight, but we have to be able to run between the tackles and that is something we need to work on. Everyone was able to get some playing time and that’s our goal every game is get each player in and help all the kids get the experience of playing and improve,” Horner said.

Pellston came right out of the break and committed another costly mistake as it fumbled on the first play from scrimmage to start the half and Jonathon Bay scooped up the loose ball and took it in for the touchdown.

The final score of the game came on the only pass play that the Cardinals attempted all game as quarterback Josiah Crawford hooked up with Bay for a 30-yard pitch and catch for the team’s sixth touchdown of the game.

Jeremiah Crawford led the way for the Cardinals as he racked up 102 yards rushing on just six carries and scored three touchdowns. Josiah Crawford also found the end zone three times, once on the ground, once through the air and on special teams, as he ended the game with more than 100 all purpose yards to go along with his three scores.

Defensively for Onaway, DJ Fenstermaker recorded 10 tackles and recovered a fumble. Alex Larson recovered two fumbles and both Kyle Humphrey, Alex Cooper and Bay each recovered a fumble in the blowout victory.

The Cardinals improve to 1-0 with the win and will face a tougher task Friday when they travel to Engadine..

“I’ll be honest, I’m a little nervous about the game next week. Engadine is going to be tough to beat and we’re not looking past them that’s for sure, but I’m confident we’re going to fix some things this week at practice, get better and be ready to go up and play a good ball game Friday night,” Horner said.

Jonny Zawacki can be reached via email at jzawacki@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5690.