Red Devils find answers in opening night win over Hornets

COAL GROVE — After last seasons' 10-win campaign, the Russell Red Devils were left with a lot of questions about their squad for the 2026 season.

For Russell coach TJ Maynard, most of the questions focused around replacing four starters on the offensive line, breaking in a new quarterback for the third straight season, and replacing his entire defensive backfield.

Well, much of those questions got answered as the Red Devils took down the Coal Grove Hornets in a 34-0 win on Friday night at Lemaster Stadium.

The Red Devils found balance in their offense that produced 357 totals yards — 206 rushing and 151 through the air.

For Maynard, much of that success started up front.

"Well it kind of all starts up front. Being able to run the ball with the offensive line and Kaiden (Benge), and I thought Lane (Osborne) and Jordan (Rowe) ran the ball great,” said Maynard.

The quarterback question got a positive answer from junior Hunter Williams.

Williams — making his first career start for the Devils — didn't attempt a pass until the second quarter but wound up completing 10 of his 13 passes for 151 yards and a TD toss.

"I thought Hunter for his first game did very good. He had a couple bad plays by not knowing what to do in those situations. But again, he took care of the ball and did what we asked him to do and is going to get better once he understands what I want and that's a little on me, I have to make sure he understands," said Maynard. 

Williams' top target on the night was fellow junior Shawn Deskins who hauled in four receptions for 89 yards. The final time the two hooked up was a 22-yard touchdown pass off a play fake in the first minute of the fourth quarter to make the score 28-0.

Russell's offensive line did its job as well.

Ian Lother, Wyatt Hudson, Brayden Schmidt, Dameon Williams, Stephen Iddings, Spencer Gross, and Kaleb Scott all worked in tandem to help the Red Devils pile up the rushing yards that led to four rushing touchdowns.

Benge benefitted the most from the offensive line play, rushing for 110 yards on just 9 carries.

The junior backs' first score came on a fourth down play where Benge took a direct snap and rumbled in from 13 yards out to make it 6-0 with 8:08 in the second quarter.

Osborne followed later in the quarter with a 1-yard plunge that capped off a 65-yard drive. Benge ran in the two-point conversion to make it 14-0 at the break.

Benge would score his last touchdown on the opening drive of the second half to put the Devils ahead 21-0. The score was set up four plays prior when Williams threw a jailbreak screen pass to Deskins for a 39-yard gain to the Hornet 18.

The final score of the night came on a 24-yard run by Benjamin Brinkman where the junior moved to his left and found a cutback lane to the right and scampered into the end zone.

While the scoreboard didn't show it, the game seemed to be going in a different direction in the early on.

In the first quarter, Coal Grove put together a vintage long, grinding drive that took the air out of the ball.

After receiving the opening kickoff, the Hornets (0-1) got the first break of the game when they drew the Devils offsides on fourth down and proceeded to burn off nearly 10 minutes in their drive.

However, the drive would stall out when Ivan McDaniels and Griffin Fisher combined to stop Gauge Craft just a yard shy of the line to gain and Russell took over at their own 18.

"Credit to the defense. They bowed their backs a couple times. (Coal Grove) had two great drives, the one there in the first quarter and to start the third and we stepped up and stopped them," said Maynard.

Coal Grove coach Jay Lucas felt the fourth down stop summarized their offensive frustrations throughout the game.

"That was really the theme of the night. We were able to move the ball from the 20 to the 20 and then the drive would fizzle out. That's tough on your team, especially when you're very young," said Lucas. "But give credit to Russell, they've got a really nice football and some really nice football players."

The Hornets had another drive to begin the third quarter that saw their offense drive the field and shave off over 7 minutes but again come up shy in the red zone with an interception on fourth-and-goal.

Despite the loss, Lucas saw positives in his teams' effort and some growth from his young players.

"This team plays with their heart. That's a Coal Grove football team and they're going to do everything in their power to win a football game. The good thing is we're playing right now with two or three seniors and they'll all be back out there and that was a good experience for them."

Craft finished the game-high 142 yards on 14 carries, including a 46-yard run that proved to be the biggest play of the night for the Hornets.

Russell 0 14 14 6 = 34

Coal Grove 0 0 0 0 = 0

Second Quarter

RUS — Kaiden Benge 13 (kick blocked), 8:08.

RUS — Lane Osborne 4 run (Benge run), 0:07.

Third Quarter

RUS — Benge 1 run (Sam Totten kick), 8:23.

Fourth Quarter

RUS — Shawn Deskins 22 pass from Hunter Williams (Totten kick), 11:04.

RUS — Benjamin Brinkman 24 run (kick failed), 4:47.

———

RUS CG

First downs 14 7

Rushes-yards 28-206 30-173

Passing yards 151 2

Total yards 357 175

Cmp-Att-Int 10-13-0 1-4-1

Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-1

Penalties-yards 5-30 1-15

Punts-average 0-0.0 2-38.0

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Individual Leaders

RUSHING – Russell: Jordan Rowe 9-48, Hunter Williams 2-minus 19, Peyton Bailey 2-5, Kaiden Benge 9-110 2TD, Lane Osborne 5-38 TD, Benjamin Brinkman 1-24 TD; Coal Grove: Case Webb 4-13, Braden Schug 8-16, Truitt Fields 3-11, Kase Savino 1-11, Gauge Craft 14-122.

PASSING – Russell: Hunter Williams 10-13-0 151 TD; Coal Grove: Truitt Fields: 1-4-1 2.

RECEIVING – Russell: Ivan McDaniels 1-32, Griffin Fisher 2-12, Shawn Deskins 4-89 TD, Kaiden Benge 2-16, Lane Osborne 1-2; Coal Grove: Gauge Craft 1-2.

MISSED FIELD GOALS – None.