By BOB ETTINGER

sports@vindy.com

POLAND

Mogadore running back Gavin Christy might not be the most physically imposing player off the gridiron, but like Superman, turns into a human wrecking ball when handed the pigskin. Christy bowled his way through the Valley Christian defense to lead the Wildcats past the Eagles, 41-8, on Saturday night at Dave Pavlansky Field.

“One thing to remember is that Gavin’s dad played at Mogadore and went on to become a two-time national champion at Dayton,” Mogadore head coach Matt Adorni said. “He was a nose guard. Gavin comes from good genes. If you see him in street clothes, he’s not the most imposing person, but that’s most of our kids in street clothes.”

Christy led a revolving door of running backs for Mogadore (8-1) with 137 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries. Troy Ferguson added 81 yards on eight attempts and Logan Penix scored twice and netted 62 yards on nine carries.

A vast majority of those yards were gained after contact.

“They’re strong kids,” Adorni said. “They run low and have good balance. They don’t care who runs the ball. They all play defense. They block well for each other. They take care of each other. We don’t have one guy with [a ton] of touchdowns. We have a bunch with 10.”

The Eagles (5-4) surrendered 309 yards on the ground, nearly all of them between the tackles.

“They have a big line,” Valley Christian co-head coach Jeff Hether said. “That’s what they take advantage of. They have a big line and they just ran the ball. They ran between the tackles. Hopefully, by next week, we’ll have that fixed.”

Valley Christian totaled just 158 yards of offense and seven first downs as it struggled to move the ball all night.

“We couldn’t get anything going offensively,” Hether said. “[Mogadore] is rated fifth in the state. That’s a good team. They’re one of those teams that just pound the ball. We can’t stop that yet, but we’re getting better. We only gave up two touchdowns in the second half. That’s a plus for us, but we gave up how many?”

Two miscues on punt snaps set the Wildcats up for their first two touchdowns.

Luke Rosato hit Eli Robertson with an 11-yard scoring strike for the first points after the Wildcats tackled the Eagles’ punter on the Valley Christian 10. Robertson recovered a botched snap and returned it to the Valley Christian 5. That set up a 2-yard score by Penix to make it 14-0 with 1:14 to play in the first quarter.

“That crushed us, especially against a team like that,” Hether said. “We gave them 10 yards to score instead of 90. Take those points off the board and it’s a lot different game instead of us playing catch-up.”

Dylan Jones and Christy scored on runs of 5 and 3 yards, respectively, as the Wildcats led, 27-0, at the half. Penix made it 34-0 with a 3-yard run in the third quarter.

Altwjuan Beck-Lindsey scored on a 42-yard run and Milan Square connected with Jordan Trowers for the two-point conversion for the Eagles with 8:02 remaining in the fourth.

Mogadore added one last touchdown on a 20-yard pass from Rosato to Nathan Stephenson.