Truckers miss in key spots vs. Shelby

NORWALK — Better, but not quite there. The Norwalk football team had two lengthy drives on offense against visiting Shelby in its live one-half scrimmage Friday night. But both times, the Truckers came up empty and struggled to keep up with the high-powered Whippets' offense in a 27-0 shutout over the two quarters at Contractors Stadium. Shelby was 12-1 last season and was one play away from taking a 13-0 mark into a regional championship game in Division IV. The Whippets are led by All-Ohio first-team quarterback Brayden DeVito, an Air Force recruit. "In our second offensive drive, we moved the ball effectively against a team that is probably going to be top five or 10 in Division IV," Norwalk head coach Keith Mora said. In the Cleveland Plain Dealer preseason poll, the Whippets are ranked No. 4. "And we moved the ball against their defense and kept their offense off the field, which we did by the way we moved the ball," Mora said. "But ultimately we have to put it in the end zone. It's really deflating when you drive down the field but can't score." During that series, the Truckers had a fourth-and-2 and opted to go for the first down, but a pass attempt was intercepted and returned for a Shelby touchdown. "It was a scrimmage, so we figured, why not go for it there?" Mora said. "If we can keep their offense off the field longer, then let's try it. We can live with that. "So you really start to look at the little pieces of the game, and you can say our offense kept us in it for a pretty good amount of time," he added. "We just need to keep believing and buying in, and I think our kids are. Now they got to see some of our success doing it tonight." The Truckers were again driving on the Whippets early in the second quarter, as a Brady Singer pass to Kaedyn Warner had them in the red zone. But after reaching the Shelby 12, the Truckers went backwards. A field goal attempt by Tommy Vanderpool was then just wide to the left. The very next play, DeVito fired a strike and found Brady Bowman in stride for an 80-yard touchdown pass and a 20-0 Shelby lead. "And that's one of those things where it was a correctable mistake," Mora said. "I'm more concerned if our defense is being worn down at four or five yards a play because something structurally is not good or if kids don't tackle well. "But when a Division I quarterback goes over the top like that, I can sleep at night knowing we just have to make corrections that are a little bit smaller in scale compared to a team that can just drive the ball down the field against you." After a Norwalk punt, the Whippets added one more TD pass from inside the 25 to close out the scoring. The Truckers open the regular season Friday at Toledo Start. Norwalk has beaten the Spartans in each of the past two seasons, but Start went 7-2 after last season's loss to the Truckers in the opener. "The first thing I reminded the kids of is we haven't won this game just because of the previous two years," Mora said. "This is a different Start team, and we're a different team. We have to go out and earn it and not live off the past. Everything Monday has to be all about Start this year. "We need to focus on what they do offensively and defensively, but also worry about what Norwalk is going to do," he added. "We just have to make sure we're getting better as well. This is a newer offense, and we're in our infancy of this. Our kids are believing in it, which is great. It makes it a lot easier to come in on Monday and get after it."