Josh Russell scored three times in the first half and Austin Koslow had two first-half touchdowns of his own — one on the opening kickoff of the game — as the Delaware Hayes football team parlayed a 42-14 halftime lead into a convincing 59-28 win over visiting Buckeye Valley in Friday night’s season opener.

Koslow got the Pacer fans out of their seats before some even made it to theirs, fielding the opening kickoff inside his own 20 and taking it to the house virtually untouched for a touchdown.

“I caught the ball, saw a great hole — my teammates did a great job blocking for me — and, once I saw the hole, all I had to do was run,” Koslow said. “This was big … getting a big win like this to start the season was very important to us.”

“Running the opening kickoff back was huge,” Hayes coach Ryan Montgomery said. “We put a big emphasis this offseason on our special steams. In the OCC you gotta be good in all three phases … so it was awesome to see that pay off for us.”

Cooper Goble, who made all eight of his extra points, calmly cashed in on the PAT to give the Pacers a 7-0 edge 13 seconds into the game.

Sacks by Hayes’ Connor Dutton and Buckeye Valley’s A.J. Grout helped their respective units get off the field as the teams traded possessions, but another special teams miscue cost the Barons shortly after as a bad snap on a punt set the Pacers up with a first down at the BV 12.

Two plays later, Hayes quarterback Jake Lowman found Koslow alone in the back of the end zone to double his team’s advantage with 10:26 left in the second quarter.

Buckeye Valley answered in a hurry — QB Nathan Huss scrambled into the end zone from 14 yards out less than a minute later — but things unraveled just as fast.

After a stop gave the Barons the ball with a chance to tie, Dutton forced a fumble with a big hit on the first play of the ensuing drive to set the Pacer offense up at BV’s 22.

On the very next play, Russell raced 22 yards for a touchdown, ballooning the lead to 21-7 with 7:03 left in the second quarter.

Hayes’ Justin Matthews made it 28-7 when he jumped a route and took an interception to the house less than a minute later and, after Noah Stottlemire recovered another BV fumble — again inside the 20 — Gavin Brinkmoeller moved the ball to the doorstep with a couple nice runs before Russell powered it in from the one to make it a 35-7 game with just under five minutes left in the half.

Another fumble, BV’s third of the quarter, set Hayes up in enemy territory once more before Russell caught a screen from Lowman and sprinted 21 yards for a touchdown.

“Credit goes to Coach Malivuk and the defense,” Montgomery said. “They set us up in really good field positions, forced some turnovers, they had a pick six … and we were able to capitalize with our run game.”

Huss hit Liam Popovich for a two-yard TD to make it 42-14 with 16.8 seconds left in the quarter, but the damage was done.

Buckeye Valley never really got back into things, but looked like a different team in the second half.

Liam Schoonover picked up a fumble and returned it 10 yards or so for a touchdown to make it a 42-21 game with 7:34 left in the third, but that’s as close as things got.

Despite the start, BV coach Matt Stephens didn’t have a problem with the way his guys finished.

I knew our kids wouldn’t lay down,” he said. “Our kids play hard in this game. I’m proud of the way they came out in the second half. It was better, but we still made way too many mistakes. Offensively, we need to take care of the football, and defensively, we just didn’t tackle well. These are all fixable things.”

The Pacers all but sealed the deal when Lowman and company answered BV’s touchdown with a score of their own. Lowman hit Goble for a 37-yard strike to set up a six-yard touchdown run by Brinkmoeller, making it a 49-21 game with 5:05 left in the third.

Huss connected with Andrew Clase and Matt Hall to move the chains before Malakhi Ross scored from four yards out with less than two minutes left in the third.

Goble added a 39-yard field goal midway through the fourth before smoothing out the scoring summary on the receiving end of a 23-yard TD strike from Lowman with 3:45 left.

Next up, Delaware Hayes will host visiting Marion-Franklin while Buckeye Valley will play at Jonathan Alder Friday night a 7 p.m.

Also:

Hilliard Bradley 20, Olentangy Berlin 13; Olentangy Orange 42, West Clermont 35; Pickerington Central 28, Olentangy Liberty 17; Bishop Hartley 21, Big Walnut 19.