Groton — The running gag around Killingly football the past several years is that its version of the RPO, the acronym for “run-pass option”, stands for “run people over.”

Killingly still wants to run and run and run and run. … but it’s perfectly willing to hit a defense with the play-action pass when it has an opening.

Killingly did that twice in the final three minutes of the first half against Fitch on Friday night.

It turned a simple double-digit lead into a 25-point cushion and an inevitable 52-19 win between teams competing for berths in the CIAC Class MM playoffs at Dorr Field.

“We can throw the ball and I’m comfortable throwing the ball,” Killingly head coach Chad Neal said. “A lot more comfortable.”

Neal smiled and added, “(I don’t) necessarily want to, but I’m more comfortable.”

Killingly (6-1) got the ball back at its own 46-yard line leading 18-6 with 3 minutes, 46 seconds left in the first half. It ran on its first two plays. … and then Thomas Dreibholz threw to a wide open Ben Jax for a 44-yard touchdown.

Killingly got the ball again with 1:05 remaining in the first half. Dreibholz threw a deep pass over a defender to Noah Colangelo for a 64-yard gain down to the Falcons’ 3-yard line.

Dreibholz threw a touchdown pass to Everton Brown on the next play for a 31-6 lead.

“(Neal has) definitely opened it up more,” Dreibholz said. “We’re still a running team. You saw us in the first quarter. We just ran it down their throats. That’s what we want to do. That’s what we always want to do. When we have to throw it, throw it.”

Soren Rief certainly carried the load for last season’s Class M champions as he ran 27 times for 295 yards and five touchdowns.

Killingly fullback Keith Perry also scored on a 5-yard run.

“That’s what we do,” Dreibholz said. “We pound them. They start loading the box. …. We get them used to running the ball. A couple of play action plays and it opened (the game) up.”

Dreibholz completed 6 of 10 passes for 166 yards. Jax caught four of his passes for 99 yards.

“That (play action) beat us in 2015. It beat us in 2019 and it’s the thing that opened up the game for them tonight,” Fitch head coach Mike Ellis said. “We talked about (it to) our secondary all night long. ‘You have to do your job. Their job has to be to cover those guys.’

“They can’t get their eyes in the backfield and they got their eyes in the backfield and there it is (two touchdowns).”

Ben Perry threw a 70-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Saintvil-Ravix for Fitch (4-3). Adonis Fine (57 yards) and Charlie Cabusao (5) also ran for touchdowns.

Jesse Toruella-Hudson and Gianni Drab also recovered fumbles.

“We had some guys tonight that played a full four quarters very hard. Very hard,” Ellis said. “We need all of them playing that way and we didn’t have that.”

n.griffen@theday.com