BELOIT — Two tradition-rich football programs that hadn’t met since 1985 clashed Friday night when unbeaten West Branch hosted Hubbard in an opening-round Div. IV playoff game at Clinton Heacock Stadium.

High-powered West Branch, which averages 43.1 points-per-game, raced out to a 24-0 halftime lead and went on to a 31-6 win over the Eagles.

The all-time series between the Warriors and Eagles is now tied at 3-3 and West Branch has won the last three meetings.

With the win, the unbeaten Warriors improved to 11-0. The current West Branch seniors have won nine playoff games since their freshmen seasons.

Hubbard, which lost six of its last seven games but played hard against the heavily-favored Warriors, bowed out with a 5-6 ledger.

“You know what, I’m proud of the way we played,” said Hubbard coach Brian Hoffman. “31-6, you know they (the Warriors) have been putting a lot of points up. The kids bought in and practiced hard this week. We competed.”

The West Branch win sets the stage for one of the most interesting second-round playoff matchups in Ohio next Friday in Beloit when defending Div. IV state champ Cleveland Glenville and West Branch match their prolific offenses at 7 p.m. The two schools have never played before.

“It’s going to be a great measuring stick for our program,” said West Branch coach Tim Cooper of the Glenville showdown. “Obviously, we’re playing the defending two-time state champions and we get them at home and I’m really hoping we get a great turnout from our fans. Our goals and our aspirations are always to win a state title and I think our coaches and our kids believe in that and next week we’re going to find out if we’re there or if we still have some things we need to improve on.”

West Branch senior running back Boston Mulinix rushed for 200 yards and three touchdowns in leading the Warriors’ win over Hubbard. Mulinix continues to add to a pair of ongoing all-time records he set this season. Mulinix, who is the first Warrior running back to record three straight 1,000-yard rushing campaigns, has now totaled 1,347 yards on the ground this fall with 15 touchdowns. He has piled up 4,085 rushing yards in his career.

“I think we relied a little more on our run game than we usually do,” said Mulinix. “Our offensive line, they were bullies tonight and because of that, it’s easy to run behind that.”

“That’s a good night, man,” said West Branch head coach Tim Cooper of the sterling effort by Mulinix. “He’s running really hard and doing a lot of good things for us. I’m not surprised, that’s kind of a sneaky 200 yards. When in doubt, we’re going to give him the ball. He’s a good player and obviously he’s the school’s (all-time) leading rusher, and that’s awesome.”

Mulinix rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, including a 43-yarder down the left sideline three plays into the game. It gave the Warriors a 7-0 lead with Anthony Perry’s PAT just one minute into the contest.

West Branch, which out-gained the Eagles 260-58 in the first half and 423-163 for the game, scored 17 points in the second quarter on a six-yard scoring bolt by Mulinix, an eight-yard pass from backup quarterback Grady Hirst to receiver Joey Jackson and on a 36-yard field goal as time expired before halftime by Perry. Hirst entered the game with 11:08 showing in the second quarter after West Branch’s dual threat quarterback Jeremiah Thomas sustained an injury after a 23-yard scamper to the Hubbard 28-yard line.

“We’ve got a pretty good backup quarterback in Grady Hirst and he’s a talented kid and we have all the faith in the world in him,” praised Cooper.

Mullinix said all the Warriors stepped up to help Hirst when Thomas went down.

“Grady Hirst is a great quarterback, but not a lot of experience, so the word for all of us was just help settle him in,” said Mulinix. “Don’t try to do too much, but just do your job and just help the young quarterback.”

Hirst finished with 146 yards of total offense himself, including 85 yards and a touchdown passing and 61 yards on the ground.

Cooper said Thomas was held out of the final three quarters for precautionary measures.

“The biggest thing with JT is we wanted to keep him healthy,” explained the West Branch mentor. “I think that he’ll be OK for next week. We just felt like his health is the most important thing. Obviously, we want to win football games, but we also have to take care of our kids and we’ve got a pretty good backup quarterback in Grady Hirst, who is a talented kid and a kid we have all the faith in the world in.”

Hubbard’s lone scoring threat in the first half was a missed 46-yard field goal attempt in the first quarter.

West Branch’s defense sacked Hubbard quarterback Alex Hackwelder twice in the first half and four times in the game. West Branch defensive backs Grady Close and Lukas Black had interceptions.

“We have a lot of faith in our defense,” said Cooper. “Keeping those guys (the Eagles) to the bare minimum, I thought the defense did a good job as well.”

Hubbard got on the board first in the second half when receiver Braydon Songer hauled in a 14-yard pass from Hackwelder on a crossing pattern. The PAT run failed and the Eagles trailed 24-6 at the 5:55 mark of the third quarter.

West Branch answered with a sustained drive, capped by a one-yard plunge up the middle by Mulinix. Eliza Hirst added her second PAT boot of the game and West Branch led 31-6 with 38 seconds left in the quarter.

Neither team scored in the final quarter.

West Branch was victimized by nine dropped passes in the game, including two which would have likely gone for touchdowns.

Hackwelder completed 11-of-26 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown for Hubbard.

Grady Hirst completed 8-of-21 for 85 yards and a touchdown.

“We were with them for four quarters,” said Hoffman. “We made some mistakes that gave them some points and those are things you obviously want to be better as a coach but the effort was definitely there.”

West Branch now turns its attention to Glenville and one of the most anticipated matchups in school history next Friday evening in Beloit.

“We’re going to give them (the Tarblooders) our best and we’ll see what we can do,” said Mulinix.

Game notes

• The Eagles and Warriors hadn’t played since 1985, a 24-0 West Branch win in Beloit.

H: 0- 0-6-0– 6

W: 7-17-7-0 — 31

SCORING

WB — Boston Mulinix, 43 run, 11:00 1st (Anthony Perry kick)

WB — Boston Mulinix, 6 run, 11:08 2nd (Anthony Perry kick)

WB — Joey Jackson, 8 pass from Grady Hirst, 4:28 2nd (Eliza Hirst kick)

WB — Anthony Perry, 36 field goal, :00 2nd

HUBB –Braydon Songer, 14 pass from Alex Hackwelder, 5:55 3rd (Run failed)

WB — Boston Mulinix, 1 run, :39 3rd (Eliza Hirst kick)

——

H WB

First downs 12 24

Total yards 163 423

Rushes-yards 30-38 38-297

Passing 125 126

Comp-Att-Int 11-26-2 8-21-0

Punts 6-37 4-40

Penalties-Yards 7-77 8-90

Fumbles-lost 2-1 1-0

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INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING — Hubbard, Michael Hazimhalis, 5-35, Alex Hackwelder, 9-minus 20, Antonio Burkley, 6-6, Geno Leshnack, 6-15; West Branch, Jeremiah Thomas, 5-31, Boston Mulinix, 24-200, Grady Hirst, 5-66.

PASSING — Hubbard, Alex Hackwelder, 11-26-125-1-2; West Branch, Jeremiah Thomas, 3-4-32-0-0, Grady Hirst, 8-21-85-1-0.

RECEIVING — Hubbard, Braydon Songer, 5-57, Michael Hazimhalis, 1-18, Mathew Chaney, 3-27, TJ Miller, 2-13; West Branch, Joey Jackson, 5-57, Anthony Perry, 3-36, Gavin Gregory, 2-24, Cooper Anderson, 1-9.