SPORTS

Blue Devils rout Athens

Sam Blackburn
Reporter

THE PLAINS — A 90-minute bus trip and ensuing weather delay of more than an hour had no impact on Zanesville's football team on Friday night.

Weather proved to be the only thing that slowed down a Blue Devil offense that was never stopped en route to a 55-0 win against host Athens at Basil Rutter Field.

Senior quarterback Derek Grandstaff passed for two touchdowns and ran for another in the first half as Zanesville built a 35-0 lead at intermission. Defensively, the Blue Devils made a pair of stops inside their own 20-yard line to negate scoring chances, both before halftime.

The Blue Devils had a 78-yard scoring drive to start the third quarter, capped by a 6-yard run by Ben Kaufman, before the backups from both teams finished the game.

Zanesville coach Chad Grandstaff saw the improvement he was seeking after a narrow win against rival Newark in Week 1. He told his team as much afterward.

"We weren't real happy last week (with how we played) and we had a little bit of a chip on our shoulder," Chad Grandstaff said. "Obviously with the way (Athens) beat us last year, we weren't too happy about that obviously, but overall I'm just pleased that we played fast and physical on defense and on offense we executed. We were able to pass the ball and run the ball effectively."

That started up front.

Derek Grandstaff was never pressured in hitting his final five passes, including scoring strikes of 27 and 71 yards to senior Alessio Amato, the second of which built a 14-0 lead. He also hit Amato for a 15-yarder for a key third-down conversion on the third drive, which led to Derek Grandstaff's 7-yard scoring run on third-and-goal.

Aaron Ashby's third extra-point kick made it 21-0 with 10:37 left in the second quarter, and senior running back Deaunte Goins had scoring runs of 73 and 76 yards before the half to officially put it away.

The Blue Devils had 380 first-half yards, with 252 coming on the ground in only 15 carries. Goins had 152 yards on four tries, as he and the 220-pound Crosby combined for 12 carries and 218 yards.

Crosby also had a 65-yard catch-and-run on a screen pass in the third quarter to set up the final score with the first-team offense.

"(Derek) had a great first quarter," Chad Grandstaff said. "He got us a big first down right out of the gate to get the scoring started and the line did a great job with protection and run blocking. When you can run the ball for that much yardage and pass for that much yardage it means your line is doing their job."

The return to the 3-3-5 defense that have been trademarks of Grandstaff's teams held the Bulldogs to only 141 yards of offense.

Goins had a big second-quarter sack of quarterback Brendan Sano to thwart a scoring drive. Sano, a 6-foot-3, 205-pounder with a strong arm, was held to 65 passing yards.

"We wanted to put a little pressure in their face and take away their first look," Chad Grandstaff said. "We wanted to make the quarterback have to move a little bit, because we didn't think anyone had made them play that way. That was our goal coming in."

A visit to Sheridan awaits the Blue Devils, who lost 15-0 to the Generals at John D. Sulsberger Memorial Stadium in 2014.

"Sheridan is always talented and well-coached," Chad Grandstaff said. "Those kids are going to be physical. All we're talking about is taking care of ourselves right now and try not to beat ourselves."

sblackburn@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

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Twitter: @SamBlackburnTR