by Ben Wolford

Correspondent

Mogadore -- Mogadore and Woodridge finished the 2007 Portage Trail Conference County Division standings in first and second place, respectively.

The two teams battled again Sept. 26 and nothing changed.

The Wildcats (6-0, 3-0) stayed undefeated and the Bulldogs (4-2, 1-2) slipped further in the standings, as Mogadore ran to a 40-21 division victory.

"We've got to slay that dragon," said Woodridge head coach Eric Ervin. "Now we have to wait 365 days to try to do it again."

The Bulldogs couldn't play the knight Sept. 26 largely because Mogadore accumulated 351 rushing yards.

Sophomore running back Kodey Chance can claim more than half of those. He carried the ball 15 times for 187 yards -- an average of more than 12 yards each try -- and a touchdown.

"We've always been a team that's known to run the ball," said Mogadore head coach Matt Adorni. "With the situation tonight, we felt like we needed to keep it on the ground."

Neither team scored in the first quarter, but when the second quarter started, so did Mogadore. By halftime, the Wildcats led 28-0.

Junior running back Mike Leymon topped off a drive that began midway through the first quarter with a 3-yard punch into the end zone.

Then, after the Wildcats forced Woodridge to punt after three downs, it only took Mogadore three downs to score, a TD by sophomore running back Jake McAvinew.

He turned the corner on the line of scrimmage and ran 23 yards untouched.

Leymon scored again in the second from 1-yard out. Then, McAvinew scored again when he intercepted a shovel pass and returned it 20 yards.

"It was a complete surprise," McAvinew said. "It just was right here, and I caught it."

McAvinew totaled 86 yards on the night to compliment his two touchdowns.

But despite the disparity on the scoreboard, Woodridge was never completely gone.

"The score wasn't really indicative at halftime of how much they really moved the ball on us," Adorni said.

By the end of the game, the Bulldogs threw together 314 yards passing under junior quarterback Anthony Westren and his favorite target Brandyn Peters.

Peters caught two touchdown passes -- one was 40 yards, the other 82 -- in the third and fourth quarters.

Though the Wildcats only passed eight times and completed three, Landon Trainer caught a 38-yard pass from quarterback Drew Babbit in the fourth. "They packed the line and dared us to throw," Adorni said. "Our offensive line had to overcome a lot of people up in the box."

Chance's touchdown came in the third quarter when he shot unobstructed through the line of scrimmage and wasn't touched all 54 yards to the end zone.

Woodridge's Josh Chadima scored his team's other touchdown on a 23-yard pass from Westren.

E-mail: stowsports@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3113