The Lathrop Spartans ran the ball early and often to the tune of 322 yards on 44 carries to pick up 42-3 a non-conference victory over Sierra on Friday night at East Union’s Dino Cunial Stadium.

Lathrop is hosting games at other Manteca Unified sites, while work continues on its own stadium.

“I think we executed really well tonight,” Spartans head coach Ryan Teicheira said. “They are big up front, but we were really able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.”

Ten runners carried the ball for Lathrop (2-0) led by senior Treydon Santos, who capitalized on seven carries for 135 yards and two touchdowns. Santos did not take long to get into the action, taking the second play from scrimmage 45 yards for a touchdown to put the Spartans up for good.

The control on the ground for Lathrop stemmed from great play in the trenches from tackles Gerald Mendez and Beau Grisham, guards Rueben Lopez and Christian Erazo, and center Malakai Dunn.

“Our offensive line is the key to the whole offense,” Santos said. “I was able to make some cuts, but they did a great job opening holes up for us all game long.”

A week after putting 55 points on the board in a loss at Enochs, Sierra (0-2) struggled to find its footing against the Spartans’ front seven. After failing to get a first down on fourth-and-2 on their opening possession, the Timberwolves turned the ball over to Lathrop on its own 29. Three plays later, the Spartans were back in the end zone on a powerful 12-yard touchdown run from fullback Pablo Peña — his first of three scores in the game.

“We were thoroughly dominated in every facet tonight,” Sierra head coach Jeff Abrew said. “We thought we had figured some things out offensively last week, and they came out here and shut us down.”

Sierra managed just 93 total yards of offensive in the first half, and went into the break trailing 34-3, the lone score coming on a 22-yard field goal from kicker Vareho Zingkhai late in the first quarter.

The Spartans’ run game helped it find some balance in the form of the play-action pass. Senior signal caller Landen Nolte finished the game a perfect 7-for-7 through the air with 155 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown pass to tight end Eric Lucatero in the second quarter.

“This really is a team of hungry seniors,” Teicheira said. “They got a taste of success last year and have really come out here worked their tails off to set an example for the rest of the team and help us go even further this season.”

For Sierra, it’s back to the drawing board before next week’s home opener against a 2-0 Modesto team.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Abrew said. “We have to get these kids better prepared, and I’ll take the blame for that. We did some things last week that for some reason didn’t happen tonight, but we’ll look to bounce back and have our guys ready to play.”

Lathrop’s next temporary home is at Weston Ranch, where the Spartans host Patterson next Friday, Sept. 5.

“That’s a really good playoff team coming to us next week,” Teicheira said. “We’ll look at tape, see what we did well tonight and try to do it all over again.”