Correspondent photo / David Dermer Fitch’s Deon’Dray Richard (1) stiff arms Buchtel’s Duvall Tyler during the first half of a game, Friday, at Austintown Fitch High School.

AUSTINTOWN — Since a season-opening road loss at Hudson, Austintown Fitch has been on the tear.

The Falcons have now won four straight games after their dominant 54-6 victory over Akron Buchtel for Homecoming on Friday night.

“I think it’s just a process,” Fitch head coach TJ Parker said. “When you return so many starters, I think the team believes that everything is the same, but each team has a new identity. I think in Week 1, we had to figure that out. Hudson’s a good team, and we knew we left a lot on the table. So there’s been a desire to get better week-in and week-out.

“But complacency is the enemy of growth, and I think a little bit of our guys took a lot of things for granted, and I think that was an awakening for us. That’s why you play some of those big games early. You find out who you are and it gives you a chance to peak at the right time.”

Through the midway point of the regular season, Fitch has relied on a balanced offensive attack, led by the arm of junior quarterback Colin Kalaher and the rushing duo of senior Junie Higgs and junior Deon’Dray Richard.

That continued against the Griffins, as the Falcons finished with 422 total yards of offense. Kalaher completed 17-of-23 passes for 183 yards and two touchdowns, while Higgs led Fitch on the ground with 87 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries after Richard left the game in the first half with an injury.

“When you have a back like Dray Richard, you’re going to get a loaded box,” Parker said. “When that kid gets healthy, he’s going to be a force to deal with. So you gotta find ways to be able to get it out on the perimeter. Fortunately for us, we have playmakers out there and a kid who can spit it out to them. … It’s about guys trusting each other — the O-line trusting Colin to make the right read, Colin trusting the receivers and the backs trusting the O-line.”

Fitch wasted no time getting on the board early, as the Falcons went 73 yards in seven plays in just over two minutes on their opening drive. Richard punched in Fitch’s first touchdown from three yards out.

Just three minutes later, a blocked punt return for a touchdown by Dylan Krohn was negated by a blindside block penalty. But the Falcons still added to their total with a 5-yard touchdown run by Higgs a couple plays later.

Buchtel got its first points on the board following a long punt return, capitalizing on a Fitch penalty when Arthur Thomas found Quandire Harvey for an 18-yard touchdown pass.

The Falcons were constantly slowed by penalties in the first half, as they racked up nine for almost 100 yards. But Fitch’s offense still couldn’t be stopped.

“I think we played down to the game that those guys wanted to play, and we were stupid,” Parker said. “Some of them were penalties on us just playing hard. But situational penalties were just awful. I’m disappointed in that, and the guys know and we spoke about that at halftime. But if you want to be a good team, you can’t do that week-in and week-out, and that’s what we talked about.”

After taking a 14-6 lead at the end of the first quarter, the Falcons scored 21 unanswered points in the second quarter.

Higgs added his second rushing touchdown of the evening and also hauled in a 28-yard touchdown pass from Kalaher after Krohn recovered a Buchtel fumble that came on a backwards pass.

“Credit to Junie for the way he’s come in and taken charge of the backfield in Dray’s absence,” Parker said. “I can’t ask for much more.”

Fitch capped off the first half with Kalaher finding Al-Tahire Illuono for an 11-yard touchdown with just 23 seconds left till halftime, which gave the Falcons a 35-6 lead at the break.

In the second half, Landon Masterson scored on a 4-yard touchdown run, then Andre Elliott Jr. returned an interception 26 yards for a score on the Griffins next possession.

Mykeim Barnette capped the Falcons’ scoring with a short touchdown run in the final seconds of the game.

Not to be overlooked, the Falcons’ defense has also been stout over the last four weeks. In each of Fitch’s four wins, the Falcons have not given up more than 170 total yards of offense.

Buchtel mustered just 42 total yards on 40 plays against Fitch and turned the ball over three times.

“For a while around here, it’s been an offensive team. With all the guys we got back, we’ve challenged them to be great,” Parker said. “In the offseason, they claimed there were a landshark defense, and we said we wanted to see it. You can’t talk about it, you have to be about it.

“With Dylan (Krohn) and Marky (Fitzgerald) leading things as seniors, then you got Davanzo (Tate) and Junie in the secondary as seniors, and then Damarr (Rogers) and JoJo (Lumsden) up front as seniors, we have guys at every level. We want to be known as a great defense. We want to shut teams down and we want to put pressure on defenses, and after week one, those guys have done a very good job.”