Photo by Kim North River’s Brenden Morris (26) closes in on Cameron’s Marshall Holland (1) after teammate Trey Larrick tripped up the Dragons running back during action from Thursday night’s game on the artificial surface at Martin Flannery Field in Hannibal. The Dragons slayed the Pilots, 46-15.

HANNIBAL — When a team executes on both sides of the football, it is hard to beat.

Cameron rolled up 339 yards of total offense while the defense limited River to less than 200 in a 46-15 shellacking Thursday night on the artificial surface at Martin Flannery Field.

The Dragons (3-0), who entered the game ranked No. 2 in the first W.Va. rankings released earlier in the week, ran for a trio of touchdowns, threw for two more and had a fake punt for six points.

“They were who I thought they were,” veteran River head coach Mike Flannery said of the Dragons. “A bunch of tough wrestlers that play football pretty good. They are a well-coached team.”

After Cameron scored on a 27-yard pass from Kason Angel to tailback Marshall Holland on its first possession, Angel ran in for the two-point conversion to an 8-0 win.

Moments later, the Pilots (3-2) would close to within 8-7 as Wyatt Stalder broke off the left side of his line and sprinted, untouched, 85 yards.

Carson Jones booted the PAT, but that would be as close as River would get.

The Dragons reeled off 38 unanswered points to institute the OHSAA’s 30-point mercy rule on their first possession of the second half.

“Our offense really clicked. We’ve really been working with our line to stay low and finish blocks,” Cameron head coach Tim Brown said. “They did a really good job tonight.”

Angel had quite a night as the strong-armed senior completed six-of-11 passes for 189 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran a fake punt 71 yards for six points.

“He’s an absolute athlete, but he will be the first one to tell you when he makes a mistake,” Brown said. “He’s also the first one to congratulate his teammates when they do something good.”

In addition to connecting with Holland, he also threw a 29-yard TD strike to Soier Reed.

Holland ran for 106 yards on 20 carries, scoring on runs of 37 and 6 yards. He finished with two receptions for 67 yards and had a two-point run.

“Marshall is getting better and better each week,” Brown noted. “He’s listening to the coaches because he wants to be good. He’s getting better at run blocking and pass blocking.”

Soier Reed caught three passes for 85 yards, tacked on a pair of conversion runs and intercepted a pass. Talen Brown, the coach’s grandson, had a 14-yard touchdown run and also ran for two points.

“River’s not going to go away. They’re going to try and continue to crease you,” Brown said. “That was a great play they scored on, but I was really proud of our defense. Coach (Derek) Martin does a great job getting them prepared and they came to play tonight.”

The Pilots did manage 134 yards on the ground, but only 65 through the air. Stalder collected 93 yards rushing on just three carries, but 85 came on one run.

“You have to be able to move the sticks on offense,” Flannery stressed. “We didn’t do that tonight.”

The Dragons lost sophomore Griffen Miller to a serious leg injury in the first quarter. He was taken from the field on a stretcher before being transported to a local hospital.

“I hope people say prayers for Griffen,” Brown stressed. “We had to take a receiver (Colin Magers) and put at tackle, but he played there last year for us. It’s the next-man-up scenario and the kids played really hard for their brother.”

Cameron plays host to Tyler Consolidated on Sept. 26, while River entertains Federal Hocking the same night for Homecoming.