Kaiden Delano does the running leg of a team endurance drill Tuesday during an Oak Hill/St. Dom’s football practice at Oak Hill High School in Wales. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

WALES — Give Kaiden Delano a little daylight and he’ll bolt through it and run for big yardage.

The Oak Hill/St. Dom’s senior running back has 698 yards rushing and eight touchdowns through four games this season. He has already surpassed the 655 yards he gained during the 2023 season.

Raiders coach Chad Stowell strives for a balanced offensive attack, but when he has an effective runner like Delano, he has little choice but to keep feeding the ball to the hot hand.

“We feel like our speed’s one of our strengths, along with a pretty good offensive line,” Stowell said. “But, you know, when Kaden’s rolling, it’s hard to go away from such a dominant offensive force.”

Game-breaking runs are a part of Delano’s repertoire. He’s rattled off seven runs of 25 yards or more this season, including a 65-yard touchdown against Mountain Valley and a 45-yarder against Poland.

Delano knows he’s having a big game when he breaks loose for a big run. But, in order to average 174.5 yards per game, he also piles them up a chunk at a time.

“Yeah, it’s pretty hard not to notice that — oh, another 10 yards, another 15 yards; oh, just a couple, 5 yards, but it keeps building and building,” Delano said.

Delano will no doubt be a big part of Oak Hill/St. Dom’s (2-2) game plan in Friday night’s matchup with undefeated and defending Class D state champion Wells (4-0).

VISION AND SPEED

Stowell said Delano’s strength is his vision, which Stowell believes comes from playing lacrosse. Delano plans to continue his lacrosse career at Southern New Hampshire University.

Delano said that football and lacrosse complement each other, particularly the act of evading opponents. To make himself even tougher to catch, he worked on becoming faster during the offseason.

“A lot of footwork stuff,” Delano said. “I play a lot of lacrosse during the summer. It’s not really the same as football, but it is a lot similar. Working on speed and footwork and going around people, going through people, it all just transferred to this.”

Kaiden Delano walks with his teammates Tuesday during an Oak Hill/St. Dom’s football practice at Oak Hill High School. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Delano is a linebacker (47 tackles, three sacks) on the defensive side of the ball. He said that also helps him be a better running back because he understands the mindset of a linebacker.

“See, as a middle linebacker, I’m basically playing the other end of the running back, because if I’m running up the middle, most likely the first person I’m going to meet is the Mike linebacker,” Delano said. “So knowing what an average Mike linebacker would do helps me change the running after I get through the line to be most effective and gain the most yards.”

Stowell said the coaching staff designs runs so Delano and the other Oak Hill running backs get to the line of scrimmage and then through it. After that, Delano uses his vision to recognize where the tacklers are and where they will be.

“Yeah, we kind of preach that we want to get our ball carriers to the line of scrimmage,” Stowell said. “If they can get to the line of scrimmage clean, then good things can happen. And, you know, he’s a really, really smart runner. He runs with his eyes open, finds holes, and he also understands angles from defenders. I think he does a good job of not allowing anybody to take a real big shot on him, and his strength allows him to break some tackles.

“But he doesn’t need a lot of space, that’s for sure. He’s able to squeak out some pretty good runs on some pretty tight seams.”

LOVE FOR THE LINE

Delano said it takes a village for him to be successful.

“Well, I can’t just take all the credit, you know, I got my line in front of me making these giant holes, got people like my wideouts pulling people out of the zone … coaches calling the plays,” Delano said. “So, I just get the ball, and I find the hole.”

Kaiden Delano works on a receiving drill drill Tuesday during an Oak Hill/St. Dom’s football practice in Wales. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Delano’s teammates on the offensive line said he makes their job easier because they know he will run hard through the lanes they create for him. He also takes time to acknowledge their role in his success.

“Yeah, I mean, Kaiden always thanks us after every big play, every big touchdown,” lineman Levi Marks said. “He comes to us first, knowing that he can’t really do anything without us blocking for him. And he knows we set up the plays, but it makes it really easy when you have a great running back like Kaiden behind us and running, hitting the gaps hard.”

Another lineman, Logan Langlois, said Delano has a high football IQ and helps the O-line by instructing them on where he expects to go on certain plays in the upcoming game.

“He has a lot of drive and passion for the sport,” Langlois said. “We could be a week ahead of the game, and he’ll tell me who he wants me on, which way I’m blocking, where he’s going to be behind me on certain plays. Even though we have our own play schemes that the coaches come up with, he’ll be talking on his own. He’ll be figuring out where he’s going to be. He’ll let you know before the game even starts where he’s going to be on every play.”

The linemen also appreciate Delano’s business-like attitude.

“He’s never a showboat,” teammate Forrest St. Laurent said. “He could have little to no yards or all the yards in the game, and he’s not a showboat. He just gets his job done, gets the touchdown, gets the first down — does his job, always.”