News Photo by Ben Murphy Onaway quarterback Brady Gapczynski throws a pass during Saturday’s home win over Mio. The Cardinals are now 3-1 on the season.

ONAWAY — The Onaway football team just seems to have a knack for the fast start.

On Saturday afternoon, in their home non-league game with Mio, the Cardinals (3-1 overall) scored on their second play from scrimmage, and rolled their way to a 52-14 victory.

“That was nice, to be able to get on the scoreboard for the second week in a row on the second play,” Onaway coach Eddy Szymoniak said. “It is nice, we have guys that can create big plays that at any time they can explode. It is nice to come out of the gates and put up points. That has been nice for us, a huge momentum booster for us.”

That second play from scrimmage was a Jackson Chaskey 55-yard touchdown run, for a quick 6-0 lead. It didn’t take long for the Cardinals to grow that lead either, as Justin Kramer-St. Germain scored on a 55-yard touchdown run of his own on Onaway’s next series. They would have yet another 55-yard score before the opening quarter ended, this time getting Brady Gapczynski to throw a touchdown pass to Brendon Brewbaker.

“Right out of the gates, we dominated and played extremely well and our line was doing their job,” Szymoniak said. “Jackson was hitting the holes hard and does what he does. He is a great runner and makes good cuts. St. Germain has been really doing a good job of blocking and has been running hard too.”

The Thunderbolts made things interesting briefly in the second quarter; getting their two touchdowns on in that frame. Onaway had an answer for each one though. Its first was getting a 49-yard touchdown run by Chaskey that made it 26-8. Then, with Mio within 26-14 in the closing moments of the half, Onaway had a chance to score some points late. It did just that, when Gapczynski lofted a pass for Brewbaker in the endzone, and he was able to make a leaping catch and won the ball over a pair of defenders for the score, sending his team into the locker room with a 32-14 lead.

“That was real nice,” Szymoniak said. “We really needed that, our guys were getting a little sluggish and were losing some momentum. We know we have great athletes, if we can give them a chance to make plays and that is what we have fun. That was huge for us, to go into the locker room with a little momentum.”

The Cards were able to secure the win by holding Mio scoreless the final two quarters, and score three more times themselves.

“There are still things we need to clean up, but we are extremely happy,” Szymoniak said. “We had guys battling sickness all week, we tried slowing the game down (in the first half), we had kids cramping and getting sick. The second quarter, I didn’t think we did the greatest job but we were just trying to fill holes, but they came out in the second half and played a great game. I’m extremely happy with the guys play right now, they are bringing a great amount of energy.”

Gapczynski finished the game seven-of-18 passing for 111 yards and three touchdowns and he also ran four times for 60 yards and a touchdown.

Chaskey finished with 261 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries and he also had three tackles on defense. Kramer-St. Germain had five carries for 73 yards and one touchdown and he had five tackles and an interception on defense.

Lelin Splan had a monster game on defense, getting 15 tackles and five sacks and Kayson Jarvis had six tackles. Luke Lovelace, in his first game back from injury was able to get 7.5 tackles and track down two interceptions.

Onaway returns to action on Friday at Gaylord St. Mary (3-1). The Snowbirds are coming off a 58-0 win over Bellaire last week.