Groton — The Fitch football team got another strong performance from its defense Friday night.

But it was the Falcons running game that stole the show in a 34-6 win over Waterford at Dorr Field.

Six runners carried the ball 54 times for 441 yards and four different players had touchdowns.

“I think it’s good that we have a lot of running backs,’’ said senior Hamear Stephens, who scored twice. “Because when one gets tired you can always rely on the others.’’

Quarterback Tyler Nelli didn’t complete any of his five passes, but rushed for 117 yards on 25 carries. He scored on a 10-yard run in the third quarter and was 4-for-5 in extra point attempts.

Keith Patterson had 122 yards on eight carries and started the scoring with a 16-yard run with 5:07 left in the first half. Stephens added 93 yards on eight carries, Michael Hamlin picked up 66 on eight carries and Kennard Tate had an 11-yard scoring run.

“We’ve got a lot of weapons, we’ve got to use those weapons,’’ said Fitch coach Mike Ellis Jr. “Last week against Harding (28-14 win) it was Nelli that really took the bull by the horns. But tonight we were able to spread the ball around.

“Keith Patterson had some real nice runs,’’ said Ellis. “And Hamear at the end. Hamlin had some nice runs. … Kennard. That’s nice when you can spread it out. That’s tough to defend.’’

Fitch (2-1) led 14-0 at halftime and 21-0 when Waterford (1-2) got on the scoreboard quickly. On the Lancers’ first play of the second half, Ryan Bakken hit Dan Annibalini for a 61-yard touchdown. Sam Menders’ extra point attempt was blocked, but Waterford was right back in the game at 21-6.

Nelli went up the middle for a 10-yard TD run with 2:24 left in the third quarter and Stephens cemented the win with a weaving 25-yard scoring run with 4:01 left in the game for a 34-6 lead.

Bakken was 11-for-32 passing for 104 yards, but was intercepted three times. And Waterford was held to five yards rushing on 19 carries.

“I’m happy with tonight but, man, we certainly have a lot of stuff to work on too,’’ said Ellis. “I think our defense is playing really well and they’re bailing us out right now. The offense needs to get better at executing. If they don’t we’re going to have trouble down the road.’’

Senior captain Nick Helbig, who plays on the line on both sides and was a monster on defense all night, thinks the offense will click on a regular basis soon.

“If you look at last year we had the same issues at the beginning of the year,’’ said Helbig. “And it takes time because, with our offense, it takes time to get all the timing down. We just need to keep working in practice.’’

d.davis@theday.com