WESTFIELD - It's a long climb to the top, but the Westfield football team took its first step in that direction on Friday night. To symbolize that climb, the Pioneers sprinted up the steep hill on the north end of their football field to celebrate their 56-0 victory over Montello-Princeton in the season opener at Westfield High School.

"It's keep working and someday we want to get to the top of the hill. It's kind of in their mind," said Westfield head coach Andy Kohn of his team's decision to sprint to the top of the field after the game. "That's totally up to them. They wanted to go up there."

The Pioneers used a dominating running game to control the game from the opening snap, as Westfield racked up 484 rushing yards against an over-matched Phoenix squad. Senior Kyle Szyperek led the charge, finishing with 274 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries. Junior Nick Grant didn't have a bad night either in the Pioneer backfield, getting three scores of his own on the way to 117 yards on nine carries.

Last season, the Pioneers had one of the better running games in the area, but all too often failed to stop the opposition on defense. That looks like it might change this season, as the Pioneers held Montello-Princeton to just 35 yards of total offense.

The Pioneer defense intercepted four passes in the game, two from senior Ryan Schrank and one each from Grant and senior Nate Fenske. Westfield also scored on a pair of safeties in the second half, as a pair of bad snaps by Montello-Princeton rolled into the end zone.

Szyperek thinks that the Pioneers defense is, without question, a much improved unit this fall.

"Coming into our scrimmage, we only gave up three first downs the whole scrimmage, shut down the offenses completely," Szyperek said. "The defense really surprised me and got me really excited for the season. Going into it, I didn't really know how we were going to do, but now, it reassured me so much."

While Kohn was happy to get the win, he knows there will be much tougher games waiting for his team, starting with a contest in Waterloo next week.

"We got a long ways to go and the road just gets tougher and tougher," Kohn said.

This leaves a nice taste in our mouth for this one and something to really build off of. I just didn't want any letdowns from anybody across the board and I saw that tonight, so I'm satisfied with that."

For Montello-Princeton, it's back to drawing board, as it tries to get ready for a game at Almond-Bancroft on Friday.

"We got beat by a better team obviously and we got some work to do. We got to get better, both the players and the coaches. So we'll start Monday, decide what we're doing wrong and come back next week," said Montello-Princeton co-head coach Harlan Leusink.

"We had kids that played hard and that's all we ask. We were a little out manned and it showed in the score, but we'll come back next week and play hard."

WESTFIELD 56, MONTELLO-PRINCETON 0

Montello-Princeton ...... 0 0 0 0 - 0

Westfield ................... 13 19 22 2 - 56

Westfield - Szyperek 5 run (kick failed)

Westfield - Grant 10 run (Mills kick)

Westfield - Szyperek 4 run (kick failed)

Westfield - Grant 45 run (Mills kick)

Westfield - Grant 10 run (kick failed)

Westfield - Szyperek 63 run (Mills kick)

Westfield - Floeter safety

Westfield - Potter 5 run (DeRosier kick)

Westfield - DeRosier 1 run (kick blocked)

Westfield - Wohlfert safety

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs - MP 5, W 17. Rushing (Att.-Yds) - MP 19-15, W 40-484. Passing yards - MP 20. W 0. Passes (Comp.-Att.-Int.) - MP 7-20-4. W 0-4-1. Fumbles-lost - MP 0-0, W 0-0. Penalties-yards - MP 5-39, W 7-74.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

Rushing: MP - Hartwig 4-19; W - Szyperek 13-274, Grant 9-117. Passing: MP - Lunow 7-20-4, 20. Receiving: MP - Sosinsky 1-9.