High school football: Wadsworth's Calix Lemp, Cooper Gray get loose for big plays in scrimmage against Brunswick

BRUNSWICK — The Wadsworth football team's best player Thursday night was definitely No. 1. Almost all the Grizzlies wore that number in a two-quarter scrimmage against Brunswick that was won 28-0 by Wadsworth, but No. 1 could easily be a statement about the upcoming season. Wadsworth finished 11-2 a year ago, reached the Division II regional semifinals and shared the Suburban League National Conference title with North Royalton, which upset the Grizzlies in the regular season but got trounced in a postseason rematch. The Grizzlies return a ton of talent in players like running back/safety Gavin Madigan (Army commit), wide receiver/defensive back Calix Lemp (Air Force), running back/linebacker Jacob Earnest, running back/defensive back Cooper Gray and sophomore quarterback Brysen Hall, who started as a freshman. It showed against the Blue Devils, who are striving to improve after a 3-8 season in 2024, but wise-beyond-his-years QB Hall is taking nothing for granted. "We just have to keep improving," he said. "Nothing is given." Hall, who played in the first two games last season and became Wadsworth's starter in Week 3, did plenty of taking against the Blue Devils, completing 10-of-13 passes for 208 yards. His first pass was a perfectly thrown deep slant to Lemp, who turned it into a 67-yard touchdown and later added a 48-yard catch and run. Gray scored untouched on an 85-yard run one play after the Wadsworth defense pushed Brunswick back 9 yards after it had first-and-goal at the 6. The senior also had a 28-yard TD run. The Grizzlies' fourth TD was scored by running back Boden Ballinger, who atoned for losing a fumble as he was about to go into the end zone earlier in the game by plunging in from 2 yards out. Hall, who has had the opportunity to prepare as the starter throughout the preseason as a sophomore, was the engineer of the offense. "Having more time to get work in has helped," he said. "I'm thankful to have such great teammates to push me. (The running game) evens things out nicely, and our line did a great job, too." Defensively, the Grizzlies got standout play from a number of guys wearing No. 1, but No. 46, junior Anderson Tetzel, stood out for reasons other than his different number. Alternating between end and nose tackle, he had a big tackle for loss to set the tone early, and not long after the 6-foot-2, 250-pounder nearly had a pick six on a pass into the flat. "I went up to catch it and my teammate Colton Leavitt hit it out of my hands with his helmet," Tetzel said. "I was going to score, too. I looked up and there was nothing but green grass." The Blue Devils used junior Jake Tamosiunas, who will be their starter a week from tonight in the home season opener against Berea-Midpark, at quarterback for the first 17 minutes. He finished 9-for-18 for 121 yards, including 8-for-12 for 110 to conclude his stint. Senior Nolan Burke played one series and went 1-for-3 for 6 yards and senior Sean Barnett, the team's starter last season, played the final 1:07 and went 2-for-3 for 68 yards. Barnett, also a standout basketball player, was not going to play football this year but changed his mind and joined the Blue Devils at the beginning of this week. Gavin Moore had three catches for 65 yards, Eli Nichols had two for 58, Landen Kirchner had three for 46 and Anthony Gamboa had three for 16. Brunswick's downfall offensively was a complete inability to run the ball, as the Blue Devils finished with minus-19 yards on 14 rushes, though several of those were sacks. "Not well at all," Moore said when asked how he thought the Blue Devils played. "We did not execute. We were making mistakes that are easy to fix, but they were Day 1 mistakes." Brunswick, which got a fumble recovery from Drew Dempsey, had two legitimate chances to score. The first came when standout punter/kicker Vincenzo DiTeodoro missed a 52-yard field goal just to the right, but it had plenty of distance, even after the Blue Devils were whistled for an illegal substitution on what would have been a 47-yarder. The second came after Tamosiunas hit Moore for 36 yards to the Wadsworth 6-yard line, but four running plays lost 9 yards. "That's what they want to do," Moore said of teams taking away the run. "They stop our running game and then are looking pass, pass, pass every play. We need to make them respect our run game." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.