By DEAN JACKSON
WZBD.com
WOODBURN — It was supposed to be about the defense.
That unit carried Heritage through wins over New Haven and Delta, building the identity this team has leaned on all season.
Heritage officially showed off their ground-and-pound offense, tallying 514 total yards and six touchdowns to squash Woodlan 33-14 Friday in the Allen County Athletic Conference opener.
The Patriots (3-0, 1-0 ACAC) have now defeated the Warriors (2-1, 0-1) seven straight times.
Jaxton Litchfield did most of the damage. The junior running back finished with 200 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries, a 10.5-yard average capped by a 71-yard run.
He wasn’t done there. On defense, Litchfield added a sack, spending four quarters chasing down Woodlan’s quarterback and then flipping around to line up at fullback on the next snap.
“You’re talking about a kid that goes both ways. He’s a semi-state-qualifying wrestler, probably the strongest kid on our team, and he’s our hardest worker,” Hullinger said. “Jax has to rush that kid time and time again, and then go out there and play fullback. It just shows his level of commitment and conditioning and the kind of player that he is.”
Quarterback Zeb Tigulis kept it going. He completed 3 of 4 passes for 74 yards and a touchdown, a 44-yard strike to Garrett Oliver, while adding 100 yards and a score of his own on 13 carries.
“The word I think of when I think of Zeb is poise,” Hullinger said. “He just has a lot of poise out there. Doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low. Field commander, field general is a good way of putting it too. He always gets us into the right play. He commands the huddle out there, and he’s no slouch carrying the ball himself.”
Lucas Taylor rounded out the ground attack with 111 yards and a score of his own on 21 carries, and Heritage ran for 440 yards as a team. Numbers like that look easy in the box score. On the field, it took a half to get there.
Heritage came out fast. Litchfield needed just two plays to score, and the offense moved the ball at will early. But Woodlan kept pace, and the game was tied 7-7 at halftime.
“We had to get some guys refocused at half,” Hullinger said. “And then you see the results of what our team can do when we have our best focused.”
Heritage hit the gas in the third quarter, exploding for 20 points and never looking back.
“We need to clean up special teams. We need to clean up the penalties,” Hullinger said. “But overall, I was happy, especially with my effort of my boys in the second half.”
Up next, Heritage hosts South Adams (1-2, 0-1 ACAC) on Friday night, when the school will hold a 25th-anniversary tribute honoring victims of September 11 and service members in the Global War on Terrorism.
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