High school football: Black River bends, doesn't break in OT win over Wellington

WELLINGTON — Almost everything went wrong for the Black River football team Friday. The Pirates turned the ball over four times and were stopped on fourth down three more. They missed a key extra point that left the door open for Wellington to walk off in overtime. The one constant was shut-down defense, and when the Dukes were 5 yards from the end zone in overtime, the Pirates didn't allow another yard and escaped with a 13-7 win in the Lorain County League opener for both teams. "Our kids never hung their heads, and that's what I'm proud of the most," Black River coach Kyle Clark said. "We had some things not go our way, we made some mistakes and we played a really good football team. They matched up against us really, really well. To come down there and stop them when they had four plays inside the 5, I'm just so proud of them. They did everything we asked and played tough at the end." Black River (2-2, 1-0) moved the ball well with 414 total yards to Wellington's 222. Senior running back Seth Gaspari led the way with 26 carries, 215 yards and a touchdown as the Pirates piled up 353 rushing yards and 22 first downs. "We came into this game knowing we had to block hard," Gaspari said. "They're a good team, and we knew we had to run the ball down their throat. We came in confident, and it showed today." Wellington (2-2, 0-1) only had seven first downs and 45 rushing yards. Most of its passing yardage came on two big plays by Johnnie Kinter, a 45-yard touchdown and a 75-yard catch in the fourth quarter that looked like it was going to be the backbreaker, but on the latter the Pirates forced a 38-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide left. The Pirates were marred by turnovers in the first half. A fumble set up the aforementioned touchdown to Kinter, and Black River's last two drives of the half ended with interceptions in the Wellington end zone. While Black River had another fumble in the second half, its bigger hurdle was converting on fourth down. Wellington stopped three promising drives on fourth down to force overtime. "Big shout out to our coaches to keep our heads up all game, especially when (Kinter) was catching the ball and running through us," Gaspari said. "Our coaches definitely kept our heads up and that's what helped us pull through this." Black River needed just five plays to score in overtime. The first four carries went to Gaspari before quarterback Zane Bungard punched it in from 5 yards. The extra point was wide left, giving the Dukes a chance to walk it off in overtime. Connor Stevens got Wellington to the 5-yard line with a 10-yard run, but Black River stuffed the Dukes twice and forced two incompletions as the Dukes tried to find Kinter on a pass. Bryce Murray tipped the ball away from Kinter, who ran a quick out from the tight end position, on the final play, and Alex Woolfrom's hard hit would have likely stopped Kinter a yard short of the goal line anyway. "I thought our defense played solid," Clark said. "We're still not tackling well, I thought they were able to break it after a couple of missed tackles. But their receiver and quarterback are really good. We never hung our heads, we knew we were in the game and I'm just so darn proud of the way we finished." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or sports@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X. Black River 13, Wellington 7 (OT) BLACK RIVER 7 0 0 0 6 — 13 WELLINGTON&emsp;&emsp;0 7 0 0 0 — 7 First B — Seth Gaspari 26 run (Alex Woolfrom kick), 8:54. Second W — Johnnie Kinter 45 pass from Landon Wright (Bryce Lehmkuhl kick), 8:20. Overtime B — Zane Bungard 5 run (kick failed). &emsp;&emsp;B &emsp;&emsp;W First downs &emsp;&emsp;22 &emsp;&emsp;7 Rushing &emsp;&emsp;51/353&emsp;&emsp;25/45 Rushing average &emsp;&emsp;6.9 &emsp;&emsp;1.8 Passing &emsp;&emsp;9/14 &emsp;&emsp;9/16 Yards passing &emsp;&emsp;61 &emsp;&emsp;177 Total offense &emsp;&emsp;65/414 41/222 Punting &emsp;&emsp;1/32.0 5/38.2 Penalties/yards &emsp;&emsp;4/40 &emsp;&emsp;5/35 Fumbles/lost &emsp;&emsp;4/2 &emsp;&emsp;2/0 RUSHING: Black River — Seth Gaspari 26-215, Zane Bungard 16-89, Dozier Hendershot 7-49, Alex Woolfrom 2-0. Wellington — Connor Stevens 8-27, Baron Turner Jr. 8-16, Trey Moore 3-3, Will Sipos-Sutton 3-3, Landon Wright 3-(-4). PASSING: Black River — Bungard 9-13-61-0-1, Gaspari 0-1-0-0-1. Wellington — Wright 9-16-177-0-0. RECEIVING: Black River — Bryce Murray 1-19, Gaspari 1-15, Kage Petuzzi 2-14, Austin Pamer 4-10, Alex Woolfrom 1-3. Wellington— Johnnie Kinter 3-133, Alex Frenk 2-32, Turner 1-5, Will Sipos-Sutton 1-5, Connor Stevens 2-2. MISSED FIELD GOAL: Wellington — Frenk 38 (WL).