Staff photo / Dan Hiner. Valley Christian quarterback Deion Miller (4) sprints away from Wellsville defensive lineman Trenton Rambo during the first quarter of a game on Saturday at Leopard Stadium in Liberty.

LIBERTY — The Valley Christian football team was bigger, faster and stronger than Wellsville on Saturday night, and it showed in the result.

The Eagles beat the Tigers 51-6 in a weekend game at Leopard Stadium in Liberty.

Valley Christian’s offensive and defensive lines did a lot of the work, opening up holes for the running game and suffocating the Tigers while on defense.

“Our guys sensed the moment,” Valley Christian head coach Aaron Agresta said. “We told them they need to go out and not worry about the other team, take care of business, and that’s what they did. I’m proud of them for that.”

Early on, Valley Christian quarterback Deion Miller broke contain and scampered inside the Wellsville 10-yard line for a big gain. A couple plays later, Miller found Avery Floyd toward the right flat for an 8-yard TD pass with just over two minutes into the game.

The Eagles forced a three and out, and the punt landed at the Tigers’ 32.

Miller created a play out of nothing when he had trouble handling a high snap. He sprinted to the left of the offensive formation and took it in from 10 yards out to put the Eagles up 14-0.

Following another Tiger punt, the Eagles (3-2, 2-0 EOAC) pushed their lead to 21-0 just before the end of the first quarter, as Miller connected with Geordan Traylor for an 11-yard slant.

The Tigers were forced to punt again, and Valley Christian capped the next drive with a 34-yard field goal by William Capeles, pushing the lead to 23-0 with 7:13 left in the second quarter.

Wellsville (0-4, 0-2) had fumbling issues the entire first half, specifically with snaps. The ball hit the ground four times, but the Tigers recovered. However, the fifth fumble — snap that hit off the shin of quarterback Ethan Morris — finally bit the offense.

The Eagles recovered around the Wellsville 20, and Miller accounted for his third rushing TD of the first half on a 9-yard run along the left sideline. The score increased the Eagles’ lead to 30-0 with 4:22 remaining before the break.

“That’s what good players do, they take over the game and take over plays when not everything is there,” Agresta said.

Valley Christian capped its first-half scoring with a 53-yard screen pass from Miller to Jeffrey Lampkin, and the Eagles took a 37-0 lead into the locker room.

“We’re just not playing together as a team right now,” Wellsville head coach Jim Tsilimos said. “It’s been a problem from week to week. We tell the kids we’re working on that, we tell them we gotta play four quarters.

“We played some really good quarters this year. The problem is we’re not consistent enough. If you want to be good, you gotta be consistent and we all gotta pull in the same direction. My job and the assistants is to get ’em to pull in the same direction.”

Miller and Traylor connected again for a score on the Eagles’ first possession of the second half. Traylor took a screen pass 30 yards down the left sideline to extend the Eagles’ advantage to 44-0.

The Eagles intercepted Morris on the Tigers’ second drive of the half, and Agresta emptied his bench when the VC offense took the field.

Leland Monte got the Tigers on the board with an 11-yard touchdown run off the right side with 5:16 to play.

Valley Christian closed the scoring with just over a minute to play. Kymoni Moreland set up the score with a 23-yard run to the Wellsville 2-yard line. Then Moreland called his own number on the next play for a rushing touchdown.

The Tigers are still looking for their first win under new head coach Jim Tsilimos.

Meanwhile, the Eagles won their second consecutive game for the first time this season. They lost to Malvern to open the season, then beat St. Thomas Aquinas, fell to Pymatuning Valley in Week 3 and were victorious over Leetonia last week.

“Going into conference, we told the guys, ‘Everything’s in front of you. You’re 0-0 in conference.’ And they’ve won their first two games,” Agresta said. “They’ve taken care of their end of the deal, and I told them there’s no easy games left. We got five tough teams coming up, so it’s gonna be a dog fight every week, and they have to be ready to prepare during the week to compete in those games.”