The Mountain Range football team introduced its new rushing attack on Friday, and the Northglenn Norse had very little answer.

The Mustangs totaled 491 yards on the ground on their way to winning their season-opener 49-0.

“It’s a good first test for us,” Mustangs’ coach Bryan Davey said. “We were ready to come out and put together a complete game. We really felt that whoever we thought our best athletes were they would be on the field. They would make us more successful and (Friday) night we played well enough to win.”

What was impressive about Mountain Range’s rushing attack was four different running backs rushed for over 50 yards and three found the end zone for the Mustangs. Preston DeHerrera led the way with 137 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

“We knew we had Preston and Tom (Commander) coming back and Gabe (Gillespie),” Davey said. “We also knew we had three or four other guys that could come in and run the ball. We returned nearly our entire offensive line; they aren’t really big but are very educated.”

This game was much different than the previous two games in the series. In 2010, Mountain Range won in overtime 35-28 and last year, Northglenn won 23-21 after Mountain Range missed a last-second field goal.

While the Mustangs were on top of their game on both sides of the ball, Northglenn was not. Untimely mistakes came back to haunt Northglenn the entire game. Five turnovers by the Norse led to 35 points for Mountain Range.

Northglenn’s opening drive stalled after Gillespie intercepted a pass in the end zone. The Mustangs capitalized on the early mistake with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Wamsley to Kyle Dunbabi.

A fumble in Northglenn’s territory helped Mountain Range go up 16-0 on a 38-yard touchdown run by Commander in the second quarter.

Late in the second quarter, Northglenn once again took the ball inside the red zone, but turned the ball over on downs. Three plays later, DeHerrerra found paydirt a second time with a 38-yard touchdown run.

“Our offensive line did a great job creating holes and we took advantage,” DeHerrerra said.

The Norse attempted to get on the scoreboard at the end of the half, but their field goal attempt was blocked and Mountain Range held a commanding 30-0 lead after two quarters.

Things didn’t get better in the second half for Northglenn. Elijah Rocha returned an interception for a touchdown. A few minutes later, an interception by Jacob McCort led to 39-yard touchdown run by Rocha.

“It was a defensive effort,” Davey said. “Our defensive line has worked really hard on getting off the ball and putting pressure on the quarterback. We knew coming into it if we slowed (Jordan Radebaugh) down, because he’s a great athlete, we could be successful. If we could stop him, then we had to stop (Ken Heard), than we had a chance.”

Radebaugh passed for 142 yards and had three interceptions, while Heard was held to 65 rushing yards.

Gellespie rushed for 108 yards and a touchdown, while Commander carried the ball five times for 88 yards and a touchdown.

“It’s a big victory for us,” DeHerrera said. “We can only celebrate this for 24 hours and look to the next game.”

Mountain Range hosts Brighton on Friday, while Northglenn travels to Gateway.