The Windham Bombers’ football team set some goals for themselves this season but did not have an undefeated record as one of them. That goal seems more attainable than ever after they hammered Tuscarawas Central Catholic 42-0 to celebrate Military Appreciation Night last Friday evening at Ed Liddle Field.
“We knew that going into the game Tuscarawas Central Catholic was kind of beat up,” said Coach Jake Eye. “We wanted to take care of business on Friday night. We wanted to go out there and show out for the fans and put on a good show for the crowd and ultimately the main objective was to get a win and get some good work in.”
It marks the first undefeated start in non-conference play for Windham (4-0, 0-0) since the 2018 season. The Bombers also defended home field with their last three victories being home contests and have a chance to achieve an undefeated home record in the regular season for the first time since the 2002 season.
“That is a goal for us every year but to attain that you have to continue to work and we are going to have to continue to get better and cannot get complacent. We have to keep pushing and cannot be satisfied, there is always room for improvement and always room to get better,” noted the five-year coach.
The Bombers got off to a fast start in the first quarter, needing less than two minutes to take the lead when senior quarterback/free safety Dylan McCune hit senior tailback/strong safety Carlos Bruton for an 18-yard touchdown pass, pushing Windham ahead 7-0.
According to Eye, although the Bombers had been an offensive juggernaut in the first three games, they had not fueled their offense through the passing game and wanted to spark the offense through the air at the start of the game.
Despite only throwing three passes in the entire game, they were all in the first period and the 5-foot-10 McCune completed all three for 64 yards and one touchdown.
“He was on point,” Eye said. “Dylan was three-for-three and threw a nice deep ball to Jack and threw a nice crossing route to Matt Kolaczek and then obviously hit Carlos on that flood route for the touchdown, so our play action was there, and Dylan has an accurate arm.”
The Bombers continued humming along in the first quarter, scoring four more touchdowns with senior tailback/linebacker Jack Eye scoring a pair of touchdowns on a 20-yard run and a 60-yard run, sophomore Dejuan Ramsey added a 23-yard touchdown run and the 5-foot-11 Bruton scored another touchdown, this time from 42 yards out, to build a commanding 34-0 advantage for Windham at the end of the quarter.
Although the Bombers only scored one more touchdown in the second quarter, their defense excelled by allowing TCC to record only 19 yards in the game en route to their first shutout victory since the 2021 campaign.
“You want to be physical on defense and you want to show that you are tough in all of those things, but it has to be a controlled chaos,” Eye said. “It can’t be out of control and we have to fly to the football together and on Friday night, the defense was dynamite and obviously when we can get a stop and get the ball back in our offense’s hands, a lot of good things are going to happen.”
Despite being one of the smallest football programs in all of Portage County, the Bombers have one of their deepest rosters in many years. Eye credited the 12 seniors for fueling the team’s fast start to the season but acknowledged that the underclassmen have provided valuable depth, as evidenced by them maintain the same intensity set by the starters on Friday night to lead Windham to a dominant victory.
“They work hard in practice too and we are going to need them down the road and it is good experience for them and those guys took it upon themselves to vie for the shutout,” Eye said. “They wanted to shut down TCC and not let them get in the end zone so that is a kudos to a lot of our younger guys.”
After a dominant stretch of non-conference games, the Bombers will prepare for Northeastern Athletic Conference play and try to end their seven-game losing streak in the league, extending back to the 2022 campaign.
Windham will get its first chance to make a statement in the NAC when they hit the road to take on Grand Valley at The Reel Family Stadium in Orwell this Friday at 7 p.m.
