Photo by Andrew Grimm Oak Glen's Kholton Goodlin runs behind blocks against Toronto.

TORONTO — After an 0-3 start, Doug Taylor knew that if his Golden Bears could just get healthy and find some confidence, they could surprise some people.

Did they ever Friday night.

Nearly at full strength after being hit by the injury bug early in the season, Oak Glen used a couple of big plays and outstanding defense to stun previously unbeaten Toronto at Clarke Hinkle Field, 25-8, for the Golden Bears first win of the season and the first of Taylor’s tenure in charge.

“This was a long time coming, these kids have worked extremely hard and these coaches have worked their butts off,” Taylor said. “We had a real tough take off with some injuries and never really had our starting 11 on the field together. (Friday) we were awfully close and we felt like we could show people that if we have our best 11 on the field, we can play some football. I think we surprised some people.

“Take nothing away from Toronto, they’re a very good football team and I know they’re fighting through some injuries just like us.

“For us, getting the first win, getting the monkey off our back, that’s big. When you start winning, that’s when football is fun and we’re going to have some fun this week.”

Matt Greenlief opened the scoring with a 68-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, followed by a Kholton Goodlin 54-yard run to the endzone in the second quarter to make it a 15-0 Oak Glen (1-3) lead at halftime.

“We hit them on a couple of big ones,” Taylor said. “They’re very aggressive on defense and we thought we could catch them trying to take our perimeter game away. We thought if we set the perimeter and made it look like we were going to run off tackle, we could maybe get something up inside and that’s what happened on the first series.”

Trenton Richmond nailed a 26-yard field goal set up by the Bears rushers getting to Toronto’s punter before he could get the kick off to turn the ball over deep in the Red Knights (4-1) end, then Aiden Flowers stepped in front of a Toronto pass and returned it 81-yards to score and make it a 25-0 Oak Glen lead after three quarters.

“That pick-six really finished it off,” Taylor said. “The kids were pumped up after that and they were not going to be denied.”

For the Red Knights, who entered the game ranked fifth in Ohio Division VII in the most recent AP Poll and second Region 25 in the initial computer ratings, it seemed if it could go wrong, it did.

“It was one of those nights that was just of perfect storm of everything that can go wrong going wrong,” Toronto head coach Josh Franke said. “We had some injuries that really affected us. When you’re dressing 23 kids and guys start getting hurt early in the game, that’s a major impact. We make no excuses, though, Oak Glen came out and played a heckuva game. They wanted it more and it showed on the scoreboard.

“They had played three really good teams coming into this, we talked all week to our kids about how this was a trap game and we couldn’t overlook them and Oak Glen came in here ready. They had more big plays than we did, they were able to get turnovers and we weren’t, and we did not execute in the red zone. That is going to get you every time.

“They were in a little bit of that desperation mode fighting to get that first win and they wanted it more.”

Adding insult to injury for Toronto was the loss of quarterback Zeb Kinsey to an injury. He did not play in the second half after being bottled up for negative yardage on the ground in the first half and going 6 of 13 passing for 31 yards and two picks.

“Zeb got injured early in the first half and he really couldn’t run,” Franke said. “His movement was affected. We tried to wrap it up, get some tape on it at halftime. He came out to warm up for the second half and just wasn’t able to go. He’s a special kid and was not worth losing him long term so we decided to hold him out.”

Brock Hughes’ 10-yards pass to Nolan Dickinson in the fourth quarter ended up being Toronto’s only points.

Overall, Oak Glen held the Knights offense that had been rolling to just 169 total yards, 114 of which came from Dom Bouscher on the ground.

“Our defense was unbelievable,” Taylor said. “Coach (T.J.) Miller has done wonders with those guys, and when we have our best 11, it makes a big difference. We’re still one guy (Josh Blake) away from having that, so we can be even better yet. Coach (Ted) Arneault did a great job running our offense, too. He managed the game and controlled the clock well.”

UP NEXT

Oak Glen: Heads on the road next Friday to face rival Beaver Local, who is 3-2.

Toronto: Is back at home next Friday to host rival Edison, who comes in 5-0.

Oak Glen 25, Toronto 8

Oak Glen 8-7-10-0 – 25

Toronto 0-0-0-8 – 8

OG: Greenlief 68 yard run (Goodlin run) 11:04

OG: Greenlief 54 yard run (Richmond kick) 5:01

OG: Richmond 26 yard field goal 5:43

OG: Flowers 81 yard interception return (Richmond kick) 2:45

T: N. Dickinson 10 yard pass from Hughes (Filby pass from Hughes) 11:51

RUSHING: Oak Glen 28-171-2TD (Goodlin 9-84-TD; Greenlief 5-72-TD; Beatty 2-0; Franklin 2-6; Molish 1-(-4); Burt 7-11; Mozingo 2-2); Toronto 37-106 (Bouscher 13-114; Kinsey 11-(-15); Board 7-10; Filby 3-0; Fair 1-4; Hughes 2-(-7)).

PASSING: Oak Glen 1-4-20-INT (all by Beatty); Toronto 12-26-63-TD-3INT (Kinsey 6-13-31-2INT; R. Dickinson 1-3-(-1)-INT; Hughes 5-10-33-TD).

RECEIVING: Oak Glen 1-20 (all by Franklin); Toronto 12-63-TD (Filby 6-27; Bouscher 2-10; N. Dickinson 2-17-TD; R. Dickinson 2-9).

FIRST DOWNS: Oak Glen 1; Toronto 11.

PENALTIES-YARDS: Oak Glen 7-65; Toronto 7-56.

FUMBLES-LOST: Oak Glen 1-0; Toronto 3-1.