WALES — There’s a reason mantras might give you peace of mind, or commercial jingles make you want to buy a product you don’t even need. Repeat something often enough and it becomes reality.

And so it goes with the Oak Hill football team — reigning Class D champion, loaded with returning players, but still subscribing to the theory that it’s the resident little guy.

“Before every game in the locker room, it’s, ‘We are underdogs. We are underdogs.’ That’s how we looked at it today,” senior running back Alex Mace said.

Whether or not Mace still believed those words after he scored four unanswered touchdowns in the first half Saturday afternoon against Telstar is open for debate. Oak Hill cruised from there to a 47-14 Campbell Conference victory.

Mace scored on runs of 60, 3 and 20 yards, as well as a 26-yard reception from Dalton Therrien.

He amassed 117 all-purpose yards in the first half alone, but Mace (five carries, 91 yards) wasn’t even the Raiders’ leading rusher. That distinction went to sophomore Steve Gilbert, who ripped off 111 yards on only four touches, including TD scampers of 19 and 74.

Freshman quarterback Darryn Bailey played most of the second half in relief of Therrien, as the Raiders enjoyed the luxury of liberal substitution on a mostly sunny and steamy day.

“It’s good for our program,” Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette said. “Everybody works hard. Everybody’s expected to have the same kind of commitment in every drill, and it’s nice to get everybody some reps and give them a chance to play some football.”

Mace’s hat trick plus one furnished a 26-0 halftime lead.

Last year’s workhorse, Kyle Flaherty (nine carries, 86 yards) found the end zone from 17 yards away on the first series of the second half to complete his day.

“We like our skill guys,” Doucette said. “What we want to do is get them in space and let them do their thing. They’re physical and athletic.”

Oak Hill’s defense, led by Samson Lacroix and Mike Pease, held Telstar to two first downs and 54 total yards.

“Luke Washburn last year, he was a very humble person, but he was the big name for our defense. This year we’re just a tight-knit family,” said Lacroix, a senior linebacker. “There isn’t a team in the conference who we just beat before we even play them. Everybody’s got that mentality.”

Telstar scored its touchdowns on kickoff returns by Calvin Glover and Devin Merrill.

Chris Chappie paved the Rebels with 15 carries for 40 yards. Chappie, Noah Rose, Mike Daugherty and Zach Wheeler delivered the licks defensively.

Already up against it on the depth chart, Telstar lost players to neck, rib and head injuries as well as heat exhaustion.

“We tried to tell them at practice yesterday, ‘Hydrate. Drink lots of water tonight.’ And you tell them all summer to run when it’s hot,” Telstar assistant coach Lou Brann said.

Connor Nilsson recovered a fumble for Oak Hill on the kickoff after Mace’s first TD, allowing the Raiders to build a 14-0 lead before the Rebels ran their first play from scrimmage.

Telstar’s longest plays from scrimmage were 7-yard gains by Chappie and Andrew Mills.

“The defense played well. There’s always room for improvement. We were playing a lot of guys, evaluating, and we think we have a lot of depth,” Doucette said. “We’re trying to get 20 deep on every facet of the ball. We’re running guys in and out. We feel like we’re in good shape and we have depth.”

And they have an unwavering mental approach, even after their eighth consecutive win.

“We’ve seen some games the last 24 hours where the visitors were underdogs and came in and won or almost won,” Doucette said. “We wanted to make sure that wouldn’t be us, and the kids were focused and came in and did a good job.”

koakes@sunjournal.com