By Pete Mollica

The Cardinals jumped out to a 28-0 halftime lead against Chardon.

CANFIELD — Canfield High football coach Mike Pavlansky didn’t really know what to expect from his young team on opening night at Bob Dove Field Friday.

Pavlansky had four linemen making their first start and just two weeks ago he lost his starting fullback to a season ending injury.

Chardon Vs. Canfield 08

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But Pavlansky’s worries were for naught as his Cardinals erupted for a 28-0 halftime lead and then coasted to a 42-13 victory over Chardon.

The Cardinals, behind those first-year starters on the line, rolled up 344 yards of total offense, 255 of them coming in the first half, while the Cardinal defense held the Hilltoppers to just 65 yards in the half and never let them cross the 50 yard line until midway in the third quarter.

“It all begins up front and we had four kids in there who had never started before and they just did one whale of a job tonight,” said Pavlansky. “I would have never expected that we would have a first half like we did tonight.

“We knew that we had some good backs, but we just weren’t sure about the line,” he added. “Chardon has a very young team and we were able to jump on them quickly and got them out of their game plan.”

The Cardinals unleashed all kinds of offensive weapons against the Hilltoppers, led by senior fullback Luke Franken, who finished with 90 yards rushing on 11 carries and scored three touchdowns.

While junior tailback Kyle Vaclav added 70 yards on eight carries and also scored a pair of touchdowns one on a 33-yard pass from senior quarterback Adam Muth, who completed four of the six passes he threw for 69 yards and the touchdown and also rushed for 64 yards on eight carries.

The Cardinals finished with 275 rushing yards on the night, while the defense held the Hilltoppers to just 139 yards rushing and 192 total yards, most of them coming in the second half when Pavlansky gave his younger players a chance to see action.

Franken put the Cardinals on the board the first time Canfield touched the football. Tom Durbin recovered a Chardon fumble at the Hilltoppers 49 yard line and on the first play Franken slashed off tackle, dipped outside and outraced the defense to the end zone, diving the final 2 yards for the score.

The Cardinals added their second score on a 38-yard drive which was set up by a 25-yard punt return by Vaclav, who then took a screen pass from Muth at the 33 and zipped down the sidelines for the touchdown.

Franken and Vaclav each got their second touchdowns in the second quarter, both on 7-yard runs, while Franken helped set up his score with a 27-yard scamper.

The Cardinals were driving for still another touchdown in the final minute of the first half, but Muth’s pass was intercepted at the Chardon 5-yard line, when the Canfield receiver fell down, by Greg Tropf to kill the threat.

The Cardinals put the game away with their opening drive of the third quarter. The drive used up nearly seven minutes and covered 74 yards in 12 plays, all on the ground, before Franken scored for the third time on a 4-yard run.

Chardon finally got into Canfield territory on the ensuing kickoff when Nate Kooy returned the kickoff 52 yards to the Canfield 43.

From there the Hilltoppers rolled downfield and scored when Geoff Paschke ran over from 4 yards out.

Canfield’s reserves added the final touchdown thanks to the defense which forced a Chardon fumble at the Hilltoppers 2-yard line which was recovered by Vince Gelonese. Two plays later junior Donnie Allison scored from the 1.

Chardon added its final touchdown with a 66-yard drive that was culminated by Brian Mausser rushing over from the 1.

mollica@vindy.com