Alex Arch ran all over Ogemaw Heights and right into Alpena’s record book on Friday.

Arch ran for 286 yards and four touchdowns as the Wildcats racked up 623 yards on the ground during a 48-16 victory over the Falcons at Wildcat Stadium.

Arch scored four touchdowns in the win, but his 286 yards set a new single-game school record, passing the previous mark of 250 set in 1981.

His big night was just the icing on the cake for a ground game that overwhelmed the Falcons. Tim Taylor ran for two scores and the win gives Alpena a 2-1 record after three games for the first time since 2014.

“We feel good about ourselves right now. I told the guys, ‘Let’s feel good about ourselves for 24 hours and understand that conference play starts on Monday,'” Alpena coach Aaron Sims said. “We’ve got to come with a mindset to go to work and there’s definitely some parts of our game that we need to improve on and get better at.”

The Wildcats fumbled on their first drive, but recovered on their next one, needing just one play to find the end zone as Arch scrambled 55 yards to paydirt and Evan LeTourneau added the extra point.

From there, the Wildcats were off and running. Alpena added two more touchdowns before the half for a 21-0 lead and scored on its first four drives of the second half to easily put away the Falcons

“It wasn’t bad. It was a good night, I think all the backs had a good night,” Sims said. “We were sloppy on some things, but overall it was a good night. Anytime you have (623) yards, it’s a good night.”

Arch led Alpena’s charge on the ground and scored Alpena’s first four touchdowns. After his first quarter score, he ran in from 15 yards out on a sweep in the opening seconds of the second quarter. He added a two-yard score with 7:08 left to put the Wildcats ahead 21-0 at halftime and scored again from 15 yards out with 10:04 left in the third quarter.

Arch’s third touchdown came after one of Alpena’s most impressive drives this season. After an Ogemaw punt, Alpena was pinned at its own 5-yard line with 10:22 left before halftime.

Zac Suszek started the drive with a four yard run and Logan Guthrie followed with a 28 yard run. Quarterback Lars MacArthur connected with Guthrie for a 22 yard pass to put the Wildcats in Ogemaw territory. Suszek then ran for 12 yards followed by a four run by Arch.

A 22 yard burst by MacArthur put Alpena in the red zone and Arch finished things off with a two yard run. In all the drive took Alpena 95 yards in less than three minutes and saw three plays of more than 20 yards.

“That’s what we expect to do. If we block for 10 steps and run fast, those are things that happen for us,” Sims said of the drive. “That’s our goal is to come out and run the ball and do what we need to do to get a W, so it was good to see that stuff.”

After Arch’s third quarter score, it was Taylor and Guthrie who took over on the ground. Taylor scored from 23 yards out after a 10-play drive with 1:42 left in the third quarter and on the next drive, Guthrie scored on a four yard run, putting Alpena ahead 41-0 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter.

Taylor finished with 122 yards on eight carries and found paydirt again on a 56 yard burst with 4:49 to play.

Guthrie finished with 115 yards on 12 carries and nearly had another touchdown just before halftime.

With 4:10 left in the half, Alpena marched from its own 13 deep into Ogemaw territory. Unfortunately the Wildcats were plagued by penalties during the drive- five in all. Guthrie had a 45-yard touchdown run negated by holding. After Arch ran 51 yards to Ogemaw’s 1-yard line, Alpena was penalized again. Guthrie then found the end zone from six yards out, but another holding call pushed Alpena back to the 15. The Wildcats eventually turned the ball over on downs.

The Falcons struggled from the outset and punted three times in the first half despite recovering a fumble on Alpena’s second offensive play. Ogemaw didn’t score until 5:49 remained in the game when quarterback Colin Stahl found the end zone on a 16-yard run to make it 41-8. After another Alpena touchdown, Stahl quickly moved Ogemaw down the field and scored on an 18-yard run with 51 seconds left.

Alpena outgained Ogemaw 645-310 in total yardage. Stahl was 9-of-16 passing for 132 yards. Danny Ritz led the Falcons on the ground with 75 yards on eight carries and Corbey Homan had four catches for 85 yards.

Alpena opens Big North Conference play next week at Cadillac and while the Wildcats are feeling good after two straight wins, Sims knows his team still has a long way to go.

“We did some good things. I feel like this was probably a three out of four quarter game,” Sims said. “We got sloppy there in the fourth quarter, so we’ve got to fix that stuff up and make sure we’re coming to play for four quarters.”

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.