Grand Forks Red River took less than two minutes to establish all three phases of football Friday against Jamestown.
On special teams, Red River junior Josh Hall took the opening kick, burst through a seam and picked up 60 yards.
The second offensive play was a Dayton Marek 30-yard touchdown run.
On the first defensive play, Quinn Baumann hit Jamestown quarterback Brady Anderson from behind and Riders defensive lineman Tanner Williams recovered the fumble.
The all-around effort amounted to Red River's runaway 54-8 victory over the Blue Jays in the Riders' home opener at Cushman Field.
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"We had a really explosive start," said Marek, who picked up 120 rushing yards and three touchdowns. "We came out pumped up and played hard."
The bad start snowballed on the Blue Jays.
Jamestown's first-half carnage included two fumbles, a partially blocked punt, an interception and poor clock management late in the second quarter that led to Red River's touchdown with less than 10 seconds to go for a 33-0 edge.
"(The bad start) was the same thing that happened last week," said Jamestown coach Bill Cahill, whose team lost to Devils Lake in the season opener. "Grand Forks executed, and we didn't."
Marek followed his 30-yard touchdown run with a 5-yard TD rush later in the quarter.
"We know that Dayton is one of our strongest kids pound for pound," Red River coach Vyrn Muir said. "He's explosive. He gets the tough yards for us."
Logan Ferry, who aided Marek with 90 rushing yards, made it 20-0 early in the second quarter with a 3-yard touchdown run.
Red River capped the half with a pair of short touchdown passes. Riders quarterback Taylor Steen, who finished with 44 passing yards, had a 5-yard scoring strike to Mitchell Anderson and a 6-yard TD pass to VaShawn Pope.
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The salt in Jamestown's wound came on Pope's touchdown catch.
The Riders cemented the halftime blowout thanks to some poor time management by the Blue Jays. With time winding down in the second quarter, the Blue Jays chose to kneel the ball deep in their own end.
However, the Riders had one timeout remaining. The Riders used it and forced Jamestown to punt. Instead of punting, though, Jamestown snapped the ball to its punter, who ran to the right side for a loss of 5 yards.
The turnover on downs stopped the clock with 10 seconds left. The Riders scored on the next play when Steen hit Pope in the end zone from 6 yards out.
The second half featured plenty of running time, while many backups littered the field.
The Riders, who picked up their first win of the season after a loss to Williston last week, had the decisive edge on the ground. Red River picked up 258 rushing yards to Jamestown's 72.
Marek credited his offensive line.
"Our line had a big push up front," Marek said. "Everyone hit their assignments."
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The Blue Jays' lone scoring play came on a 46-yard touchdown catch by Willy Marler from Anderson. Marler caught all four of Anderson's completions for 77 yards.
But the Jamestown offense was plagued by penalties, turnovers and injuries.
"We had three more kids go down today and that makes seven for the season," Cahill said. "We've got to try to simplify things for the younger kids that are going to have to play."
