CASTLEWOOD — The Warriors are rolling into the 9A quarterfinals.

No. 8 Castlewood (8-1) cruised to a blowout win over No. 9 Dupree (6-3) Thursday night, 46-12, in the first round of the Class 9A playoffs.

The Warriors, after an opening drive fumble, rattled off three consecutive touchdown drives to get the scoring started.

“We got off to a little bit of a rough start but once we found our footing, changed some things up, We had to adapt to their speed,” Castlewood head coach Nick Ernst said. “They’re a little more speedy upfront than we are used to, but once we kind of adapted to it I thought we adjusted pretty well on offense.”

Quarterback Kamden Keszler was the X-factor in the Warriors win scoring six total touchdowns, five which came on the ground. Keszler scored two rushing touchdowns of 10 and 17-yards in the opening quarter before finding 6-foot-6, 230-pound tight end Leonard Wernke on a 48-yard touchdown pass.

With an early three-score lead, the Warriors offense stalled for the remainder of the half.

“We started off physically and then in the second quarter we tried to glide through it the rest of the game thinking it was going to be an easy one and we lost our physicality,” Keszler said.

The Tigers scored one of two touchdowns on a 98-yard drive spanning the last four minutes and 45 seconds of the half, capping it off with a goal line touchdown from senior back Cruz Birkeland, one of two goal line touchdowns for him in the win.

Between Birkeland and his two brothers, Tee and Fletcher, the Tigers found a few openings in the Warrior defense, including a 64-yard scamper from Fletcher on the touchdown drive.

“They had great triplet running backs,” Keszler said. “We all knew they were a running team, they don’t really pass so we read our keys, get to the ball and gang tackle.”

But out of halftime, the Keszler show continued.

On the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Keszler scrambled for a 49-yard touchdown run.

After two turnovers by the Tigers, Keszler gashed the Dupree defense for two more touchdown runs, a six yarder and a 69-yard house call to seal the runaway victory.

“I don’t think it was the gameplan,” Ernst said of Keszler’s five rushing touchdowns. “We’re a team that prides ourselves on everybody getting the rock and fortunately tonight that was the thing that worked the best so we kind of went with it. He’s our emotional leader, the guys feed off of him. The guys came up to me and said ‘Hey, give the ball to Keszler, I want to go block.’ ”

In total the Warrior defense forced five turnovers, two on forced fumbles and three on downs in the win, adding to a stout resume from a team that’s allowing just eight points per game since its opening season loss to Warner.

“Defense is everything. Defense wins championships,” Keszler said. “We take so much pride in it, we work on it every day. Everyday in practice we work on our keys and we’re just so good defensively that we just work on it everyday.”

The Warriors now turn their sights on the top-ranked and top-seeded team in Class 9A football. It’s a rematch from last season’s state quarterfinals, a 62-12 win for the Eagles out west.

“These kids want this game,” Ernst said. “I honestly can’t put into words how much it would mean. I don’t care about me, I care about these guys. Since I took the job 5-6 months ago, these guys have given me everything, they put it all on the line, and these guys deserve it.”