Genoa-Kingston 50, Wheaton Academy 7

Genoa-Kingston started slowly, but recovered to throttle Wheaton Academy 50-7 in the first road game for the Warriors since this year's resumption of the football program.

"This is an eye-opener for us as far as being a new program is concerned," Wheaton Academy coach Ben Wilson said. "Hopefully it taught our kids what it's going to take to compete at the varsity level. They had some tremendous athletes. We have a few good athletes, but they haven't quite learned yet the intensity required to compete at this level."

In a penalty-littered first half, Wheaton Academy (1-1) trailed just 15-0 after the first quarter and moved the ball well on its early possessions.

And with Genoa-Kingston (2-0) suffering a succession of penalties, the Warriors were still statistically in the contest.

"There were some good things and I think our scheme was pretty sound," Wilson said. "But I think when it got down to the blocking and tackling, that's when they outmanned us."

But the Cogs worked more like a well-oiled machine through the second quarter, when they scored 35 points and invoked the running clock in the second half.

Genoa-Kingston quarterback Chris Wilkins was 4 of 7 in the opening half for 145 yards and 3 TDs. He also rushed for another touchdown.

Kevin Billington added 142 yards on 10 carries and scored a further pair of touchdowns.

The Cogs scored further points on a safety and a fumble return for touchdown.

Wheaton Academy got on the scoreboard with 39 seconds left in the third quarter when Hayden Goeckel broke through the line and ran in from 34 yards.

"You learn a lot about the character of the kids and what they're made of in a game like this," Wilsons said. "At halftime, we said to go out in the second half and for each of them to make themselves a better football player."

-- Darryl Mellema