TRAVERSE CITY -- The last time Traverse City St. Francis opened the season with Benzie Central, the Gladiators won 25-6 and rolled to a perfect season and the 2003 state championship.
St. Francis took the first step towards repeating that feat on Friday.
The Gladiators opened with a dominating 54-0 win over the Huskies on a rain-soaked night at Thirlby Field.
"They are what they are," Huskies coach Steve Cox said. "That's a traditional, perennial powerhouse. That's what you want to be like. That's a serious gut check for our guys, but they'll rebound. We'll re-tool, go back to work on Monday and get ready for Pine River."
While the clock ran the entire second half, St. Francis coach Greg Vaughan saw room for improvement -- especially with perennial power Saginaw Nouvel looming on Thursday.
"For us, it taught us that we've got a lot of things to work on," Vaughan said. "I know that score's 54-0, but we have a lot of technique and small things to work on. Nouvel's a very well coached team that doesn't make a lot of mistakes, so you can't afford to make the mistakes we made tonight."
The Gladiators jumped out to a 40-0 lead at half thanks to 241 yards rushing from a backfield of Joe Kerridge, Max Bullough and Matt Zakrzewski.
Kerridge scored four times in the first half and finished with 108 yards on 15 carries.
"Actually I haven't (scored that many in a game), but all the credit has to go to the offensive line," Kerridge said. "They were blocking incredibly in the first and second quarters."
Zakrzewski and Bullough both moved to the backfield after previously playing tight end. Zakrzewski carried eight times for 68 yards and a score while Bullough ran eight times for 100 yards and a touchdown.
"It was a lot of fun," Bullough said. "And it's a lot of fun when guys like Angus (MacLellan) are blocking for you. I can't do it without them."
Kerridge -- who returned this season at fullback -- was happy with his new teammates in the backfield.
"It's nice having lead blocks with those two," Kerridge said. "And vice-versa blocking for them, you know they're going to get the job done."
Also new was sophomore quarterback Riley Bullough, who finished 1-for-3 with a 12-yard touchdown in the third quarterback. Fittingly enough, it was to his older brother.
"That really was something special," Max Bullough said. "We would never say something like that at home, but that really is cool to come out here and have my little brother throwing me the ball like we do at home. It's really special for our family."
While St. Francis moved the chains with a dominant running game early on, it countered with a shut-down defense on the other side of the ball.
Benzie Central (0-1) didn't get a first down until quarterback Jeremy Stapleton's 22-yard run with 3 minutes to go in the third quarter.
The Huskies finished the night with 30 yards of total offense. Ryan Wixson carried 11 times for 19 yards while Parker Nugent carried nine times for six yards.
Defensively, Max Bullough made eight tackles for St. Francis while Jack Gallagher had 4&1/2. Remington Rice made seven tackles for Benzie while Wixson had six.
The Gladiators put in their second team offense and defense in the third quarter. Justin Olm highlighted the switch by scoring on a 10-yard run.
"With the running clock after we scored when we first came out, and then they had a couple of kids get hurt, it was lets get some other kids in there even though maybe our starters needed some more work," Vaughan said.
Vaughan was able to get every player in uniform into the game.
"We tell our twos 'you're a two, but don't go in there and play like a two, or you'll stay a two forever,'" Vaughan said. "We preach to our kids that it's competition for positions all the time. Our starting right guard in the state championship last year was our fifth string tight end to kick the season off. When you're in there, take that shot and show us what you can do."
While the defeat brought Benzie's losing streak to 10 games, Cox -- the team's first-year coach -- saw some positives.
"They never stopped for one thing, they never quit," he said. "They did exactly what we told them to do. We knew it was going to be a tough battle, but (we told them) don't quit. The kids themselves were positive, they didn't get down on each other and they played through adversity.
"One of the compliments I took to heart was when we walked off, one of the officials came over, shook my hand and said 'your kids played with great spirit and they never quit.' It's not only me saying it, but it's outsiders saying it as well."
Vaughan also noticed that.
"They've got some good kids," he said. "They did not give up the entire game. And they gave us some fits. They switched to a new defense on us and we struggled with it a little bit."
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