NEW CASTLE — They had seen the play on film and Hunter Cooper reacted.

The Mars defensive lineman spilled into the flat and intercepted a Geno Stone pass, returning it 20 yards for a touchdown early in the second half to change momentum and give Mars a 14-7 lead over New Castle.

The Planets (5-1, 4-1) then ground the Red Hurricane (4-2, 4-1) into the turf with its running game on the way to a 34-7 win on a soggy Friday night at Taggart Stadium.

“That was huge. Huge,” said Mars coach Scott Heinauer on the Cooper pick-six. “Cooper ran out there and he threw it right to him. I'm sure (Stone) didn't think he'd be out there. That's something we worked on. Cooper did a great job. That was the play of the game.”

Isaiah Johnson agreed.

“Hunter Cooper with that pick-six,” said the senior fullback and defensive back, “that just gave us all the momentum. We never looked back from there.”

And Johnson and the Mars running game did the rest.

The Planets rushed for 294 yards with Johnson gaining 157 yards on 27 carries and scoring on runs of 2 and 10, and Garrett Reinke gobbling up 86 tough yards on 20 attempts and a score.

Mars had 10 of their 17 first downs in the second half and capped the blowout win with a long 10-play, 86-yard drive capped by a 2-yard TD run by Max Chizmar.

“Our line did a fantastic job and our backs were able to see things,'” Heinauer said. “In the first half, we were running right into the backs of our blocks.”

Johnson said he could see the New Castle defense wearing down in the second half.

“The offensive line just did their job. It was all them,” Johnson said. “We just kept hitting them in the mouth, hitting them in the mouth and when you do that, the defense was going to get tired.”

Things started out badly for Mars as Stone darted 61 yards for a touchdown on the Hurricanes' third offense play of the game for a 7-0 lead.

But the Planets' defense was able to limit the damage after that long TD run and shut out New Castle the rest of the game.

Stone had another long run of 57 yards late in the first half and finished with 142 yards on nine carries. But his other seven attempts netted just 24 yards.

“We played some great defense,” Heinauer said. “We know, believe me, that Stone and (Marcus) Hooker are great athletes. We talked about that all week. We talked all week about how we needed to stop Geno Stone.”

Stone was just 4-of-18 passing for 28 yards.

He was a victim of a slew of dropped passes — six in the first half alone.

Stone had a long completion to Hooker called back because of a holding penalty in the second half.

Hooker was largely a non-factor with eight yards rushing and two receptions for 19 yards.

“We came in wanted to stop Stone,” Heinauer said. “We felt if we could do that, we could win the game. We played great defense and we tried to string things out the best we could so the linebackers and secondary guys could come up and make the play.”

It worked.

Mars (5-1, 4-1) has navigated its three-game road trip within the section with three wins.

And they did it emphatically against the Hurricanes.

“I think we're getting better every week,” Johnson said. “That's what we need to do to get ready for the playoffs.”