Ypsilanti's Ryan Griffin, left, and Marquez Gollman, top right, bottle up Skyline's Zach Jackson after a short gain during the second quarter of the Phoenix's road win on Thursday.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

But with the majority of Ypsilanti's drives beginning in Skyline territory, the Phoenix didn't have as far to travel as they shut out the Eagles at the first-ever varsity game at Skyline High School, 36-0.

Three times in the first half, Ypsilanti gained possession on the Skyline 34-yard line and all three times kept the ball on the ground until eventually scoring on short runs; two by Austin Sanders and one by Brandon Jordan.

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Sanders finished with 106 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries.

"We don't have an answer for teams that run the ball right now," said Skyline coach Randy Hutchison. "We're just not big enough, strong enough and not physical enough yet.

"Weight room is probably the best solution and that's a long ways away."

The same problem plagued Skyline last week, but over 400 yards passing from Andrew Copp kept the Eagles competitive with Hartland for at least the first half.

Copp had an interception before his first completion and eventually had to leave the game with an injury as the Eagles had just 179 yards through the air.

"We've got to neutralize (the lack of size) and a lot of that is our passing game, but Copp took a helmet on about the third or fourth play and wasn't the same the rest of the night," said Hutchison.

Also making sure the Eagles offense never got going was the Phoenix defense, which had four sacks, seven tackles for loss and a number of hurries on Copp and his replacement, Nelson Hansen.

Marquez Gollman led the defense with two tackles for loss, a sack and forced a fumble in the first half.

"(Gollman) blitzing off the edge, we had no answer for him," Hutchison said. "It didn't matter if we had guys in the backfield blocking or nobody in the backfield."

After being penalized 13 times in a 25-24 loss to Milan last week, Ypsilanti showed no signs of a loss hangover, and was penalized just four times throughout the game.

"We talked about that this week, who's going to make the most progression from week one to week two," said Ypsilanti coach Jason Malloy. "Marquez Gollman and Austin Sanders and Trey Sweeney, those guys have been pushing their teammates on at practice, demanding a lot out of everybody, and it's starting to catch on."

Skyline (0-2, 0-1 SEC) looked like it might get on the board before half after switching to a hurry up offense with 4 minutes, 57 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Using a five-receiver set , the Eagles drove 67 yards on their final drive of the half.

The problem was, the Eagles started 68 yards from the endzone.

Copp kept the ball on a run-pass option rollout but was stopped by Devon Thompson on the 1-yard line on fourth-and-goal from the two.

"That hurt a lot," Hutchison said. "Probably, if his hand's healthy we run him on a quarterback sneak, but we thought he can't barely hold on to the ball to throw it. So we rolled him out on a pass-run option and they've got good athletes and they made a play."

Ypsilanti (1-1, 1-0 SEC) has already equaled its win total from last year.

"We just wanted to come out here and get this win," Gollman said. "After just one win last season ... I don't want that no more."

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by e-mail at petercunningham@annarbor.com, or by phone at 734-623-2561.