Shawnee coach Rick Meeks congratulated Alex McCrory for breaking the school’s all-time rushing record after a 48-28 victory at Kenton Ridge on Friday.

Then the senior and three-year starter McCrory looked around at his teammates and said, “I couldn’t have done it without you guys.”

“Aaahhhhh,” his teammates groaned in unison.

They didn’t engage in a group hug. That would have been a bit too much.

Anyway, the Braves were more in the mood for hitting Friday, than hugging. They built a 48-7 lead in the fourth quarter before Kenton Ridge scored three touchdowns in the last four minutes against the Shawnee backups.

McCrory rushed for 137 yards on 13 carries, including a 51-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. He broke the record of last year’s quarterback Brad Jarzab and now has 2,999 yards in his career.

It hasn’t been an easy season for McCrory, who has battled an ankle injury since the end of the first game.

“It kept me out of the Troy game. I only played defense in the Urbana game,” McCrory said. “It’s been emotionally tough. I’m trying to stay strong. It’s feeling better.”

McCrory wasn’t the only Brave to make a big play Friday. Jalen Nelson opened the scoring with a 33-yard touchdown run and ran for 88 yards, including another 30-yard touchdown run.

Tyler Bostick had two touchdown runs and threw a touchdown pass to Nick Talley. Drew Young scored on a 12-yard run.

The Braves have won three straight after a 1-2 start: 58-0, 52-26 and 48-28. They will take a 1-0 Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail Division record into next week’s showdown against Tecumseh at Shawnee.

“We came out of the gate fast. I’m pleased,” Shawnee coach Rick Meeks said. “We haven’t been to where we want to be performance-wise, to be quite honest. Obviously, the first half of the year, we had quite a few issues — discipline and health issues. We’re just trying to improve and come together as a team, and hopefully we can make a run here.”

Max Winnenberg led Kenton Ridge (4-2, 0-1 CBC) with 179 yards. He got 73 of them on one play, a touchdown run in the first quarter that cut the Shawnee lead to 14-7 and gave the Cougars a brief glimmer of hope.