Tim Baechler was worried.

It was Thursday night, and the Canton football coach had several key players, including his three top running backs, out of action for the Chiefs' home opener the next night against Wayne Memorial.

That, combined with his team's disappointing 25-point loss the previous week to Westland John Glenn and Wayne's well-documented team speed, was more than enough to amplify his worries.

Unnecessarily, as it turned out.

The Chiefs scored on six of their seven first-half possessions, building a 42-6 lead by the intermission and ultimately leading to a lopsided 56-12 triumph in a Western Lakes Activities Association contest Friday.

The win gave Canton a 2-1 overall record, 1-1 in the WLAA. Wayne is 0-3 overall, 0-2 in its first season in the conference.

"We held onto the football except for that one play," said a relieved Baechler afterward, noting a single lost fumble on a botched snap. "I thought our offensive line executed well, and our quarterback (Dave Nicoloff) was poised and relaxed.

"We played good offensively."

Yes they did. Two Chiefs had more than 100 yards rushing -- by halftime. For the game, Canton had 517 rushing yards on 44 carries, and Nicoloff completed 2-of-4 passes for 45 yards and a TD.

The Zebras' defense may have been outgunned, but their offense refused to give in.

Bottled up most of the game by a tenacious Canton defense, Wayne still busted loose on a couple of long scoring plays -- an 81-yard run by T.J. Dillard in the second quarter and a 40-yard dash on a hook-and-ladder, pass-and-pitch play finished by Jayson Hesch in the third quarter.

But there was precious little else produced by the Zebras.

"We were afraid of their speed," said Baechler, who had been forced to "cut down our offense big time -- we sliced it in half" because of the almost completely new backfield.

What Wayne should have feared was Canton's line play. The Chiefs simply dominated up front, on both sides of the ball.

On its first drive, Canton drove 60 yards in seven plays, with Devin Thomas -- a sophomore filling in for injured starter Reggie Joyner -- scoring on a 29-yard run 3:35 into the first quarter.

Following a Wayne three-downs-and-out, the Chiefs drove 56 yards in five runs, the key plays a 29-yard run by Corey Rutledge to the Zebra 20 and an 18-yard run by Thomas to the 2. Thomas scored on a 1-yard plunge to make it 14-0 with 5:17 left in the first.

Canton's third scoring drive didn't take nearly as long. Nicoloff made his first pass of the game a good one, running a play-action rollout to the right and finding Andy Howald all alone for a 46-yard TD toss. The one-play drive took just nine seconds and boosted the Chiefs' lead to 21-0.

The next Canton drive stalled on fourth down, but Thomas got his third TD of the game on the Chiefs next possession, busting loose on a 73-yard off-tackle scoring run to make it 28-0.

Wayne, which did not have a first down at that point, got on the board when Dillard scampered around the left end and outran the Canton defense to the end zone, making it 28-6 with 8:20 left in the second quarter.

The Zebras got one more first down in the first half. The Chiefs got two more touchdowns, Rutledge scoring the first on a 3-yard run and Julian Smith getting the next on a 2-yard plunge. The first drive was five plays; the second took seven and was aided by a facemask penalty against Wayne on a fourth-down-and-5 play.

A 44-yard kickoff return by Hesch to open the second half set up his third-quarter TD run that got Wayne to within 42-12. But the Chiefs pulled away, getting a 54-yard scoring run by Travis McKinney and a 14-yard TD dash by Smith on what proved to be the game's final play.

Thomas finished with 147 rushing yards on nine carries with three TDS, while Rutledge had 11 carries for 191 yards and one score. McKinney also cleared the century mark, rushing for 100 yards on 12 tries with one TD, and Smith had 50 yards on six attempts with two scores.

Wayne got 70 rushing yards on 10 carries from Dillard and 47 yards on five tries from Hesch; for the game, the Zebras totaled 132 yards on the ground on 27 attempts.

Zack Lappan completed 5-of-11 passes for 76 yards, with one interception.

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