By DOUG DONNELLY

ERIE – Whiteford’s offense has found its groove – and that should be a scary thing for the rest of Division 8 football in Michigan.

The No. 1 Bobcats improved to 6-0 Friday with a 58-6 win over Erie Mason, bulldozing its way past the Eagles to clinch a third straight Tri-County Conference title.

Nothing got in the way of the Bobcat offense Friday. The only time the offense didn’t score was on a fumble inside the Mason 10-yard line on a third quarter drive.

“All the way around, it was good,” Bobcat coach Todd Thieken said. “I liked our intensity. I said to the kids Monday that I had no idea where they were at, but we needed to go out and play to our standard. That’s all we can do. We came out and played to our level.”

Erie Mason won the coin toss before Friday’s game and elected to go on offense first. The Eagles fumbled on the first play of the game and Mason DeBarr landed on it for the turnover. Four plays later, Tre Eitniear found Hunter DeBarr in the end zone on an 18-yard strike to put the Bobcats in front 8-0.

It was 22-0 by the end of the first quarter on touchdowns by Jake Iott and Drew Knaggs.

In the second quarter Iott and Brandon Knaggs had rushing touchdowns while DeBarr caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Ryin Ruddy and Masserant snagged a 12-yard touchdown in the corner of the end zone for a 51-0 halftime lead.

The Bobcats scored for the final time in the fourth quarter on a 12-yard run by freshman Brody Hillard.

Iott led the Bobcats with 112 rushing yards on 12 carries. Drew Knaggs had 84 yards on 12 carries. Nine other Bobcat backs had at least one carry. Whiteford finished with 412 yards and 27 first downs on just 51 offensive plays.

Erie Mason (2-4) has most of its offensive yards on the final drive of the game.

The Eagles were without starting quarterback Vaughn Brown, who was held out due to a knee injury. Cole Kreger made his first varsity start at quarterback.

“That’s his third different position in three weeks,” Mason head coach Steven Bowers said.

Logan Goodin scored on a 2-yard run with just over a minute to play. It ended up being the final play of the game with the running clock, which did not stop after the touchdown.

Bowers said the Eagles have plenty to play for with three games remaining.

“I told the kids we have three winnable games to go and we need to come out and play hard,” he said. “We can still make it a winning season, which was one of our goals.”

WHITEFORD 22 29 0 7 = 58

ERIE MASON 0 0 0 6 = 6

First quarter

W – Hunter DeBarr 18 td pass from Tre Eitniear. (Run failed), 10:09

W – Jake Iott 7 run (Ryin Ruddy run), 7:16

W – Drew Knaggs 2 run (Ryin Ruddy run), 1:10

Second quarter 

W – Jake Iott 5 run (Hunter DeBarr kick), 7:37

W – Brandon Knaggs 13 run (kick failed), 7:21

W – Hunter DeBarr 25 pass from Ryin Ruddy (Jake Iott run), 3:16

W – Kolby Masserant 12 pass from Ruddy (Jake Iott run), :59.6

Fourth quarter

W – Brody Hillard 12 run (Keegan Thomas kick), 9:22

E – Login Goodin 5 run (run failed), 1:07

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Whiteford: Jake Iott 12-115, Drew Knaggs 12-84, Hunter DeBarr 6-30, Tre Eitniear 4-25, Stepan Masserant 2-25, Brandon Knaggs 2-17, Ryin Ruddy 2-17, Brody Hillard 1-12, Brek Ruddy 2-10, Drew Ruddy 1-4. Totals 44-339. Erie Mason: Toby Frazier 5-48, Logan Goodin 9-37, Bowie Jacobs 1-0 Cole Kreger 16-(minus)-2. Totals 31-83.

PASSING – Whiteford: Ryin Ruddy 3-3-0 55 yards, Tre Eitniear 1-4-0 18 yards. Erie Mason: Cole Kreger 4-12-1 29 yards.

RECEIVING – Whiteford: Hunter DeBarr 2-43, Kolby Masserant 2-30. Erie Mason: Korbin Herrera 2-19, Logan Goodin 1-10, Michael Narew 1-0.