BELLVILLE — Trey Sellers couldn’t have picked a better moment for his second career interception.

Clear Fork’s junior safety picked off a Trey Remy pass at his own 2-yard line with just five seconds remaining to preserve Friday’s 14-10 win over Ontario at the Colt Corral.

It was Clear Fork’s fourth interception of the evening and sent the Colts (3-1, 1-0 Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference) to their first win over the Warriors (2-2, 0-1) since 2022. Clear Fork had won three straight in the long-running series, including last year’s 24-2 victory in the opening round of the playoffs.

“I was just in my back peddle, kind of playing back on the corner route in a late-game situation and I saw he overthrew it,” Sellers said. “Playing tight and sticking to receivers is what we do.”

Fantastic Finish

The final sequence capped a frenetic fourth quarter as the Warriors, who had been stymied much of the evening by Clear Fork’s stingy defense, drove the length of the field to give themselves a chance to win.

“I’m proud of the way we gave ourselves a chance,” Ontario coach Aaron Eckert said. “I thought we played hard. Now we have to play hard and well. We have to put it together.

“We have to grow up. We’re a football team that’s trying to figure itself out.”

Ontario turned the ball over six times. Clear Fork recovered a pair of fourth-quarter fumbles and picked off three passes in the first half.

“Defensively, I thought we played light’s-out,” Clear Fork coach Aaron Brokaw said. “There were a lot of turnovers. We kept making plays there.

“The defense was the real deal tonight and that’s what we expect of them week-in and week-out.”

Miscues

Turnovers were a theme for both teams as the Colts gave the ball away three times. Ontario’s first score, a 24-yard Kooper Kilgore field goal in the first quarter that gave the Warriors a 3-0 lead, was set up when Clarence Blevins recovered a fumble on Clear Fork’s first offensive play from scrimmage.

Tre Fowler picked off a Clear Fork pass in the fourth quarter and Alex McWhorter recovered a fumble.

“Offensively, we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Brokaw said. “We’ve got to find a way to overcome that sort of adversity.”

Clear Fork took a 7-3 lead on Devyn Oswalt’s 48-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter and looked to be in prime position to push the margin to 14-3 early in the second. The Colts had the ball first-and-goal from the Ontario 1-yard line, but failed to score.

“That was something at halftime that we addressed,” Brokaw said. “To be who we want to be and who we think we’re going to be, we’ve got to be able to punch it it on first-and-goal from the 1.”

Third-Quarter Fireworks

Ontario trailed 7-3 at the half, but took the lead when Fowler returned the second-half kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown. 

Clear Fork answered midway through the third. Porter Schmidt powered into the end zone for a 17-yard run to make it 14-10.

“I think defensively, for the most part, we played pretty well. Our defense kept us in the game time and time and time again,” Eckert said. “Our special teams played pretty well.

“Offensively we’ve got to figure it out. We gave the ball away six times and against a good team you can’t do that.”