Behind a gaudy first half and north of 400 yards of total offense, the Toledo High School football team cruised by Castle Rock 56-12 at home on Friday night to end the non-league portion of their schedule.
Three of the four victories were against Class 1A opponents – Granite Falls, Tenino and the Rockets – and none have more than two losses.
“All were games we needed to get better in,” Riverhawks head coach Mike Christensen said. “We were able to do that, those were big for us.”
Although the streak of shutouts ended at three games, the sight of seeing Nico Acosta bulldoze his way towards the end zone didn’t. The senior star scored the first three touchdowns of the night from 7, 42 and 30 yards out. He finished with 132 yards on just seven carries.
“I haven’t been surprised,” Christensen said. “I knew if we could figure it out up front without him, he could be special. That is a hard guy to bring down.”
Little brother Joaquin Acosta added three scores of his own, two rushing and one passing, plus Brody Lawrence and Rhyder Buswell found paydirt on the night. Toledo (5-1, 1-0 C2BL East) registered 337 yards on the ground.
Defensively, Christensen felt that group was “flying to the football” at will. The 12 points Castle Rock scored are the second-lowest of its season.
Up next for the Riverhawks is a road date with Rainier next week. And don’t expect them to be looking too far down the road at what’s to come.
“Being it as a league game, you can’t look past it,” Christensen said. “They have experience up front and they present unique challenges.”
