United quarterback Tom Brown slips away from Minerva's Kendrik Keister for one of his three touchdown runs in a season-opening 35-0 win Friday night.

HANOVERTON–United’s students will be moving into a new school to start new traditions real soon.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the football team’s winning attitude.

Using a dominant offensive performance from Tom Brown in his first varsity start at quarterback the Eagles ran away with a 35-0 win over Minerva on Friday.

It was the 12th consecutive opening week win for the Eagles.

Minerva, on the other hand, have lost 38 of its last 39.

Brown rushed for 105 yards on 14 carries with touchdown runs of 28, 6 and 15 yards.

He did not look nervous either.

“Maybe a little bit on the first snap, but after that I was good,” Brown said. “I love football and we beat Minerva.”

Coming off a playoff season and Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference title, the Eagles had a little bit of rust against the Lions but the new pieces seemed to be up to the challenge.

“For the first game this wasn’t bad,” United coach D.J. Ogilvie said. “That was an improved football team and they were physical. Overall we’ve got things to work on if we’re going to try to win our league.”

While Brown did have the ground game going, the passing game was a little off with the junior completing 3 of 9 passes for 27 yards and an interception.

“I like running the ball,” Brown said. “Running the ball is great, but I like passing the ball too, but we couldn’t get the passing game going.”

M’Kyan Haynes, who had seven carries for 81 yards, put the Eagles on the board first with a 24-yard power run with 8:16 left in the first quarter.

Brown added two touchdowns to round out the first half as the Eagles led 21-0 at the break.

Brown’s 15-yard run and Rohan Kelly’s 3-yard touchdown with 4:40 left in the third quarter sealed the deal. The rest of the game was played under a running clock.

The game marked the Lion debut for coach Zach Slates, who came over from Massillon Perry in the offseason.

“We have to get tougher and we’ve got to get more physical and we’ve got to play better football,” Slates said.

Slates said he was impressed with Brown.

“That quarterback is a tough kid and he runs the ball really well,” Slates said. “He gets outside, he scrambles, he gets outside the pocket, he throws good balls and he’s a real dynamic player.”

Slates said he likes being apart of the Minerva community and hopes to work to turn around a program that has won just four games in the last 10 seasons.

“I love being around this program,” Slates said. “I love these kids and I love this community.”

United will turn its attention to a road game at Mineral Ridge next Friday. Old Valley Christian coach Andy Hake has taken over the Rams who beat Pymatuning Valley in the opener.

“Mineral Ridge is going to be good and Crestview’s unbelievable, so it’s going to be two weeks of hard-nosed football,” Ogilvie said.

Game notes

• Brown said he’s excited about attending high school in the new United school complex.

“We are hyped for the new school year,” Brown said. “It’s really nice, I like it. I think it will tie in nicely to this football season.”

• A bird of prey flew over the field in the fourth quarter, it might have been an eagle.

• The 50-50 was $213.

• United’s last opening week loss with August 30, 2013 when it fell to Malvern 34-28.

• Minerva has not won in the opening week since 2013.

M: 0-0- 0-0– 0

U: 14-7-14-0–35

SCORING

U–M’Kyan Haynes 24 run (Liam Jones kick)

U–Tom Brown 28 run (Jones kick)

U–Brown 6 run (Jones kick)

U–Brown 15 run (Jones kick)

U–Rohan Kelly 3 run (Jones kick)

——

M U

First downs 11 12

Total Yards 153 243

Rushes-yards 36-153 34-216

Passing 0 27

Comp-Att-Int 0-8-0 3-9-1

Punts 3-16 1-46

Fumbles-Lost 4-2 0-0

Penalties-Yards 5-55 5-50

——

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING–Minerva, Timothy Kirkpatrick 19-102; United, Tom Brown 14-105, M’Kyan Haynes 7-81.

PASSING–Minerva, Kannon Kirkpatrick 0-8-0-0; United, Brown 3-9-27-1.

RECEIVING– United, Quentin Taylor 2-23, Kota Shasteen 1-8.

INTERCEPTIONS–Minerva, Owen Shick

FUMBLE RECOVERIES– United, Mason Everly, Haynes.