MACHESNEY PARK — “It was Titan weather,” Boylan fullback Matt McCrudden said.

Why?

“Coach told us. I can’t really remember it.”

A decade or two ago, when Bill Thumm’s Boylan teams played Woody Hayes’ style football, a chill rain that left the field looking like one big mud pie, would make sense as Titan weather. But successor Dan Appino brought the spread to Boylan long ago, giving the Titans an offense as diverse as any team’s in the NIC-10.

“We basically lie to our kids,” Appino said. “We want them to believe that the weather is always going to be our ally as long as we don’t worry about it.”

It was no lie Friday. Boylan made it Titan weather with a 40-14 victory over fellow unbeaten Harlem to claim the Titans’ third consecutive undefeated NIC-10 title.

The Titans had a whole host of stars. McCrudden ran for 82 yards and two TDs on six carries. Will Sahlstrom had 159 yards and two TDs on nine carries. Paul Barmore had 124 yards and a TD on one carry.

But when there’s that many stars — Boylan ran for 454 yards — the real stars are the guys who never touch the ball: Boylan linemen Nathan Fischer, Steve Bradley, Andy Russell, Jeff Marrs and Tom Arnold.

“This is our weather, Titan weather,” Russell, the right guard, said. “We love it. Schoolyard stuff.

“We go out there. We do our job. The backs get the glory. That’s how it works.”

The most anonymous players on the team got even more anonymous in a matter of minutes, with their uniform numbers completely obscured by mud.

“We were getting dirty real quick,” Marrs, the right tackle, said. “Making our blocks and going as hard as we could to the whistle — that gets you pretty dirty.

“But my family was farmers, so I’m used to the mud. It was fun for me. I really enjoyed it.”

Boylan (9-0) wound up throwing only three passes, yet ran so well it quickly made up a 14-0, second-quarter deficit against Harlem (8-1).

“We tried the spread for a bit,” Appino said, “but it got so bad we felt we had to go back to old-fashioned football.”

Titan football in Titan weather.

“We ran north the whole game,” Fischer, the center, said.

“It was so much fun,” Marrs said. “We’ve aired it out lately. This time we really got to show what our line can do and just sled them down the field. That’s what we wanted to do, and we did it.”

“We can play in anything,” McCrudden said, “when it comes down to it.”

- Matt Trowbridge, rrstar.com