LOWELLVILLE — This is the season that the Lowellville Rockets have been waiting for.

With a talented, veteran group, the sky is the limit for senior quarterback Vinny Ballone and company. With Friday night lights back in full swing, the Rockets opened up the season at home against Columbiana. The Rockets’ (1-0) offense looked like a hot knife cutting through butter, as they dismantled the Clippers 55-14.

“We played physical,” Lowellville coach Andrew Mamula said. “We played tough. The kids answered the call to play physical. That’s the kind of effort we’re going to need every week.”

Ballone completed 14 of his 19 pass attempts for 296 yards and six touchdowns. He added 9 carries for 136 yards and a score on the ground.

“We had a real good game tonight,” Ballone said. “Our defense played well. We stopped them a lot.

“Our offense was phenomenal. Everything went right. We put up so many points. I’m so proud of us.”

Lowellville led 20-0 at the end of the first quarter and Ballone accounted for all three scores. After a pair of touchdown passes, including a 73 yarder to Braylen Dabney, Ballone lowered his shoulder and powered in on the ground from 19 yards out.

The senior signal-caller also plays in the secondary on defense, where he broke up a pass after Michael Ballone intercepted a ball from Columbiana quarterback Joe Guido.

Lowellville senior Brady Bunofsky had a big sack as well and the Rockets took advantage again. Ballone tossed a 48-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Lucente down the sideline and the Rockets were up 27-0 early in the second.

The Clippers offense began to show some life as Guido drove them down the field. He completed consecutive passes to Dylan Berger and Kian Hartley.

Hartley took it in from 30 yards out and the score was 27-7 with 10 minutes left in the first half.

Ballone dashed any hopes of a Columbiana comeback after breaking off a 50-yard run. His 11-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Lucente made it 34-7.

It looked like the Clippers found the end zone again, but a 30-yard touchdown pass was called back because of an illegal shift penalty.

Bunofsky had a long punt return, and Marcus Dubos ran it in from 33 yards out to make it 41-7.

Ballone added a 5-yard TD pass to Dabney, with 9 seconds left until halftime, to put the Rockets up 48-7 at the break. Ballone finished with a 24-yarder to Mathew Lucido for a touchdown, making it 55-7 early in the third quarter.

“This team has a lot of potential,” Mamula said. “We have the potential to do some things that have never been done here before, and that’s the goal. We’re hoping it’s a special season.

“Vinny does a lot. I was impressed with him. He made great reads compared to last year. He made smart plays. If he plays like this throughout the season, we’re going to be a hard team to beat. Now, we’ve gotta get ready for Campbell next week.”

Columbiana scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, making it 55-14.

“All the credit to Lowellville,” Columbiana coach Bob Spaite said. “They were obviously better prepared than we were. They executed their game plan very well. They have some great players.

“We have some pretty good players too. We just didn’t make the plays tonight. This is a tough one to take. We didn’t play well. We didn’t coach well. We’ll find out what we’re made of after this.”