A road game isn’t always a bad thing, especially when you’re a team like Pendleton coming off a lopsided loss and three straight home games. Getting away from Bulldog Nation proved to be a good thing for Pendleton (5-1, 1-0) as Paul Sutherland’s team rolled Emerald Friday, 31-10.

With Liberty visiting this week, Sutherland is concerned with the Red Devils’ option offense. In last year’s 42-14 Pendleton win, Liberty had two players rush for more than 100 yards, and a third reach 85. Sutherland said the Red Devils ran the option last year, but are more polished with it now.

“The way they run the option, you have to play responsibility football,” Sutherland said. “They’ve moved the ball against everyone.”

The halfway point in the season gave Pendleton’s coaching staff enough time to evaluate its younger players. And after five games, the coaches were confident enough in four sophomores that they elected to keep senior Tye Burke and junior Reggie Earle on offense-only last week.

Sutherland hinted in the preseason that several young players could see time, especially on defense, even with 10 returning starters.

“We looked around and saw which side of the ball those younger guys would develop on,” Sutherland said. “We decided it’d be defense. If those younger guys would have developed on offense, we would have kept Reggie and Tye on defense.”

With fresh(er) legs, Earle and Burke combined for 301 yards and two TDs against Emerald.

Sutherland added he would “definitely address” any potential Abbeville distractions this week, since Pendleton visits fellow Skyline-title contender Abbeville next week.