“I buy them candy every week,” Talawanda’s star running back said. “They come over to my house for breakfast every week.”
Cantrell lived up to his nationally-recognized status Friday night by rushing for 174 yards and four touchdowns as Talawanda rolled to a 38-8 Homecoming victory over rival Ross.
“We played a good team,” Cantrell said. “Those are still big numbers, but those aren’t what I’m used to.
“There was a lot of bad blood. This is a big rivalry,” added Cantrell, who noted the last time Talawanda played Ross was in 2022 when the Brave lost 28-0. “We had to come back and win.
“Everybody kept saying, ‘Oh, you haven’t played a real team.’ They said Ross was a real team, but it doesn’t look like it now.”
Cantrell entered Week 6 as the nation’s fourth leading rusher — a key reason why the Brave are now 6-0. He now has 1,535 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns.
“I try not to look at it,” Cantrell said of the attention. “I try not to look at it and just stay with one week at a time.”
Ross, which slipped to 2-4, struck first. Brandt Kugler blocked Talawanda punter Ryan Warholak’s punt and returned it for a score just two minutes into the game. A botched snap on the extra point turned into a two-point conversion pass that gave the Rams an 8-0 lead.
It was all Talawanda after that.
“Honestly, it started just the way we had talked about it. We knew we were going to come after a punt early — and we got it,” Ross coach Kenyon Commins said. “We wanted to pepper them right away, which we did. It started great.
“I thought the defense played really well in the first half. Offense … I don’t know what it was. You give a kid with that talent a short field — that’s trouble. There’s been a lot of talk about it. That is a damn good football player. He really is.”
Talawanda quarterback Oliver Bennett scored from five yards out to pull the hosts to within 8-7 at the 5:55 mark of the first. Then Warholak booted a 23-yard field goal near the end of the first quarter to give the Brave a 10-8 advantage.
Cantrell rumbled for four straight touchdowns after that — three in the second quarter and one in the fourth.
“Our defense picked up a lot of our slack,” Cantrell said. “It was amazing because our defense is finally clicking, so it’s amazing.”
Talawanda coach Andy Stuckert singled out his offensive line. He named them one by one — Jordan Ellis at right tackle, Hollis Hofmann at right guard, Jackson Clayton at center, Jericho Fletcher at left guard and Zeke Klenk at left tackle.
“The thing is, they prepare every week,” Stuckert said of those five. “It’s fun at practice to watch because sometimes we’ll run counter and it looks like teach tape that we could put out — we’re not going to do that — but I just can’t say enough about them. Not only do they do a great job, but they prepare so hard every week. I love it.”
Talawanda outgained Ross 303-127 and owned the time of possession by nearly 10 minutes.
“There’s got to be a lot of credit given — I think Coach Stuckert’s got to get a lot of credit. That’s as good of a Talawanda team as I’ve ever seen,” Commins said. “I guess I’m counting my assistant years — I’m in year 15. So to me, that’s a well-coached team. Defensively, I thought they changed some stuff that we obviously struggled with.
“They say nothing cleanses the soul like getting the crap kicked out of you. So our souls are pretty clean right now.”
Talawanda opens Southwest Ohio Conference play at home against Northwest next Friday, while Ross travels to Edgewood to kick off its Southwestern Buckeye League slate.
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