By Brandon Judeh

sports@vindy.com

McDonald

Chances are, despite an easy 54–6 win over East Palestine, the McDonald Blue Devils will be penalized at practice next week after committing 12 penalties for 125 yards in their season opener Friday night.

McDonald coach Dan Williams, although happy about the victory, isn’t pleased about the mental errors.

“I told our kids when we ran a play without a yellow flag that I really liked their execution,” Williams said. “We have to clean that up. We executed very well, but we shot ourselves in the foot with all of the penalties.”

Fortunately for the Blue Devils (1-0) a tremendous running game spearheaded by Jake Reckard and Cameron Ifft, and solid defensive play helped ease the pain.

“We have some athletic kids in the backfield and despite being young, they have a lot of game experience,” Williams said. “Our front six really handled things up front, they were getting penetration and screwing up East Palestine’s timing. Whenever you can do that, that’s definitely in the benefit of the defense.”

Reckard led the way with 87 yards and two touchdowns, Ifft had 59 yards and a score of his own.

McDonald rushed for 346 yards.

“It all starts with the line, they do such a terrific job,” Reckard said. “If they weren’t out there blocking for us, then nothing would work.”

Ifft agrees.

“It’s definitely a plus when the offensive line is making all of their blocks, because that allows us running backs to bust through the line and pick up some yardage,” Ifft said.

With the score already in McDonald’s favor 15-0 the defense stepped up with a fumble recovery inside the Bulldogs’ 20-yard line.

Moments later, quarterback Zack Conley punched it in from the 3 to McDonald a 21-point lead.

One minute later Matthew Howard recovered another East Palestine fumble and Reckard did the rest. Conley later threw a touchdown pass to Matt Morrell, giving McDonald a comfortable 34-0 lead.

“It was a great feeling to jump out to that big lead and run away with this game, especially on opening night in front of the home crowd,” Reckard said.

First-year East Palestine coach Tony Foster looked for positives.

“Our guys need to take advantage of opportunities they have to make plays,” he said. “I saw some good things out there, like on our first series when we strung together some first downs and were moving the ball, but overall we need to take advantage of opportunities.”

McDonald freshman Dylan Portolese recovered a fumble and returned it 12 yards for a score in his first varsity game. Dale Wolford scored on a 34-yard touchdown on his only carry of the game.