Norwalk stuns Vermilion for homecoming win

NORWALK — A little homecoming magic. The Norwalk football team got another strong defensive performance against a quality team Friday night when it hosted Vermilion in a non-conference game at Contractors Stadium. And while the Truckers still struggled to score on offense, they got a huge special teams touchdown from Gabe Bellamy, and the defense closed the door on a 14-9 win over the Sailors on homecoming night. Bellamy returned a kickoff 95 yards for a TD after the Sailors (4-2) had just taken a 9-7 lead with 4:44 left in the game. "We just told them from the beginning of the week that we have to keep our heads between the lines and stay focused on the game," Norwalk head coach Keith Mora said. "We've made a lot of great improvements over two weeks; they just weren't showing up on the scoreboard and in the win column, but we've been seeing improvement." Leading 7-6 in the fourth quarter, it appeared the Truckers (2-4) were going to create a turnover on downs before Vermilion quarterback Drake Hooks found a 36-yard pass to a receiver that put the ball at the Norwalk 1-yard line. But an illegal shift penalty pushed the Sailors back five yards, and the Truckers didn't budge. Micah Smith then kicked a 19-yard field goal to give the Sailors the lead. On the ensuing kickoff, Bellamy found an open lane on the return and ran it all the way back for a 95-yard kick return to send the Trucker faithful into a frenzy and put them back up, 14-9. "He found the lane because we still believed in what we were doing," Mora said of Bellamy's return. "When our kids ran off the field after the fourth down and forced them into a field goal, our kids were coming off the field saying, 'We got them where we want them.'" Mora said that's not always been the case in the past. "That's been a nail in a coffin for several years when a team takes a lead late in a game," he said. "We only have one touchdown, so all of a sudden people don't believe in what they're doing. Our kids weren't doing that tonight. "They believed in themselves. If we didn't score there, we were going to score an offense anyway." Vermillion started off the game with a six-minute march down the field to set the tone early. A 20-yard run by Evan Kuhns, who went over the 1,000-yard mark in the loss, sparked the Sailors to get them into Truckers territory. Hooks found a wide-open Micah Smith for the 29-yard connection to put Vermilion on the scoreboard first, but a missed PAT left it at 6-0. On the next drive, the Truckers responded with a lengthy drive of their own. Norwalk established the run and slowed down the game. A 12-play drive led by running backs AJ Weilnau and Gavin Lepley boosted Norwalk downfield with several short gains. Lepley's 16-yard dash and Weilnau's 15-yard gain were enough to get them into the red zone. After three straight stops, facing a fourth-and-3 on the first play of the second quarter, Weilnau went right up the middle and into the end zone on a 5-yard TD run. Tommy Vanderpool booted the extra point for the 7-6 lead. The Sailors looked to respond before halftime, but an interception by the Truckers with 2:29 left killed any swing of momentum. Both teams traded possessions before Vermilion began to gain traction again. Hooks completed a 36-yard pass to Brock Meyers to extend the drive to the Norwalk 39. On the next play, Kuhns broke free for a 39-yard TD run, but it was brought back on a 10-yard holding penalty. Vermilion was forced to punt after a huge defensive stop by the Truckers. Vermilion got the ball early in the fourth and started its march down the field for the go-ahead field goal, only for Bellamy to grab the lead right back with 4:30 left in the game. The Sailors converted a fourth-and-1 at midfield with under two minutes left, but an incomplete pass on a fourth down once again with just over a minute left sealed the game for the Truckers. Mora knew that Norwalk had to slow down the game to hang around with Vermillion. "We're learning how to not shoot ourselves in the foot," he said. "Because again, we are a ball control offense, and we're an offense that wants to eat up the clock and win the time of possession. You don't win the time of possession when you're turning the ball over and making mistakes, so we did a fairly good job with that tonight. "We kind of lost our way a little bit in the second half, but it was great to see our kids have a lot of resolve there and battle through that little moment of not doing things the right way and get back on track." Weilnau totaled 92 yards on 20 attempts for Norwalk. The win snapped a six-game losing streak at Contractors Stadium, dating back to a 7-6 win over Toledo Rogers last season. The Truckers had lost 12 of their last 13 games prior to Friday's big win. The win over Vermilion also unofficially has Norwalk back in playoff contention in Div. III Region 10, as joeeitel.com has the Truckers 11th in the region. "I just hope that people continue to believe in what we're doing," Mora said. "This is the basement where the foundation of a house that we're trying to build is. For years to come, we're going to see this style of football be something that the Norwalk Truckers can do at an elite level. "We just have to see it kind of build and come to fruition. So it's a building block, and it's been a good one for us." The Truckers host Tiffin Columbian (3-3, 1-0) in their SBC Lake opener on Oct. 3 back at Contractors Stadium.