SHELBY — The Shelby defense turned up the heat for a second straight week.
The third-seeded Whippets limited No. 14 Cleveland Central Catholic to fewer than 100 first-half yards and rumbled to a 40-0 win in the opening round of the Division IV, Region 14 playoffs Friday at the Whippet Athletic Complex.
It was the second straight shutout for Shelby (9-2), which clinched a share of the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference crown with a 23-0 win over Pleasant last week. The last time the Whippets posted back-to-back shutouts was in 2017.
“Our kids are playing really well defensively at this point,” Shelby coach Rob Mahaney said. “I think they’ve played well all year. I just think they’ve kind of put everything together defensively at this point.”
Cleveland Central Catholic’s calling card on offense has been the explosive play, but the Ironmen (4-7) couldn’t hit any chunk plays against the Whippets. CCC had just two plays of 10-plus yards in the first half.
“That is what we were worried about all week,” Mahaney said. “On film they had multiple (big) plays. The defense did a good job of rallying to the football.
“I thought our kids tackled extremely well. We played great team defense and did our job.”
The offense, meanwhile, continued to hum. Shelby scored on its first three possessions and led 19-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Quarterback Brayden DeVito tossed a 39-yard touchdown to Miles Swisher and a 22-yarder to Issaiah Ramsey and scored on a 2-yard keeper in the first quarter. The sophomore threw for 212 yards in the first half as the Whippets built a 33-0 lead.
“We wanted to come out and put it away early so in the second half our guys could rest for next week,” said DeVito, who tossed an 18-yard TD to Ramsey and added a 13-yard scoring run in the second quarter. “We knew what the goal was, we just followed the game plan and executed it.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a defense that hasn’t allowed a point in nine straight quarters. The last points the Whippets surrendered came in the third quarter of the Week 9 classic against Ontario.
“I love having them out there,” DeVito said of the defense. “They’re killing it right now.”
The second half was played with a running clock because of the 30-point differential. The only score of the second half came on a 1-yard Skyler Winters run with three minutes left in the third.
The Whippets will host sixth-seeded Van Wert next week. The Cougars beat River Valley 48-30 on Friday.
River Valley handed Shelby its only Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference loss in Week 7, 28-24.
“We know (Van Wert) is a great team,” DeVito said. “We’re playing really good. Our goal is to get better and better every week and I think we’re doing that.”