CANTON — Canton couldn’t match Athens' experience as the Wildcats rolled to a 42-0 NTL victory here Friday night.

Athens overcame a bevy of yellow flags, racking up close to 500 yards offense and taking advantage of six Warrior turnovers.

“That was crazy, so I guess we'll have to go back and look at some of that, but yeah, not the best game that way,” Athens coach Shawn Bradley said. “We gave up a whole lot of yards on penalties, so we’ve got to clean that up. That's not going to do us well in the playoffs or later in the season.”

The only touchdown the Wildcats would need followed an interception by Dominic Robbins on the game’s third play from scrimmage. It spoiled a Canton start which was highlighted by a 28-yard opening kickoff return and a 33-yard Owen Moore-to-Rylan Wesneski pass. 

Robbins would return the pick out to the 49. Nine plays later, Connor Davidson would turn a quarterback keeper into a 25-yard TD run at 7:05 of the first quarter. Zach Fisher, who was successful on all six of his PAT kicks, made it 7-0.

The Warriors coughed up the ball on the first play of their next possession, but Athens was unable to capitalize.

Canton turned the ball over on downs on its third possession of the night and Davidson would find Gage Marmor open for a 68-yard TD strike.

The Wildcats would get the ball back late in the opening period and then score just 64 seconds into the second quarter on a 34-yard Davidson-to-Kade Rowe pass as Athens went up, 21-0.

The Warriors worked the ball to Athens 43 on the ensuing possession, but Nolan Raupers stripped the ball free at the Canton 43. 

Davidson would score on a 10-yard run with 3:56 on the second quarter clock and the Wildcats would take a 28-0 cushion into halftime. The TD came despite 25 yards in penalties.

Athens would get flagged 11 times for 125 yards on the night, but was able to overcome the yellow menace.

Meanwhile, Canton was enjoying an impressive performance on special teams. The Warriors racked up more than 200 yards on seven kick returns, including a 70-yard burst from Bailey Gardner following the Davidson run.

The Warriors also had a couple of long pass plays, but struggled to sustain drives.

“We had some positive things,” Canton coach Tyler Sechrist said. “We did real well on special teams, had some good returns, had some good plays on offense. We just couldn't put a drive together to score, and we just turned the ball over too many times against a good team in Athens with a lot of senior players. They're just a really good football team. You can't be turning the ball over like that.”

“A little bit of bend, don't break early on, but overall, they played really well,” said Bradley. “I'm betting double-digit tackles for loss, a few turnovers, so those guys played really well. They have all season and it's a matter of just getting so we can play that way in the playoffs.”

The long kick return put the Warriors at the Athens 25, but a potential score was thwarted by a Brady Flynn interception of a tipped pass.

Canton’s Monte Whitehead would return the favor four plays later, but the Warriors were unable to take advantage of the turnover.

The Wildcats fumbled the ball away on the first possession of the second half, but Canton gave the ball on a Brendan Cooke interception six plays later.

Both teams would turn the ball over on downs then Athens would go up, 35-0, on Davidson’s 35-yard pass to Lucas Persun at 5:28 of the third quarter.

The Warriors again turned the ball over on downs and the Wildcats put their final TD on the board on Davidson's 5-yard toss to Robbins at 1:11 of the third quarter.

Neither team could find the end zone in the final stanza.

The Wildcats finished with 492 yards offense to 110 for the Warriors. Athens passed for 286 yards and ran for 206 more.

Davidson rushed for 151 yards and two TDs on 15 carries and completed 19-of-27 passes for 270 yards and three scores. 

He had plenty of targets as Rowe and Robbins had five receptions apiece for 61 and 38 yards, respectively, Marmor caught four for 102, Persun had three for 57 and Cooke added two for 12.

“They've got a lot of weapons,” Sechrist said. “There's like a lot of seniors on their team. The Davidson kid's one of the best quarterbacks in the whole district. He can throw, he can run, he's just very athletic, elusive, and he's got some guys he can get the ball to, and they're just a tough team to defend.”

“He played well today,” Bradley said. “We had a couple of times where we were holding the ball a little bit long. Last few weeks we've been doing really well, getting the ball out quick and second half he did better. First half we held the ball a little bit more. We had the interception. I think he held the ball and tried to throw it downfield, but second half he did really well. 

“He hits those guys. We have good receivers, so he gets the ball to those guys and lets them do some work. We can do some things. We are five, six guys deep there that are dangerous with the football, and he does do a really good job of spreading that out to all those guys so that's good. 

Moore went 6-for-12 for 100 yards and Brooks Wesneski was 4-for-13 for 14 yards. Aaden Dowling caught a trio of passes for 20 yards, Rylan Wesneski had two for 34, and Brayden Tucker had two for 16.

Athens improved to 7-1 with the victory while Canton slipped to 4-4.

——————

PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.

Athens 42, Canton 0

Athens          14 14 14 0 — 42

Canton          0 0 0 0 — 0

First quarter

A—Connor Davidson 25 run (Zach Fisher kick), 7:05

A—Davidson 69 pass to Gage Marmor (Fisher kick), 1:43

Second quarter

A—Davidson 34 pass to Kade Rowe (Fisher kick), 10:56

A—Davidson 10 run (Fisher kick), 3:56

Third quarter

A—Davidson 35 pass to Lucas Persun (Fisher kick), 5:28

A—Davidson 5 pass to Dominic Robbins (Fisher kick), 1:11

TEAM STATISTICS

       A      C

First downs  20     4

Rushes-Yards       33-206  19-28

Passing yards      286    114

C-A-I  21-31-1 11-26-4

Total yards  492    142

Fumbles-Lost       3-1    2-2

Penalties-Yards    11-125   1-5

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Individual Stats

Athens

Rushing

Connor Davidson 15-151-2, Shea Davidson 3-33, Brendan Cooke 7-26, David Janiszeski 5-16

Passing

Connor Davidson 19-27-270-4-1, Shea Davidson 2-4-16-0-0

Receiving

Kade Rowe 5-61–1, Dominic Robbins 5-38-1, Gage Marmor 4-102-1, Lucas Persun 3-57-1, Brendan Cooke 2-12

Canton

Rushing

Brooks Wesneski 4-19, Owen Moore 6-8, Bailey Gardner 6-6, Brayden Tucker 1-3, Jaiden Ortiz 2-(-8)

Passing

Owen Moore 7-13-100-0-2, Brooks Wesneski 4-13-14-0-2

Receiving

Bailey Gardner 3-48, Rylan Wesneski 2-34, Aaden Dowling 1-9, Brayden Tucker 1-9, 2-16, Jaiden Ortiz 1-(-4)

— —