ADAMS TWP — Mars watched Blackhawk’s Maurice Watson-Trent rumble in from 58 yards out to begin the scoring early in a non-conference gridiron clash Friday night.

From there on out — for the remaining 44 minutes — the visiting Cougars scratched and clawed to no avail.

The Planets followed up with 49 unanswered points in a 49-7 victory at the Mars Athletic Complex.

“I was really, really upset,” Mars coach Eric Kasperowicz said. “We came out (and forced) a three-and-out, then a stupid penalty. Roughed the punter, gave it back to them ... and we give up a long run, which was really disappointing.

“But, we had a guy in the wrong place, and it was a great lesson.”

One that quickly soaked in for the Planets (2-1).

Following a 10-play march from midfield that was capped by the first of Evan Wright’s three rushing touchdowns, the hosts bullied Blackhawk (0-3) into turnovers on each of the Cougars’ ensuing three possessions — in a span of just under 1:15.

“I think our offensive line really let their defensive line control the game,” Blackhawk coach Pat Feeley said. “I think if we had done a better job taking care of their defensive line, there wouldn’t have been fumbles. That was the No. 1 thing — their defensive line outplayed our offensive line.”

Cole Yoshioka picked Cougars quarterback Stephen Knallay off, setting up Wright’s second ground score three plays later. Knallay coughed it up on the initial snap of the next possession, then Mars signal-caller Luke Goodworth connected with Yoshioka for a 14-yard air strike.

A mishandled snap on the next play from scrimmage gave the Planets the ball in plus territory once again, but Mason Childress’ 32-yard field goal attempt sailed just wide to start the second frame. He’d hit two later on in the contest.

“We knew it was a simple mistake that we could’ve fixed,” Yoshioka said of Blackhawk’s lone touchdown. “We knew that should not have happened, so our mindset was, ‘They’re not going to get another yard.’ We were going to stop them — and that’s exactly what we did. With the pick, the next three turnovers we had, that’s what shifted for us.

“We knew that they did not deserve that touchdown, so we wanted to prove it.”

Seniors Jacob Maple and Isaak Winters both had fumble recoveries. Xander Painley forced one.

Watson-Trent’s early romp was just one of three plays from scrimmage to go for more than three yards in the first half. Aside from those gifted by penalties, the Cougars didn’t pick up another first down in the tilt. Even with the lengthy scamper, Blackhawk had just 59 yards from scrimmage in the opening 24 minutes and 80 for the whole of the game.

“We challenged the guys,” Kasperowicz said. “This team (Blackhawk) beat us last year. We let them hang around and they got down and kicked a field goal to beat us. That was a loss we remembered and thought about for almost 365 days.

“We came out and just wanted to be the more physical team.”

On special teams, Connor Hartle blocked and recovered a punt toward the end of the second quarter. Eric Kasperowicz had two kick returns, totaling 64 yards.

Goodworth also found Aidan Alessio and Gabe Hein for passing touchdowns. Hein became Mars’ all-time leader in receiving yards during the matchup.

In wins against Blackhawk and New Castle the past two weeks, the Planets outscored their opponents by a combined count of 91-13.

“We have our heads held high,” Yoshioka said. “We have some tougher games coming down the road. ... We’re just going to learn from our simple mistakes and hopefully keep the same score as we had the past couple weeks.”

Coach Kasperowicz said, “As we get going here into the meat of the schedule and start getting some conference games, we’ve got to play great defense. We’ve got to be able to run the ball, throw the ball when we need to. If we play like we did tonight, we’ll have a pretty good shot to win some of those games.”

Blackhawk 7 0 0 0 — 0

Mars 22 3 17 7 — 49

First Quarter

B — Maurice Watson-Trent 58 run (Will Brown kick), 8:01

M — Evan Wright 4 run (Mason Childress run), 4:31

M — Wright 14 run (Childress kick), 2:13

M — Cole Yoshioka 14 pass from Luke Goodworth (Childress kick), 1:54

Second Quarter

M — Childress 23 field goal, 2:53

Third Quarter

M — Gabe Hein 31 pass from Goodworth (Childress kick), 10:59

M — Wright 14 run (Childress kick), 6:59

M — Childress 37 field goal, 3:34

Fourth Quarter

M — Aidan Alessio 20 pass from Goodworth (Childress kick), 11:16

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Blackhawk, Maurice Watson-Trent 9-85, Connor McGraw 4-6, Ryan Prisuta 2-2, Enzo Diana 1-2, Gabe Callaghan 1-1, Thomas Price Jr. 1-0, Stephen Knallay 10-(-15), TEAM 1-(-4). Mars, Evan Wright 23-119, Ayden Yocum 9-32, Nathan Tak 3-23, Eric Kasperowicz 2-1.

Passing: Blackhawk, Stephen Knallay 2-5-3-1. Mars, 12-21-128-0.

Receiving: Blackhawk, AJ Montgomery 1-3, Dontae Campagna 1-0. Mars, Gabe Hein 7-71, Aidan Alessio 2-38, Cole Yoshioka 1-14, Eric Kasperowicz 1-6, Blake Yates 1-(-1).