ONTARIO — The tone was set right from the opening kickoff of Ontario’s 35-7 Week 1 victory over Lexington.
Cam Powers scooped up a squib kick at the 20-yard line and proceeded to kick off the Warriors’ 2026 with an 80-yard touchdown return setting the stage for Ontario to earn a 28-point victory over their cross-county rival.
“When you start off with a special teams touchdown and win that area of the game, it is a huge advantage,” Ontario coach Aaron Eckert said. “We have speed and it showed up in that moment specifically. It was a great play for us and I thought our return guys did a great job all night putting pressure on Lexington.”
After Lexington tied the game with a 45-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Lane Schuster to junior wide receiver Cameron Glennon, Ontario proceeded to score 28 unanswered points thanks to a power run game mixed with some big pass plays.
After a 14-7 halftime score, Ontario turned to their two-headed monster at running back in Max Ciroli and Gavin Miller. Ciroli ended the game with 16 carries for 116 yard and a touchdown while Miller added eight carries for 64 yards and a score. Quarterback Sean Tanner added a touchdown run and Miller also tossed a 26-yard touchdown to Trindon Flenoury.
“We are a program built on running the football and we were just screwing it up in the first half and the start of the third quarter,” Eckert said. “Once we got rolling and got the bog boys involved, it opened everything up.
“We are pretty deep at running back with Max and Gavin and even Zane Curry will get some carries back there throughout the season,” Eckert added. “I am happy with our production, but it starts with our big guys up front and they did a great job tonight.”
Eckert debuted his two-quarterback system with Tanner getting the start and Miller taking key snaps at the position. Tanner threw for 74 yards and Miller added 33 to get a productive night out of the position.
“We are just trying to figure it out because we have three guys with varsity experience who all bring something different to the table,” Eckert said. “We will work our way through this as we go and we believe in Sean as our starter and Gavin who is our do-it-all guy. I love where we are at.”
Miller, who also plays linebacker on defense, rarely left the field scoring on a passing and rushing touchdowns out of two different positions and was instrumental in the Ontario defense pitching a shutout in the second half and holding Lexington to just 190 total yards of offense. He is supportive of the Eckert’s QB plans.
“My favorite is linebacker,” Miller said about his favorite position to play. “Not much to think about other than hitting people. I read the formation, fill my gap and make tackles. I love playing quarterback, too.
“Tonight was about getting Sean confidence. I just told him before the game to let the game slow down and things will flow. I am trying to get him to get going because he is really good. I like splitting that time back there because we both have different strengths and we are both very supportive of each other. I like getting running back reps and that’s always good.”
And it is always good to have a defense pitch a second-half shutout in Week 1 of the season.
“We came out in the second half and did a great job of getting back to basics,” Eckert said. “In the first half, we were sluggish on both sides of the ball and let them hang around a little bit, but we feel like we took the wind out of them in the second half.”
Lexington displayed nearly an entirely new offensive and defensive cast of players and more than held their own trailing by a touchdown until 4:58 left in the third quarter. The Minutemen forced three turnovers.
“Our kids played so hard, man,” First-year coach Jacob Owens said. “We had it at 14-7 forever and kept fighting and battling, but we just couldn’t drive the football and get first downs. It’s hard to win football games like that. We forced three turnovers and couldn’t capitalize because we couldn’t move the ball, so we have things to work on there, but I told the kids and coaches I was proud of how hard they played. We will never have to question our effort.”
The Minutemen took the field for the first time since the unexpected death of 2025 head coach Andrew Saris. It was an emotional night, but Owens believes the Minutemen represented their late coach heroically.
“Our kids and program have been through a lot and to be back out here on Friday night, it was emotional at first, but once the game got going and we settled in, we played football and made some nice plays,” Owens said.
Cameron Glennon was a huge standout for Lex with three catches for 70 yard and a touchdown and an interception on defense.
“I saw Cam Glennon do that stuff to our varsity guys last year,” Owens said. “If he went anywhere else in the county last year, he plays. He showed everyone what I already knew. He is special, tough and makes plays. I am very proud of him.”
He was also proud of first-year quarterback Lane Schuster who threw for 90 yards and a TD and ran for 19 yards.
“Some good, some bad, but what I love is he never quit,” Owens said. He got up, went back out and played his hardest and that is what we want in our quarterback. He will learn reads and coverages with time and he will be a great quarterback for us.”
Ontario improves to 1-0 and hosts Norwalk in Week 2 while Lexington falls to 0-1 and welcomes in Shelby.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Opening TD return, 2-QB system worked well for Ontario in win over Lexington
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