Ronan runs past Bulldogs

RONAN — In yet another chapter of the Jekyll-and-Hyde season Ronan football has had, the Chiefs’ offense exploded for 39 first-half points on the way to a 44-19 demolition of Mission.

Ronan’s rushing offense ate up chunks of yardage, led by 227-pound fullback Lucas Gerhardt, who toted the ball 15 times for 85 yards. The senior scored a trio of runs, all from seven yards out.

“We just came out hard and kept up the pace the whole time,” Gerhardt said.

The big senior was one of 12 Chiefs to carry the ball on Friday as they amassed 267 rushing yards on 52 team carries. They didn’t turn the ball over once.

“If you take care of the football and you have the turnover differential in your favor, you tend to win,” Ronan coach Jim Benn said. “We found some things that worked. When Lucas is running like he ran...it works very nicely.”

The early advantage allowed Benn to get some of his seniors some extra snaps on senior night.

“It’s nice for the kids on senior night,” Benn said. “All of our seniors got to play and all of our seniors got to have a real vital role in the game plan. I’ve been with these kids since they were in seventh grade. They’re my son’s age and most of them have been out to our house. It’s kind of a bittersweet night for me.”

Gerhardt and quarterback Connor Benn have been the most visible leaders of that senior class for Ronan (3-4, 1-2).

Benn, the coach’s son, threw two touchdown passes on just three attempts.

“We were just seeing what was open,” the younger Benn said. “We’ve kind of had a tough season this year, but it ended up pretty good for us tonight.”

The Ronan defense was staunch, too, at least when its first team was in the game.

“We just couldn’t stop their blitzes,” Bulldogs coach Rich Ferris said. “We couldn’t run the ball when we needed to.”

The Bulldogs did manage two second-half touchdowns, one on a 66-yard run from Raymond Matt. The junior finished with a game-high 94 rushing yards on 15 carries.

Ferris is still hoping to see some consistency from his blockers, though.

“We’ve still got to find our identity,” he said. “We’re so young up front that we keep getting blasted back, and we can’t let that happen.”

The Bulldogs’ last chance to do that in 2013 will come on Friday when they host Troy.

Ronan seems to have found its groove on offense, and still with an outside shot at a wild-card playoff berth, they’ll need it this coming week at Florence.

“We’re hoping that we can sneak in and grab that last spot,” Jim Benn said.

They will need some help to do so, though, it seems, as Conrad and Choteau are also contenders for the North/West B wild card spot.

The most likely scenario that finds the Chiefs in the postseason is with a Choteau win over Cut Bank combined with a Conrad loss to Glasgow on Friday night. Even then, they will rely on some opponents’ wins to out-point the Cowboys for that spot.

As for the Ronan players, they’re just concerned with taking care of business against Florence on Friday.

“We’re just going to keep it up all week, practice hard like we always do, and pump all our younger kids up,” Gerhardt said.