Clouse, Warriors wallop Senecas 39-6 in opener

SYCAMORE – If Calvert had plans of running the ball and controlling the line of scrimmage Thursday night, it had to rethink that quickly.Mohawk was ready for Calvert's ground attack, and the Senecas in general as the Warriors sprinted out to a 20-0 halftime advantage and routed rival Calvert 39-6 in a statement win in Week 1."It's been a couple of years … they've had our number. We've lost by freaking three points over the last couple of years," Mohawk coach Eric Daniel said. "Those sting, I'm not going to lie to you they sting and those are the ones that keep you up at night, but we wanted this one bad. I could tell you it's Week 1 yadda, yadda, yadda … but this one meant more to these kids."It surely was evident early in the contest as Calvert (0-1) punted after its first possession of the game, and then three plays later first-year starting quarterback Andon Clouse ran left and then found a cutback lane to his right to take a carry to the house for a 38-yard touchdown midway through the first quarter. The snap on the extra point was botched, so it was 6-0 early.Clouse then made an impact on the defensive side of the ball as he stepped in front of a Calvert pass and took it to the end zone for a 24-yard pick-6, giving the Warriors a 12-0 edge with 3:39 left in the opening quarter."He has studied and even over-prepared it's that possible at quarterback, but the jump he's made from last year to this year knowing our offense … he knows the offense like the back of his hand, it didn't look like his first start," Daniel said. "The way he prepares, handled himself and knows where everyone is at, he's really slowed the game down for himself and to the betterment of the entire team."As Mohawk (1-0) took a lead, Calvert struggled to find anything consistent on offense. The run game wasn't there, and then that put more pressure on first-year QB Charlie Palm as the Warriors made him uncomfortable all game with pressure and different looks."First and foremost, that's a good ballclub over there and they did a great job preparing. Our coaching staff will be the first ones to take accountability for this one tonight," Senecas coach Mike Lento said. "We have to find that spark, we never found that tonight … a lot of our guys had their first reps under the lights, so take that away now and we have to get better."We need to take away those first-quarter mistakes. Our guys didn't quit, they kept their heads, but when you play in Week 1 a team is gonna go 1-0 and one team is gonna go 0-1. It's not fun getting your butts kicked a little bit, so we're gonna go back to the drawing board and get a little more physical … we have that in us, but we didn't see it. But it starts with coaches, myself No. 1 that we need to put guys in position to be successful and we'll make sure we'll do that."Owen Patrizi ran in a 5-yard TD early in the second quarter to make things 20-0 in favor of the Warriors, which was the halftime score as the Warriors' defense was impressive, especially keeping Logan DeMoss under wraps for 3 ½ quarters.Kaden Bish sprinted in a 28-yard score in the third quarter and then he added another TD – 2 yards out – early in the fourth to begin a running clock as Mohawk was ahead 32-0.Calvert's score came on a deep ball from Palm to DeMoss for a 38-yard score with 7:48 left in the game."(Palm) is a first-year starter, made some good plays tonight and is a good athlete, but we just wanted to get him off his mark and make him uncomfortable," Daniel said. "The D-line and some of our stunts and movement made that possible tonight, but credit to DeMoss. You have to know where he's at at all times. We marked him the whole game, but he's that type of kid where he's going to get loose and we didn't get enough pressure on the quarterback late and that's what happens when you have a special player like that."Mohawk capped the scoring as Clouse hit Brant Kirian for a 23-yard TD with 3:20 left in the game. Mohawk 39, Calvert 6Calvert&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;6&emsp;&emsp;– 6Mohawk&emsp;&emsp;12&emsp;&emsp;8&emsp;&emsp;6&emsp;&emsp;13&emsp;&emsp;39First quarter M – Andon Clouse 38 run (kick failed), 7:40M – Clouse 24 interception return (2-point run failed), 3:39Second quarter M – Owen Patrizi 5 run (Carter Walton pass from Clouse), 8:35Third quarter M – Kaden Bish 28 run (2-point run failed), 3:43Fourth quarterM – Bish 2 run (kick failed), 10:06C – Logan DeMoss 38 pass from Charlie Palm (2-point run failed), 7:48M – Brant Kirian 23 pass from Clouse (Aden Patrizi kick), 3:20