The Toledo football team may have aired it out in its Week 1 win over Raymond-South Bend, but Friday night at home against Rainier, the Riverhawks got back to Mike Christensen’s bread and butter on the ground.
“Tonight, we were taking what was there, and that was what was there,” he said.
The Riverhawks (2-0) finished the night with 454 rushing yards, and scored all eight of their touchdowns via the run, pulling away from the Mountaineers (1-1) for a 54-12 non-league victory.
“Rainier’s strength is their athleticism in the secondary,” Christensen said. “So we kind of stayed away from that and decided to run the ball tonight.”
Senior Ethen Carver led the way with 184 yards on 17 carries, and hit paydirt once.
“He’s had those games in him,” Christensen said. “He’s just lacked consistency, but he worked really hard in the offseason to get that consistency. He’s a guy I really trust with the football.”
Quarterback Eli Weeks did more with his legs than his arm this time around, racking up 103 yards on 13 carries to go along with 57 passing yards. He also hit the statsheet in a big way on the defensive side of the ball, taking an interception back 99 yards for a touchdown.
Rainier started the scoring in the first quarter with a 6-yard touchdown by Jordan Pringle. Toledo came right back with a Trevin Gale 1-yard touchdown, but the Mountaineers had another shot left in them, with Jake Meldrum hitting Hunter Howell for a 28-yard strike to make it 12-6.
After that, though, the Toledo defense began to tell.
“We were pretty solid,” Christensen said. “They had a lot of completions, but they have athletic guys. For the rest of the night, we were for the most part in the right spots.”
Rainier is set to go to Onalaska next Friday, while Toledo will head to Toutle Lake.
