BANCROFT - Chemistry between a quarterback and his receiver is vital to an offense's ability to throw the football. If the two players aren't on the same page, they aren't going to move the ball.

But North Gem senior quarterback Austin Wuttke's relationship with sophomore wide receiver Tyler McLain goes much further than the typical connection. They've only been playing together for the Cowboys for two years, but McLain's been catching Wuttke's passes for a lot longer than that.

That's because the two are cousins, and they've grown up playing the game with each other.

"We probably started when I was 7 and Tyler was 5," Wuttke said. "We've been throwing it our whole lives."

Against Rockland on Friday, the cousins' connection gave the Cowboys the lift they needed to jump on the Bulldogs. McLain was on the receiving end of two of Wuttke's three touchdown passes, and North Gem (3-1) cruised to a 32-8 home victory over the Bulldogs (2-1).

"It just comes natural," Wuttke said of throwing to McLain. "I know where he's going to be 99 percent of the time. With how fast he is, he can run the routes."

McLain said that the two used to play in a family Thanksgiving game in their grandmother's backyard growing up. The cousins would occasionally be opponents, but would always throw to each other, developing their future on-field connection.

"We have great chemistry, and he knows where I'm going to run to," McLain said. "We always get together and hang out. We have a really good relationship."

Wuttke said he has strong chemistry with some of his other receivers, such as Justin White, who also had a touchdown catch against Rockland. But the connection between the cousins is easily apparent.

"They hook up really well," North Gem coach Kevin Carey said. "They've got a rhythm."

That rhythm proved to be Rockland's undoing. The Bulldogs had no answer for Wuttke's passing, which paced the Cowboys to a 20-0 lead before Rockland's offense unraveled with turnovers and allowed North Gem to finish the game.

"Defensively, we played good, other than the three long passes that got us," Rockland coach Steven May said. "But offensively, we just had a meltdown and didn't have it today. We had some bad snaps and fumbles, and we never got any momentum."

Part of that was because of North Gem's defense. Before Carey pulled his starters prior to Rockland's touchdown, the Cowboys' defensive line swarmed into the backfield and made life difficult for anyone the Bulldogs decided to put at quarterback.

"We played good defense," Carey said. "We have a long ways to go, but we're definitely on track. We controlled the line of scrimmage and played really solid defense. We seemed to get big plays when we needed them, and that's always important. I'm pretty proud of them."

In the other locker room, May was left wondering why things had gone so badly for Rockland on game day after the team had a solid week of preparation before facing North Gem.

"We felt good about it," May said. "You've got to give North Gem credit; they played good defense. It was a big game and we were ready, but I don't know what happened. We never got our execution down at all on offense. It's frustrating for everybody. I think we're a better team than we showed. We should be ready for these games, and we just didn't have it."

But Rockland can't dwell on the past. The Bulldogs will have just two days of practice next week before traveling to face Murtaugh on Wednesday.

"It's going to be a problem after a loss," May said. "But we don't have time to cry about it."