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The spread. The read option. The run-and-shoot and the fun-and-gun.

All of those speed-based offenses have produced success in college football and trickled down to the high school level. But sometimes — like in Friday night's 20-6 Watkins Mill win at Bethesda-Chevy Chase — there's just no substitute for a power running game.

"We're going to try to just pound the ball and pound the ball, which is different from what we've done in the past," Watkins Mill head coach Joe Rydzewski said. "The game plan was to keep the ball from them and hold onto the ball rushing the ball."

Friday was the perfect time for the Wolverines (2-2) to embrace "four yards and a cloud of dust." For starters, the game began in a heavy downpour, making precision difficult. The teams combined to fumble 11 times, though only one was lost, and throw three interceptions.

What's more, Watkins Mill enjoyed a huge size advantage over B-CC (0-4). Based on roster weights, the average Watkins Mill lineman outweighs the average Barons lineman, 256 pounds to 219. The Wolverines have four players who tip the scales at over 300.

"We had the size and strength," junior fullback Melvin Clark said. "There's no matching up with our hogs."

Finally, sophomore Darnell Henson started his first varsity game at quarterback, after missing the first three games of the season with a broken finger. Not only did Rydzewski want to break Henson in slowly, he wanted to take advantage of fill-in signal-caller Preston Carmon's return to his more natural role of running back.

So the Wolverines ran 47 times and threw five. Carmon (27 carries, 83 yards) and Clark (11 for 44) shouldered the load. They combined for 71 yards and all three of their team's touchdowns in the first half.

"We're like the Cowboys, we have the two-headed monster," Clark said. "You've got me, and you've got my boy Preston Carmon. … We've got the hogs like the Redskins and the two-headed monster like the Cowboys. We like to mix it up."

The B-CC offense, by contrast, lines up in a one-back shotgun set and relies heavily on the arm of senior quarterback Jake Boross. Knowing it couldn't redraw the entire playbook because of the forecast, the Barons stuck with that formula.

"The weather gave us a little bit of a problem, but the bottom line is, we had too many early turnovers," Barons head coach Joe Allen said. "And we're not the type of team that can get in a hole and work our way out. … I certainly believe that was a winnable game."

The Barons did make a dizzying array of blunders. Failure to recover a game-opening onside kick by Watkins Mill gave the Wolverines early field position. A botched punt snap set up Watkins Mill's second touchdown.

The third score came with 15 seconds left in the first half. With the Wolverines facing a fourth down in Barons territory, B-CC called timeout to get the ball back. On the ensuing play, Watkins Mill ran a successful fake punt, putting the ball at the 1-yard line.

The good news for B-CC is that both its passing offense and its run defense clicked into place in the second half.

B-CC's touchdown came with 3 minutes, 50 seconds remaining, when quarterback Jake Boross found Casey Fitzgerald on a 39-yard seam route. Boross finished 16 of 32 for 145 yards. He added 53 rushing yards, thereby accounting for 198 of the Barons' 177 yards of offense, or 112 percent.

The defense held Watkins Mill to 62 total yards and no scoring in the second half, a fact Rydzewski is certain to bring up in practice this week.

"We want to establish an identity," he said. "And we haven't done it yet this year. We did it in the first half tonight, and then we came out in the second half and took two steps backwards."

And with the power running game, it's all about going straight ahead.