After suffering through a winless 2015 and an 0-3 start to the 2016 season, Horton picked up a timely win on Friday night, as the Chargers ran away with a 64-12 homecoming win against Immaculata-Maranatha. After surrendering a quick score, the Chargers took over the game with strong line play on both sides of the ball, and ground the Raiders down early with punishing run after punishing run. The game started with momentum heading the other direction, as IMAC’s Micah Webb returned the opening kickoff all the way to give the Raiders a 6-0 lead with only 14 seconds off the clock, but the Chargers quickly turned the tide, as junior runners Conner Dean and Craig Wahwahsuck ground up big chunks of yardage each play on the Chargers’ opening drive, which was capped with a Dean touchdown run. Cam Smith connected with Jesse Rice to give the Chargers their second lead of the season, and the Horton squad would not look back from the 8-6 start. After IMAC’s next drive was interrupted by a fumble, Dean broke off a 25-yard touchdown run to extend the lead. On their next drive, the Chargers would push the lead to 22-6 to wrap up the first quarter, as Wahwahsuck ran across for the score and the two-point conversion. A blocked Raiders punt on the next series was followed one play later by Cody White, who took in a pass from Dean and dashed 34 yards for the score, with Dean following up, crashing in to add two. After another three and out, Dean would push the ball to the Raider four yard line with a long run, and Smith would find Rice again, this time for a touchdown, stretching the Charger lead to 36-6. On the ensuing kickoff, the Chargers recovered the ball and once again quickly worked their way down the field, with Dean capping yet another drive with a Horton touchdown, and Smith and Rice connecting to add two. The Chargers defense again stiffened against the Raider attack, forcing another three and out, and Dean broke away from several tacklers to score a 45-yard touchdown, his fourth of the half, to give the Chargers the 50-6 lead at the half. Lane Selle tacked on a pair of second half touchdowns for the Chargers, as Horton pushed their final total to 64, and despite another Webb touchdown for the Raiders, the Charges wrapped up their 64-12 win. All in all, Conner Dean totaled 221 yards on 17 carries to carry the day for the Chargers, scoring five times on the ground and once more through the air. Horton coach Nick Dowell called the game a nice team win, and said the Chargers “raised our level of play higher than we have all season, and it showed on Friday night.” With a showdown against unbeaten JCN looming, Dowell said his team will have to continue to raise the bar to win a match up with the NEK power. “JCN is a quality opponent that will test our team all four quarters,” said the coach, adding, “They are well coached and very athletic.” The Chargers, now 1-3 on the season will travel to Winchester for Friday night’s game.