THE PLAINS - Athens quarterback Joe Burrow completed 16-of-23 pass attempts for 410 yards and seven touchdowns as the Bulldogs defeated visting Warren 66-14 in a non-conference football game Friday night.
"They're better than advertised," said Warren head football coach Andy Schob said. "They were extremely good before, and they've gotten even better just in the short season."
The Bulldogs (2-1) amassed 636 yards of total offense, with their sophomore quarterback alone out-rushing the Warriors (1-2). Of the 10 Athens touchdowns, Burrow factored in on eight of them, as the sophomore standout also rushed for a score and 81 yards on 10 carries.
Article Photos
KAREN HENTHORN Special to The Times
Warren’s Chas Miller leaps and looks to gain yardage against host Athens during prep football action Friday night.
"He understands when people vacate an area where to put the ball," Schob praised.
As good as the Bulldogs were through the air, they were just as good on the ground, picking up 228 yards on just 27 carries.
While the Bulldogs ended up putting a ton of offense numbers in the box score, it didn't begin easily.
Fact Box
Athens 66, Warren 14
Warren 0 6 8 0 - 14
Athens 7 25 28 6 - 66
First quarter
A: Tyler McIntosh 15 pass from Joe Burrow (Heath Wiseman kick) 7:50
Second quarter
A: Skylar Schwarzel 25 pass from Burrow (Wiseman kick) 11:49
A: Burrow 25 run (kick fail) 9:56
A: Schwarzel 39 pass from Burrow (pass fail) 6:08
A: McIntosh 70 pass from Burrow (kick fail) 3:01
W: Chas Miller 11 pass from Dylan Leffingwell (pass fail) 0:18
Third quarter
A: Trae Williams 25 run (Wiseman kick) 10:36
A: Ryan Luehrman 31 pass from Burrow (Wiseman kick) 7:48
A: Schwarzel 4 pass from Burrow (Wiseman kick) 7:09
W: Leffingwell 5 run (Austin Kuhn run) 4:05
A: Adam Luehrman 52 pass from Burrow (Wiseman kick) 1
Fourth quarter
A: Dakotah McFee 20 run (kick fail) 6:58
Team stats
WARREN (1-2)
First downs 17; Rushes/yds 32-55; Passing yds 138; Passing (comp/att/TD/int) 18-38-1-1; Total yds 193; Penalties/yds 9-80; Punts/avg. 6-41.6; Fumbles/lost 2/1
ATHENS (2-1)
First downs 16; Rushes/yds 27-228; Passing yds 410; Passing (comp/att/TD/int) 16-23-7-0; Total yds 638; Penalties/yds 7-75; Punts/avg. 0/0; Fumbles/lost 2/2
Individual stats
Warren: Rushing: Mark McDermott 1-7; Austin Kuhn 8-26; Tyler Liston 1-7; Zach Clegg 1-6; Caleb Mayle 1-7; Aaron Sealey 2-5; Tanner Huck 1-2; Jake Scott 7-(-1); Dylan Leffingwell 9-9, TD; Andrew Henthorn 1-2; Seth Balderson 1-0; Cody Dobbs 2-(-5); Passing: Dylan Leffingwell 18-35-138 yds, TD; Austin Klintworth 0-3, int; Receiving: Chas Miller 4-38, TD; Rodney Barnes 1-1; Brandon Barnes 1-12; Andrew Henthorn 1-4; Andrew Vincent 6-51; Jake Scott 4-28; David Ryan 1-4
Athens: Rushing: Trae Williams 12-103, TD; Joe Burrow 10-81, TD; Dakotah McFee 3-24, TD; Heath Wiseman 2-20; Passing: Joe Burrow 16-23-408 yds, 7 TDs; Receiving: Tyler McIntosh 7-169, 2 TDs; Skylar Schwarzel 5-111, 3 TDs; Dan Evans 1-36; Ryan Luehrman 1-31, TD; Adam Luehrman 1-52, TD; Alex Goldsberry 1-11
Athens managed just a single score in the first quarter of play, which came on Tyler McIntosh's 15-yard reception from Burrow with 7:50 to play in the opening quarter.
The Bulldogs' other first quarter possession ended with a fumble at the Warrior' 24. Warren couldn't capitalize on the turnover, as they had to punt the ball away.
Chas Miller's 56-yard punt gave the Bulldogs the ball at their own 9-yard line, but big plays assured Athens of points, with Burrow connecting with McIntosh on a 49-yard reception to set up the second Athens score, which came with 11:49 in the first half when Burrow connected with Skylar Schwarzel on a 25-yard TD pass.
In the second quarter of play, the Bulldogs ran a total of 12 plays, and scored on four of them. Of the first 10 plays from scrimmage for the Bulldogs, they put four in the endzone before kneeling to run out the clock on the first half.
"Everybody played one hell of a lights out game," said Athens' football coach Ryan Adams. "Everybody executed extremely well. Joey Burrow and (Assistant) Coach (Nathan) White just have a great relationship going on and changing plays and doing different things with what we see."
Scoring on its' second play from scrimmage in the second quarter, the Bulldogs then strung together scoring drives of two plays, 64 yards, three plays, 60 yards, and 70 yards on three plays.
After all the Athens' scoring, the Warriors finally got on the board. On their scoring drive, the Warriors ran just one play fewer than Athens did in the entire quarter as they covered 65 yards on 11 plays, with quarterback Dylan Leffingwell connecting with Chas Miller from 11-yards out with 18 seconds before the break.
Putting up four scores in the second quarter, the Bulldogs equalled that in the third as the offense once again clicked with big plays. Two of Athens' four scoring possessions lasted three plays or less as the Bulldogs never punted and the only drives not to end in points were lost on fumbles or ended with kneeldowns to run out the clock.
"Athens absolutely dominated in all phases (Friday) night," Schob said. "The scary thing is how young they are."
For the game, Athens had two receivers over 100 yards and a running back over 100 while Burrow threw for over 400. With the exception of senior Skylar Schwarzel, who had 111 yards receiving and three scores, the others are all sophomores.
Warren strung together its final scoring drive in the third quarter, when the Warriors took advantage of a brief resurgence in the ground game behind senior Austin Kuhn.
Kuhn had three strong runs and Leffingwell connected a pair of passes to bring the Warriors to the Bulldogs' 5-yard line. On a second down play, Leffingwell then scrambled into the endzone to make the score 60-14 in favor of Athens.
The rushing success on that drive was the only real gains for the Warriors in the game, as Warren managed just 55 yards rushing on 32 carries. The Warriors also managed to complete just 18-of-38 passes for 138 yards, as Leffingwell was 18-for-35 with the one score.
Conversely, Athens averaged 8.4 yards per rush and 25.5 yards per completion.
"They have better athletes at certain positions and we couldn't match up," Schob said.
