By DAN HINER

sports@vindy.com

Canfield

The Canfield football team hasn’t started a season 2-0 since the 2011 season. But that changed after the Cardinals beat Alliance 34-0 on Friday night at Bob Dove Field.

Canfield (2-0) jumped out to an early lead on their first possession of the first quarter.

Cardinals quarterback Vinny Fiorenza found receiver Matt Zaremski on a 37-yard reverse pass on their first play of the game.

Canfield running back Paul Breinz later scored on a 9-yard touchdown run to take a 7-0 lead.

On the Cardinals’ next possession, Fiorenza ran up the middle for a 51-yard run to the Aviators’ 6-yard line. Breinz punched the ball in two plays later to extend to the lead to 13-0.

The Cardinals took the lead into halftime and jumped on Alliance on the opening possession of the second half.

Breinz broke a 60-yard run to give the Cardinals another shot inside the Alliance 10-yard line early in the third quarter.

Receiver Paul French scored two plays later on a 3-yard handoff to increase the lead to 20-0.

Breinz ran for a game-high 124 yards on 11 carries. Canfield head coach Mike Pavlansky credited his offensive line for the running game’s performance.

Early in the fourth quarter Fiorenza found receiver Colin Hritz for a 65-yard touchdown pass for his only touchdown pass of the game.

Fiorenza combined for 181 yards. He threw for a game-high 99 yards and ran for 82. Pavlansky said his team scouted Alliance well and constructed several plays to take advantage of their defense.

“We’re a running team first we could certainly throw it, and we threw it effectively tonight,” Pavlansky said. “We don’t need to throw it 20 times a game but we throw it 10 to 15 times a game effectively. We think that’s enough.”

Canfield’s last touchdown came in the final two minutes when backup quarterback Max Dawson scored on a 9-yard touchdown run.

Alliance struggled to control Canfield’s offensive and defensive lines throughout the game. The Cardinals’ defensive line hurried Alliance quarterback Howard Frazier after jumping out the their two-possession lead, and ended the game with four sacks from four different players.

“When a defense gets itself in a third-and-long, that’s obviously what they want,” Pavlansky said. “They get to pin their ears back and get after people. Credit our coverage down the field, there weren’t too many guys running free.”

Pavlansky said the players are excited about Canfield’s hot start. The Cardinals opened with a 48-28 rout of Louisville. He said there is still room to improve, but he’s proud of the way to players have performed against quality competition.

“I’m excited for them to be 2-0, we haven’t been 2-0 since 2011,” Pavlansky said. “There’s a ways to go. There’s some things we got to clean up. Penalties are a cause for concern right now and we’re still trying to create some depth on the offensive and defensive lines that we’ll need tremendously as we move forward into the season.”