Williams, Vikings rout Senecas 40-3 in opener

TIFFIN -- On the opening drive of the game, Calvert got Leipsic into a fourth-down-and-6 at Calvert's 36.Leipsic quarterback Marc Kirkendall found Avery Paris for a 16-yard gain. On the next play, Marquise Williams ran in a 20-yard touchdown to put the Vikings on top early.Then Kirkendall's pooch kick on the ensuing kickoff landed short of Calvert players and found a way into the hands of Leipsic's Preston Schroeder.Next play, the Vikings led 14-0 as Williams caught a pass and made defenders miss for a 35-yard score.On the next Leipsic possession, Williams caught a screen pass and sprinted his way into the end zone for a 72-yard TD.Just five minutes into the season, Williams had three touchdowns and Leipsic led 20-0.In the end, the Vikings started the season with a resounding 40-3 victory."It's the first game, so there's some things we need to clean up and some things we need to address whether it's emotions or the speed of the game, but on offense we have a very simple philosophy – we know that the quarterback is going to make good decisions and put the ball where guys can do something with it, so we're just gonna take what the defense gives us," Vikings coach Joe Kirkendall said. "It happened tonight they were paying a little more attention to Avery, but Marquise was the guy that was kind of there, so we wanted to make sure we got him the ball."At the end of the day we had six or seven different kids with a reception tonight, spread the ball around and we believe in that."For much of the night the Senecas (0-1) were in the right spot to make a play or a make a big catch, but just didn't make them. Plus, with the slow start, the Vikings (1-0) took advantage, like good teams do."They have athletes all over the place. Marc – the coach's son – makes really good decisions out there and it's like having another coach on the field. You can't start that way and expect to execute at a high level," Calvert coach Mike Lento said. "We talked to the guys about making sure to finish drives, we have to execute."Nobody wants to take an 'L', but half the teams this weekend will be 0-1 and the other half will be 1-0, we knew it was a good football team we were playing and it was good to see some of our younger guys and the lights not be too bright for them."Calvert's Alyjah Lemasters picked off a Kirkendall pass later in the first quarter, which led to a 27-yard field goal from Cameron Lucius.But after that Leipsic poured it on as Kirkendall rolled right and threw back across his body to find an open Colin Niese in the end zone for a 7-yard TD to put Leipsic up 27-3 and then Cole Steffan capped the scoring in the opening half with a 13-yard TD on the ground as the Vikings led 33-3 at the half.The lone score in the second half, which was entirely with a running clock, was a 4-yard rushing score from Leipsic's Aaron Hazelton.Williams had six catches for 163 yards as Kirkendall finished 19 of 22 passing for 293 yards. Grady Bryan added six grabs for 70 yards.For Calvert, Bentley Colon was 8 of 21 passing for 119 yards in his first career start. Freshman Niko Marinis had three catches for 64 yards, Branyan Coleman had four grabs for 50 yards and Nolan Lee was held to nine carries for 13 yards out of the backfield."We have a lot of young guys on defense and then we also kind of threw away our scheme after our scrimmage last week and we went back to a 4-3," coach Kirkendall said. "So this was very new for some of our guys. We are young on defense, our secondary is old, but our front seven is young, but I liked their toughness."This is a long season. I mean last year we went to Week 14, so we have to make sure our guys stay healthy as long as possible. We have to get guys ready and develop our depth. We take a lot of pride in getting better and we take a lot of pride in the fact that traditionally Leipsic plays their best football at the end of the year. That's our goal. To come over here after a long trip – first time we've been here, but to get a win … no one will ever tell you that losing is better than winning. So, we'll take it and learn from it."