GARDINER — Gardiner proved it could play without Alonzo Connor the last two games, but it’s nice to have the senior running back around.

Returning from an elbow injury he sustained two weeks ago, Connor rushed for 160 yards and five touchdowns as the Tigers overwhelmed Oceanside 51-8 in a Pine Tree Conference Class B football game at Hoch Field.

Connor scored four times in the third quarter on runs of 46, 4, 11 and 17 yards as Gardiner (4-2) took a 44-0 lead.

“We’ll take a win but we want to get that 48 minutes in,” Connor said. “Personally, I was a little slow getting going. The elbow is still a little sore.”

Junior quarterback Dennis Meehan passed for a touchdown of 68 yards to Matt Hall and kicked a 27-yard field goal and six extra points.

Meehan rolled left and found Hall alone for his scoring pass in the second quarter.

“I had to dodge one person and I knew I had to get rid of it quick because there were three guys around me,” Meehan said.

Oceanside (2-4), a first-year school combining Rockland and Georges Valley, ran 42 plays in the first half and played reasonably well. The Mariners held Gardiner on downs and forced a field goal late in the first quarter and nearly kicked one of their own as the half ended.

“The kids were not playing in the first half the way they needed to be playing,” Gardiner Coach Matt Burgess said. “We talked about it at halftime.

“We didn’t do anything drastically different. We just came out and played football.”

Connor had 46 yards and a touchdown on nine carries in the first half, but in the second half he was tough to catch. He carried the ball three straight times on Gardiner’s first possession, breaking a tackle on the third carry for a 46-yard score.

Ted Worthley set up the next touchdown with an interception. Meehan, who completed 5 of 7 pass for 129 yards, hit Justin Lovely for 14 yards to keep the drive alive and Connor capped it with an 11-yard run.

Lovely caught three passes for 60 yards.