NORWALK - Two decades of dominance are now in the books for the Huron Tigers football team in its long-running series with the Norwalk Truckers.

After a methodical 49-7 win over the Truckers at Warren Whitney Field Friday night, it marked the 21st consecutive win over Norwalk dating back to a 14-6 double-overtime win by the Truckers in 1988, the first year of current Tiger head coach Tony Legando’s Huron tenure.

Huron (2-0) now leads the series 43-9.

“Our speed was probably too much for them,” Legando said. “Norwalk kept playing hard the entire game, but I think we just had a little too much for them.”

Huron kicked off the scoring midway through the opening quarter as new starting quarterback Matt Acierto, filling in for the injured Mike Mielke, maneuvered his way through two different seams of the Norwalk defense on his way to a 76-yard touchdown run that saw him shake off five defenders.

Anthony Layne added his first of four extra points for a 7-0 lead with 6:31 left in the quarter.

Acierto finished with 112 yards on six carries and three touchdowns rushing while completing 4-of-5 passes for 86 yards and a touchdown.

“He’s a very good option quarterback and works the game plan nice,” Legando said of Acierto. “The one touchdown pass was simply a nice audible he made.”

Acierto scored his second rushing touchdown to complete a 8-play, 67-yard scoring drive from three yards out to open the second quarter for a 14-0 lead, and on the ensuing possesion after the Truckers saw a bad snap on a punt attempt roll into the back of the end zone for a safety and 16-0 Tiger lead.

Just 1:10 later after the free kick, Acierto again sprinted in from three yards out at the 8:34 mark for a 22-0 lead. After another three-and-out series by Norwalk, who managed just 77 yards of offense in the first half, the Tigers put any lingering doubts to rest on a 45-yard touchdown pass from Acierto to Matt Lehrer with 6:46 left in the half for a 29-0 lead.

“Huron is a pretty good football team with great depth that can rotate a lot of guys in,” Norwalk head coach Jeff Cole said. “That is something we don’t have and obviously they are pretty physical. They were tough up front and won that field position battle in the first half while we simply committed too many penalties.”

Norwalk’s lone scoring drive came late in the first half as Ryan Wagner scored on a six-yard run to complete a 11-play, 71-yard drive that took over five minutes off the clock. Wagner’s PAT made it 29-7 with 1:25 left in the half, which is where it stood at the break after the Tigers ran out of time at the Norwalk two-yard line as time expired.

Huron ran for 284 yards total, with 223 of those yards coming in the first half.

“We’ve been working hard on our ground game and that is kind of what we stuck with,” Legando said. “I was happy with the way we ran the ball, but again, we understand that we were coming in here with a lot more bodies and a lot more speed than them.

“But hats off to Norwalk, because they came after us the whole time. I know people may not think that when they look at the score, but they were doing the best they could.”

Three touchdowns in the third quarter closed the scoring for the Tigers, as Cody Koenig fielded the opening kickoff of the third quarter and returned it 65 yards right up the middle, then after a turnover on downs, senior Craig Thorne went across from a yard out to make it 43-7 at the 5:28 mark of the quarter.

The final score came defensively, as Jerod Blakely stepped in front of a Tyson Ringle pass and returned it 25 yards with 4:52 left in the quarter.

Thorne added 104 yards on just 11 attempts for Huron while Norwalk got 84 yards and the lone score on 20 attempts from Wagner.

Earlier in the afternoon Friday, Norwalk received a huge blow when senior captain, quarterback and all-league safety Andrew Enderle was diagnosed with a torn ACL injury and is out for the remainder of the season.

Last week against Edison, Enderle had 141 yards of total offense and a touchdown.

“We found out six hours before kickoff we lost him for the year,” Cole said. “Obviously being a senior captain and two-way starter it’s a big blow, but it’s something we just are going to have to find a way to fight through.”

                                  Huron    7   22   20   0 - 49
                                  Norwalk  0    7    0    0 - 7

Scoring