A little momentum can go a long way.
The Blue Streaks are living proof, riding the wave of a strong finish to the 2009 season with two straight wins to start 2010, including a convincing 28-7 victory Friday over Perkins.
“We played really well in the second half of the season last year and we’ve been building on that,” said Sandusky coach Mike Franklin. “Winning breeds winning.”
But maybe not rivalries. At least, not quite yet.
The Crosstown Rivalry series is now knotted at 1-1, with both road teams posting wins.
“I don’t really know what to make of it,” Franklin said. “It’s a football game, it’s across the street and a lot of these kids are friends. But there is no other rivalry for Sandusky other than Fremont Ross.”
Even Perkins coach Jason Ziegler downplayed the significance of the Week 2 match-up.
“It’s just another football game, that’s how we look at it,” he said. “Now we’re focused on Norwalk.”
But the players get it.
“Most definitely,” said Sandusky senior Cordney Strickland when asked if the rivalry between the two schools just a mile apart is a special one. “We wanted to go out as seniors and play hard.”
The Streaks (2-0) were as dominating this year as the Pirates were a year ago in their 28-0 win at Strobel Field. Sandusky owned a 353-166 edge in total offense, with Strickland rushing for a game-high 144 yards on 20 carries, including a 63-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter that put the game out of reach.
“Cordney has become an all-around football player,” Franklin said. “He can catch, he can run and this year, he’s added the dimension of being able to play defense. But give the big boys up front some credit. They opened some really nice holes.”
The offensive line also did the job in pass protection as Lucas Poggiali hit 13 of 20 passes for 157 yards with touchdown passes of 8 and 17 yards.
Strickland got the first of his two scores on the game, going over from the one early in the first quarter after Trevontae Hampton recovered a fumble at the Perkins 23.
The Pirates came right back with a 7-yard Michael Ebert scoring reception from Evan Laser.
Sandusky missed two opportunities to add to the score, turning the ball over on downs at the Perkins 38 before the end of the first quarter and at the Perkins 21 midway through the second.
But the Streaks made no mistakes the final time they touched the ball in the second half. Poggiali completed 3  of 4 passes for 60 yards, including a 37-yard strike to Tristen Jeffries, followed by an 8-yard pass that was tipped into the hands of Dameyion Smith for a touchdown with 53 seconds remaining in the half.
Strickland went on his 63-yard scoring run on the second play of the third quarter.
“We came out last week and were real flat in the third quarter against Clear Fork,” Franklin said. “We made it a point that our team was ready to come out and play in the third quarter this week.”
The Streaks then made the point defensively, stopping the Pirates on downs three of their four second-half possessions.
“What I really like was our defense,” Franklin said. “We pride ourselves on defense. That’s how we got ourselves going last year.”
Poggiali hit Tristen Jeffries with a 17-yard scoring toss early in the fourth to end the scoring.
“We felt comfortable with what we could do in the second half, but unfortunately they hit that big run and we were doing 21-7,” Ziegler said. “Then we had a couple of running backs go down and we couldn’t do some things.”
Richard Hohler, who rushed for over 100 yards in the season opener for Perkins, had 48 yards on 12 carries to lead the Pirates before a second-half hip injury. Laser added 28 yards rushing and was 8 of 17 passing for 86 yards.
“It was a tough loss,” Ziegler said. “They have a lot of speed and they move the ball real well, but we kind of shot ourselves in the foot and unfortunately that will cost you.
“We’ve not played two solid football teams right out of the game and we’ve ended up on the wrong end of both of them. We knew coming into the season that we couldn’t afford to make mistakes and unfortunately we didn’t do that.”
Jeffries finished with four receptions for 81 yards, while Strickland had four catches out of the backfield for 17 yards, Smith hauled in three passes for 20 yards.