That might be the biggest understatement of the year.

Dominance on the field clearly followed Harper from his decade of success with the Clymer/Sherman/Panama Wolfpack to his new position with the Eagles.

At halftime of his first game on the Chautauqua Lake sideline, Harper’s new team held a 43-0 lead. By the time the final horn sounded, the three-time state champion coach was 1-0 with his new program.

“He brings the culture with him,” running back Thandon Bensink said of his new coach. “He’s really coaching us up to be great. He wants us to succeed in everything we do.”

Eagles running back Thandon Bensink follows his blockers and bursts through a hole on his way to a 35-yard touchdown run in the first half of Friday’s nonleague football game against Tonawanda at Chautauqua Lake Central School. OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen

Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton finished off the Tonawanda Timberwolves for a 49-8 nonleague win at Chautauqua Lake Central School.

“I think people were really excited, including myself. To get the first one under the belt is nice,” Harper said. “I’m proud of the kids. Throughout the offseason, they did everything that we asked them to do. It’s rewarding to see kids put in the time and the effort from March to August and see it pay off in the first game. I’m happy for them.”

Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton (1-0) showed opening-week jitters on the first drive of the game as the first snap was fumbled, an overthrow on the second play led to an incompletion, and a touch pass on an end around was stuffed at the line of scrimmage to force a three-and-out.

“There were definitely some nerves there on the first series,” Harper said. “That’s something that we’re going to have to clean up.”

Fortunately for the Eagles, they were not the only ones to struggle out of the gate. The difference is, the Eagles snapped out of it quickly. The Timberwolves did not.

Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton quarterback Brayden Gibbs releases a pass that went for a first down during Friday’s season-opening football game against Tonawanda in Mayville. OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen

Tonawanda (0-1) lined up to punt after going three-and-out just as the Eagles did, but the snap bounced out of the back of the end zone for a safety for the game’s first points. From there, the Eagles were off and running.

Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton began the next drive at the Tonawanda 39-yard line, then quickly entered the red zone after a 20-yard pass from Brayden Gibbs to tight end Asher Olson. Later in the drive, on fourth-and-4, Gibbs hit Devin Hewes with a screen pass near the visiting sideline, and Hewes did the rest, breaking a tackle on his way to the end zone for the first touchdown of the season for the Eagles. After an extra point was successful, the Eagles suddenly had a two-score lead, 9-0, less than halfway through the opening quarter.

It only snowballed from there, as the Eagles got the running game going. Bensink scored the second touchdown of the contest on a 12-yard run for a 15-0 lead in the first quarter. Then, in the second quarter, Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton added four more touchdowns. Three rushing scores in the quarter came from three different players — Bensink, Carson Fairbank and Clayton Smith.

“We have three backs — me, Carson and Clay — who can take the ball and run for 5 yards every time,” Bensink said. “We work together to pound it down their throat every single play.”

Bensink added insult to injury in the final two minutes of the first half, as he picked off a pass near the Tonawanda 30-yard line and took it back for a touchdown, his third scoring play of the opening half. Following an extra point, the Eagles led 43-0.

Scoring 43 points in a half is not easy to do. It is even more impressive considering the Eagles did so without one of the top receivers in Western New York, Nick Jacobson, who did not play due to injury. The Eagles managed to build a 43-0 lead with only five completions for 44 yards, including an interception.

In the second half, Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton focused on getting players their first game action of the season. The Eagles’ starters were pulled at halftime and a running clock was in place for the entire second half.

After a scoreless third quarter, Tonawanda managed to score its lone touchdown of the game on a deep ball down the visiting sideline that went 84 yards for the score. Following a 2-point conversion, the 43-8 score held until the final play of the game.

Jordin Eddy put a punctuation mark on the Eagles’ victory with a 23-yard touchdown run as the clock expired. Eddy’s run made the final score 49-8 with no need for an extra point.

In total, the Eagles managed 211 yards rushing and five touchdowns on 23 carries. Four different players had rushing touchdowns while Hewes had a receiving touchdown from Gibbs, and Bensink had three total touchdowns, including his pick-six.

Harper said it was “encouraging” to see his running game perform as well as it did on Friday. While stating that Chautauqua Lake has never had a shortage of athletes, Harper noted that his staff wanted to see the team show its physicality, especially in the run game.

“If this is the first test, I’d say that we passed it,” Harper said. “When you’re running the ball well, it takes all 11 guys. Everybody has got to block and be unselfish. From our line, to our backs, to our receivers, I thought everybody did a great job in the run game tonight.”

Even with all of the success for the Eagles on Friday, there was room for improvement. With only five completions, an interception, a fumble and six penalties for 60 yards, it says a lot about the talent on the Eagles team that Harper’s squad could still win by more than 40 points. Harper knows that is not a recipe for success moving forward.

“For as well as we did on the scoreboard in the first half, I still think that we can play a lot better. We can play cleaner football than that,” Harper said.

There might not be a coach in the region more up to the task, and Harper thinks that this team has the potential to do great things if everything comes together.

“I think if we get everybody on the same page, everybody is healthy and firing on all cylinders, I’d say the sky is the limit,” Harper said. “I think the team has a very high ceiling, but we just have to take it week by week.”

The Eagles look to improve to 2-0 next Friday in the Class C South league opener at Cuba-Rushford against Portville/Cuba-Rushford/Bolivar-Richburg, the team that eliminated Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton in the postseason a year ago. While Harper and most of his staff is new to the program this year, most of the starters on the Eagles are looking for revenge.

“I think we’re prepared. We obviously played them twice last year. We have a grudge against them. We’re going to go out and hit them as hard as we can,” Bensink said.