By SARA WELCH

Ravenna Record-Courier

ROOTSTOWN

Rootstown made tracks at Robert C. Dunn Stadium on Friday night when it racked up 471 yards rushing against Jackson-Milton in a 46-12 victory.

Danny Lashley scored the first touchdown of the night for the Rovers on a 37-yard run. Lashley accounted for more than half of Rootstown’s total run game with 239 yards rushing on 23 carries.

“Danny is a good player and he’s a big part of our run game, but we’ve got to be a little more even-handed and spread it around a little more. If we can do that we’ll be a lot better. We’ve got to get better up front obviously, but he’s a good player and he’s doing a lot for us,” Rootstown coach Mark Geis said.

The Blue Jays took the field with the ball on the 9-yard line. Lashley recovered a fumble on their first play, giving the Rovers’ prime field position at the 24-yard line. Lashley pushed down the field 14 more yards and then five more yards on consecutive downs. Dylan Baldwin powered a hole created by to middle of the offensive line and scored a second touchdown for the Rovers from the 5.

“We’ve been challenging our offensive line every week. We just asked them to come out with an attitude tonight and play hard and that’s what they did,” Geis said.

The Rovers proved they aren’t afraid to air the ball out when it’s necessary. Sophomore quarterback Sam Todd found Baldwin in a deep corner of the end zone to put Rootstown ahead 21-0 with 6:33 left in the first quarter.

Then on their last touchdown drive in the first quarter the Rovers surprised the Blue Jays’ defense with a lateral they couldn’t defend. Baldwin ran the ball 18 yards down the middle of the field when he found himself surrounded. After a glance to his left he found teammate, Rich King running down the sideline with an open field ahead of him. He tossed the ball to King who ran it in another 50 yards.

Rootstown was controlling both the offensive and defensive ends of the field when the second quarter started. They pushed the score to 33-0 with 6:33 before the halftime break when Todd completed a 28-yard pass to Colin England.

Jackson-Milton was able to prevent a shutout with 1:32 left in the half when Jeremy Fitzpatrick found Thomas Gatewood open down the sideline completing a 75-yard touchdown pass.

After halftime they closed the gap even more and Tyler Shaffer scored on a 7-yard carry, putting them behind 33-12.