BELLVILLE — Shelby opened its matchup Friday against Clear Fork with a 66-yard touchdown.
Only 15 seconds passed from the time Whippet quarterback Brayden DeVito connected with Kaden Price — who finished the game with four catches for 151 yards and two TDs.
The junior wide receiver also had a 92-yard score negated by an offensive penalty.
Three additional Shelby (8-0, 5-0) receivers tallied more than 60 receiving yards Friday during the Whippets’ 34-7 win over the Colts (2-6, 1-4) in Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference play.
“We knew they were going to play man defense, so we just had to beat our guys and go,” Price said.
Six Whippet receivers recorded at least one catch Friday night. Brady Bowman led the group with seven catches for 167 yards, followed by Price.
Michael Shepherd, Nic Eyster and Avery Lambert each tallied more than 40 receiving yards and Sam Gwirtz had a 2-yard catch for a score.
DeVito, who recently surpassed former Shelby quarterback Brennan Armstrong as the program’s career passing leader, completed 22-of-30 attempts for a whopping 489 yards and 4 TDs.
Photos: Shelby at Clear Fork
Whippets didn’t ‘look past’ gritty Clear Fork squad
After Price’s electric score just moments into the game, the Whippets didn’t score again until under three minutes remained in the third quarter.
Shelby coach Rob Mahaney said his team wasn’t looking past the Colts in Week Eight, knowing Clear Fork has shown grit in several games this season.
“I thought we just didn’t execute very well,” Mahaney said of the slow start.
“We had a ton of penalties. Offensively, we killed some drives even when we had big chunk plays to get down inside the red zone, we didn’t finish.”
Mahaney described his team’s play Friday as “a little flat,” but said the Whippets weren’t thinking ahead to their Week Nine battle-of-unbeatens against Ontario (8-0, 5-0).
Shelby also lost its senior tight end/defensive end in Karsen Homan early into the first half.
“Did it affect us? I don’t know, but I can tell you I thought we were flat on the sideline and at times it looked like that,” he said. “But give a lot of credit to Clear Fork and a lot of credit to our kids.
“After Clear Fork tied it, we were able to come together, not let it snowball and have a great end of the third quarter and fourth quarter.”
The Colts’ lone score came at the 3:31 mark of the third quarter. Quarterback Marcus Hoeflich connected with senior speedster Jay Jackson for a 59-yard TD to tie the game 7-7.
After Jackson’s TD, the Whippets rattled off 27 unanswered points to close out Clear Fork and remain unbeaten through eight weeks.
“After a slow first half, the coaches talked to us and in the second half we locked in,” Price said.
Clear Fork will continue to ‘fight for 48 minutes’
Entering Week Eight off a one-point victory over Marion Harding, the Colts largely kept the game within reach through three quarters.
Clear Fork coach Aaron Brokaw said his squad has played exceptionally hard all season.
“We just haven’t gotten a lot of things to go our way,” he said. “We just keep their heads up and keep battling.
“They’re going to keep fighting for 48 minutes week in and week out. Eventually, good things are going to start happening for these guys.”
Clear Fork generated 245 yards of total offense Friday. Hoeflich completed 10-of-18 passes for 136 yards and one score. Jackson, his primary target, caught seven passes for 115 yards and a TD.
Porter Schmidt ran the ball 15 times for 53 yards.
“We just couldn’t finish drives out there early,” Brokaw said.
“You put one or two of those on the board, you really put a team like Shelby, that hasn’t been behind a whole lot, in a whole different situation. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do that tonight.”
Clear Fork will play on the road next week at Highland (3-5, 2-3).
(Below are more photos from Bellville on Friday night, including Clear Fork’s 2024 Homecoming Court, as well as the Shelby High School and Clear Fork High School marching bands.)
Scoring summary: Shelby 34, Clear Fork 7
1st quarter
Shelby — Kaden Price 66-yard pass from Brayden DeVito, 7-0
2nd quarter
No scoring.
3rd quarter
Clear Fork — Jay Jackson 59-yard pass from Marcus Hoeflich, 7-7
Shelby — Michael Shepherd 43-yard pass from DeVito, 14-7
Shelby — Price 63-yard pass from DeVito, 21-7
4th quarter
Shelby — Marcus Gumbert 8-yard run, 27-7
Shelby — Sam Gwirtz 2-yard pass from DeVito, 34-7