GREENFIELD — On its way to a 4-0 start, Ware has now pitched three shutouts, and Greenfield became the latest opponent to find out just how hard it is to make headway against it on Friday night.

The Greenfield defense rose to the occasion in its own right, recovering four Ware fumbles, two in Green Wave territory, and also stopped the visitors once on downs to prevent an even more lopsided margin. In between, though, the visitors mounted three long scoring drives, more than enough for an 18-0 whitewash of the Wave in the Intercounty League North opener for both teams at a rainy and sloppy Veterans Memorial Field.

Greenfield (1-3, 0-1 IL North) managed 70 yards of total offense and five first downs on the night. Angel Politis led the Wave with a hard-earned 56 yards on 20 rushes.

"It's unfortunate that we couldn't take advantage of those things," said Green Wave coach Mike Kuchieski. "Week 4, we're getting better, more aggressive, but we're young and we're still learning the game. Ware's a good football team, but they had to work. I take that as a victory for us.

"Angel had a great game, both offensively and defensively. If we could get him going north and south on a couple more plays, I think we'd have more than 70 yards of offense."

Ware (4-0, 1-0 IL North) placed fourth in the MIAA Division 8 state rankings that came out this week.

Talan Molina and Kyle Safford each ran for 105 yards for the visitors and Brady Dyer added 81 yards on the ground. Dyer also threw a 14-yard touchdown pass, his only throw of the night, to Gavin Sawabi just before halftime to break up a scoreless deadlock.

Petru Cojocaru (two), Caleb Murray and Noah Gamache had the fumble recoveries for the Green Wave. Cojocaru and Murray stopped Ware's first two drives by jumping on loose balls, Murray's coming at the Greenfield 6-yard line, to end a 66-yard march by Ware.

Ware took over with just over four minutes left in the half and moved 59 yards, keyed by a 24-yard keeper by Dyer. On fourth-and-9 from the Greenfield 14, Dyer found Sawabi in the back right corner of the end zone for the opening score with 34.2 seconds on the clock, good for a 6-0 lead.

Greenfield took the opening kickoff of the second half and was forced to punt, with Ware taking over at its own 14. Safford flipped the field with a 53-yard gain, tripped up by the wet turf at the Greenfield 17 to prevent a touchdown. He kept his feet on the next snap, though, going the final 17 yards for the score and a 12-0 advantage with 7:18 to go in the third.

The Green Wave then failed on fourth-and-3 from the Ware 37 on an incomplete pass. Safford carried four times for 20 yards, Dyer broke off a 24-yard scamper, and Molina did the rest from 19 yards out, making it an 18-0 game with 11:06 to play.

Ware amassed 304 yards of total offense with 290 coming on the ground.

Greenfield travels to Orange Friday to face Mahar in a 7 p.m. IL North game.

"I think everybody we play is gonna be a tough game," said Kuchieski. "This league is pretty tough, pretty equal. We've got to fight and claw and earn every inch that we're gonna get this year."