SCARBOROUGH — Coming into this season with a number of capable offensive backs, the Sanford football team expected it would be able to share the workload more than in previous seasons when running the ball on offense this fall.

The way Peter Hegarty carried the ball on Friday night, the Spartans may have a feature back anyway.

Listed on the roster at 5-foot-7, 153 pounds, Hegarty was able to stay patient and use his vision to find the open holes his offensive line created for him all game, rushing for 172 yards on 24 carries as Sanford also put up a stout defensive effort to beat Scarborough 29-14 in a season-opening Western Class A game at the Kippy Mitchell Sports Complex.

“Peter’s a little nifty workhorse,” said Sanford’s Keith Noel, who won his first-ever game as a head coach. “He just finds that little crease and gets positive yards. He took advantage of an opportunity last year and now he’s grown into a key feature.”

“He’s a small guy but he knows how to read the field,” quarterback Chase Eldredge said of Hegarty. “He can cut, do what ever you need. It’s great to have him back there.”

While Hegarty gained nearly half of the Spartans’ 357 yards of total offense, Sanford was still able to spread the wealth, as running back Peyton Wiegand also gained 58 yards on the ground, while fullback Nick Love gained 54 yards rushing and Eldredge added 40.

Add in Eddie Michetti, who scored two touchdowns in goal-line sets, and it was a backfield that hit the Red Storm from every direction.

“This year we’re working it around really well,” Hegarty said. “We have four or five great backs, just an amazing backfield and the line is just killing it. Teams don’t know what’s coming because we can give it to this back, the other back, they just don’t know.”

While Sanford’s running game would eventually take over, it took a special-teams play to kick the Spartans into gear after a slow first quarter.

With Scarborough at its 20-yard line after two big negative plays backed the Red Storm up 18 yards, punter Griffin Madden couldn’t handle the fourth-down snap and was tackled at the six-yard line. Sanford took advantage three plays later, when Eldredge scrambled in from seven yards out, just beating defender Zach Carriero to the left pylon, and Hegarty added the extra point to make it 7-0.

“I just saw green grass and I took off,” Elredge said. “I knew I could make it past that defender.”

After sputtering to only 43 yards on its first four drives, Sanford’s offense then found its footing later in the second quarter, going 57 yards in just six plays as the Spartans used a quick no-huddle offense to throw the Storm defense off-balance. Hegarty gained 26 yards on three carries on the drive, with Michetti barreling over from two yards as the Spartans took a 13-0 lead.

Scarborough, whose offense had also failed to find its footing early, then exploded into life on its next drive thanks to wide receiver Milani Hicks, who beat the Sanford secondary on back-to-back fade routes, the second for a 30-yard touchdown on a perfectly thrown ball by quarterback Jack Hughes, as the Red Storm pulled back to within 13-7 with 1:25 left in the half.

Sanford then looked like it would be content to go into the half up seven, running Love for two yards and waiting several seconds to call a timeout. But on the next play the Spartans sprang a surprise, with Hegarty handing off to Wiegand for a 54-yard gain on a reverse to move the ball to the Scarborough 6-yard line.

Eldredge gained four yards on the next play, and Michetti then went over for his second 2-yard TD run as Sanford took a 21-7 lead into the break.

“That’s all (assistant coaches) Rich Wilkins and Mark Boissonneault. They’re running the offense and they saw that and got Peyton the ball,” Noel said of the reverse call. “He’s our speedster, so we got our athletes in space and he made the big play.”

“That was a momentum setter. That kind of put them down and it got us going,” Hegarty added of the reverse. “Peyton is such a fast kid. You give him the ball and he’s gone. That was a momentum setter going into halftime.”

Much like they had ended the first half, Sanford began the second half with a bang as Hegarty scampered for 65 yards down to the Scarborough 12 on the first play from scrimmage.

The Spartans couldn’t convert the big play into points, turning the ball over on downs. But after three-straight incomplete passes by Hughes, Sanford’s Cody Marshall blocked Carriero’s punt in the end zone for a safety.

Sanford drove the ball 52 yards for a touchdown on its next drive, with Eldredge going over from one yard out to make it 29-7 midway through the third quarter.

Scarborough scored on its next drive to pull within 29-14, and the Red Storm had a chance to get even closer in the fourth as three-straight first downs moved the ball to the Spartans’ 40.

But after a timeout was called by Noel to settle his defense down, Sanford forced four-straight incomplete passes by Hughes to turn the ball over, and Sanford got one last big push from its offensive line to run the final 6:46 off the clock ”“ with Hegarty gaining 44 yards on seven carries on the drive ”“ to seal the victory.

“I can’t say enough about that line,” Eldredge said. “They really put it to them. They stepped up for us. And defense played really well. It was just a great overall team win.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected].