CANTON – It was a close game for most of the first half of Friday’s season opener between Northwest and Canton, which featured a pair of very young teams looking to start the season out strong in what figures to be a wide open Class A this season. So close that one figured it might come down to a key turnover or whoever had the ball last.

Bailey Gardner made sure it didn’t come to that.

After being held to just 37 rushing yards in the first half, Canton’s junior tailback racked up 62 yards on Canton’s first three plays of the second half, the last of which was a 16-yard touchdown run to extend Canton’s one-point lead, and he would finish the game with 154 yards on the ground. His running in the second half, which he missed a portion of due to a cramp, and three second-half turnovers by the Rangers ended up being the difference as Canton topped Northwest 17-6.

“I think a lot of it was conditioning. I told them, even on the line, you could see it, we were a little better conditioned. They wore down and we still had some gas in the tank,” said Canton coach Tyler Sechrist. “Bailey Gardner ran really well in the second half. He was cramping a lot so he really didn’t play a lot after that first drive but he ran hard all night.”

Northwest turned the ball over in its final three possessions of the game, which although didn’t directly lead to any points for Canton, effectively killed any chance of a possible comeback as Northwest trailed by 11 entering the fourth quarter.

It was the first Northwest turnover of what would be four on the night, though, that did lead to Canton’s only first half score, as well as a missed opportunity. Leading 6-0 after the first quarter, Mason Bilby picked off a Rylan Wesneski pass deep in Northwest territory, giving the Rangers the ball at their own 8-yard line at the 10:14 mark of the second quarter.

But two plays later, Noah Arnett hauled in a short screen pass but fumbled as he attempted to make his way up the field, and it was recovered by Canton. Three plays after that, Gardner took a handoff at the goal line but fumbled before he was able to break the plane. But offensive lineman Daniel Inman recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown, giving Canton the 7-6 lead.

“We put the keys to win tonight up in the locker room and those were win the turnover margin, win the big-play margin – make more big plays – and we did both of those, and the third one was don’t have many missed tackles,” said Sechrist. “I’m proud of the way they came out. We made a lot of mistakes, some of that was first-game jitters. It wasn’t clean in the first half but we really picked it up in the second half.”

That lead was extended less than a minute into the second half after Gardner ripped off runs of 31, 13 and 16 yards consecutively to make it 14-6.

On Canton’s next possession, the Warriors drove 57 yards in seven plays, which included a 38-yard pickup by Gardner after which he left the game with a cramp, but that still helped set up a 30-yard field goal by Alexis McRoberts to make it 17-6 at the 6:34 mark of the third quarter.

Northwest, meanwhile, was held to -13 rushing yards in the second half, and just 55 yards overall in the second half. This came after a first half in which the Rangers amassed 122 yards, including a couple of chunk plays.

Arnett found Christopher Martinez for a 55-yard reception on a trick play that flipped the field early in the first quarter. But that drive ended with a missed 27-yard field goal.

Shane Hempel ripped off a 19-yard run on the first play of Northwest’s next drive, and Martinez hauled in another pass, this one for 13 yards from Bilby, for a first down. Both plays helped set up the Rangers deep in Canton territory, and they would take advantage as Loegan Diltz punched it in for an eight-yard touchdown run in the final minute of the first quarter.

But from that point forward, Northwest would only manage to gain 53 offensive yards the remainder of the game. They had a 60-yard touchdown run by Diltz later in the second quarter called back due to a holding penalty.

“I think this momentum is really going to carry over and help us next week and having that momentum from a win,” said Sechrist. “It would have been tough to bounce back from a loss but it gives you a little wind in your sails getting a win in Week 1.”