MOUNT VERNON — Landon Dawson did it all Friday night.
The Mount Vernon sophomore caught two touchdown passes, ran for a score, had five tackles and a sack and averaged 42 yards on his two punts as the Yellow Jackets cruised to a 42-13 win over Licking Heights.
Mount Vernon (6-2, 3-0 Licking County League Buckeye Division) won its fifth straight game after opening the season 1-2. It’s Mount Vernon’s longest winning streak since 2014.
Quarterback Mason Richards completed 5-of-10 passes for 104 yards and three touchdowns. The senior also rushed for 107 yards and a score on 12 carries.
“We’re finally not just playing one style of offense. We’re not just running the ball with Mason,” Mount Vernon coach Mark Weber said. “We’re running different schematic runs that don’t just look straight at you. There’s some counter plays, some power plays and some play-actions off that.
“Coming down the stretch here we’re playing real football. We’re not just playing a one-man band kind of football.”
Mount Vernon jumped to a 7-0 lead on a Luke Mullins 2-yard run and pushed it to 14-0 on Richards’ 35-yard scoring run.
Licking Heights cut it to 14-7 before the special teams swung the momentum back in Mount Vernon’s favor. Dawson’s punt was downed at the Licking Heights 2-yard line. Hornets’ quarterback J.J. Shackleford was tackled in the end zone for a safety, giving Mount Vernon a 16-7 advantage.
Dawson scored on a 28-yard run and hauled in a 12-yard TD pass from Richards as Mount Vernon built its lead to 30-7 at the half. Richards threw TD passes to Dawson and Greyson Deem in the third quarter.
Dawson finished with 81 yards rushing on five carries. Both of his receptions went for touchdowns.
Mount Vernon limited Licking Heights to 147 yards of total offense. Mullins had five tackles.
The Yellow Jackets visit Licking Valley (8-0, 3-0) next week. The Panthers beat Granville 35-14 on Friday.