By BRANDON JUDEH

sports@vindy.com

POLAND

Poland’s Dom Petrony and Anthony Calcagni were like the weather Friday night — hot.

The duo propelled the Bulldogs to a 38-7 victory over Canal Fulton Northwest.

Petrony had 178 yards passing, 73 of them to Calcagni, whose performance included a 48-yard touchdown catch.

“There’s really no secret to it — we just connect and see eye-to-eye,” Calcagni said.

“It’s been neat to see those two evolve so quickly,” Poland coach Mark Brungard. “Anthony hasn’t played in a few years and they aren’t even in the same grade.

“They have developed a nice chemistry and Anthony’s speed has been a difference early on in the season and they have opened up the running game for us.”

The tandem started the scoring late in the first quarter when Petrony hit Calcagni on a near perfect 48-yard streak down the right sideline to put Poland (2-0) ahead, 7-0.

“We practice and really work hard on that play in practice,” Calcagni said. “It just so happened we connected on it and it ignited the offense and opened up a lot of things for us.

“I feel like we have been connecting well as a team, our offensive line has been great and I feel like we are all brothers out there.”

Their touchdown connection was preceded by a 25-yard pass.

Poland struck again with 9:45 left in the second quarter when running back Austin Wilson scored on a 17-yard run to give the Bulldogs a 14-0 lead.

Wilson wasn’t finished.

The 6-foot-1 senior blasted through the Indians’ defensive line for a 28-yard score in the opening moments of the second half.

“The first half passing really opened up the running game for Austin and Marlon [Ramirez],” Brungard said. “Running the ball is what we want to do, but we will take whatever the defense gives us. I feel like we can be a really balanced team this season.”

The Bulldogs did a great job of shutting down Jeff Shimko and the Canal Fulton offense, holding the Indians to just 154 yards of offense.

“Our defense played great tonight and made sure our offense had plenty of opportunities, which is always great because we have so many weapons on the offensive side of the ball,” Brungard said.

Ramirez had a game-high 117 yards and touchdown runs of 40 and 16 yards.

Wilson rushed for 51 yards on four carries and both Dylan Garver and Reid Gould had interceptions for the Bulldogs.

Drew Schroeder’s 1-yard run late in the third quarter was the Indians’ lone score.