Galion's rushing attack leads to big win over Shelby

GALION — Talk about bouncing back in a big way.

A week after losing 36-10 to Clear Fork, the Galion football team picked up its biggest win of the season Friday night, a 34-27 decision over visiting Shelby in Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference action.

The Tigers had to fend off a late Whippets rally and 450 yards passing by freshman phenom Brayden DeVito. Galion countered Shelby's air attack by rushing for nearly 300 yards.

But first, Galion had to put last week's loss in the past.

"It is a process," coach Matt Dick said. "As coaches, we hate it just as bad as the players."

Dick noted the stinging loss to Clear Fork didn't go away easily. He said early week practices did not go well.

"We challenged our kids. We were all over them," Dick said. "Come Wednesday, some good things were happening. Some things started to click.

"You lick your wounds for awhile when you have a tough loss."

Junior running back Gabe Ivy paced the rushing attack with 192 yards and two touchdowns for the Tigers (3-3, 2-1), who put themselves in contention for the MOAC title.

A week after limiting Marion Harding to 10 yards of total offense, Shelby could not stop the Tigers on the ground.

"I thought we executed poorly," coach Rob Mahaney said. "We missed some calls. We missed some signs. We knew they were going to run Buck sweep, and they ran it right at us."

Shelby commits three turnovers in defeat

The Whippets (4-2, 2-1) were unable to overcome their mistakes, which included three turnovers and numerous penalties.

"We have to execute at a high level to be successful," Mahaney said.

Shelby's first mistake was a high snap that went into the end zone, where Landon Kurtzman pounced on it for a Galion touchdown at the 7:12 mark of the first quarter.

The tone had been set.

Still, the Whippets answered the score 15 seconds later when DeVito hit a streaking Issaiah Ramsey down the left sideline for a 59-yard bomb.

But Ramsey had only one more catch all night, even though he and DeVito have been a dynamic duo all season.

"We had a good scheme to take away their No. 1 receiver," Dick said. "Some other kids got loose, but we knew we were going to live with that. We were going to take him (Ramsey) away. He's a big part of their offense."

The Tigers opened up a 27-14 lead at the half behind two touchdown runs by Ivy and a 15-yard scoring pass from sophomore quarterback Braxton Prosser to Landon Campbell.

An 8-yard TD burst by Skyler Winters kept the Whippets within striking distance.

Galion opens up 20-point lead early in fourth quarter

After a scoreless third quarter, Galion seemed to have the game well in hand when Prosser went straight up the middle for a 31-yard touchdown run and a 34-14 Tigers lead early in the final quarter.

But Shelby rallied late, with DeVito hooking up with Camdyn Wheeler on a 42-yard scoring pass with 3:02 to play to make the score 34-21.

On the ensuing drive, the Whippets held Galion to a three-and-out to get the ball back at least one more time.

DeVito hit Grayson Heydinger with a 5-yard scoring pass, but only 36 seconds remained. The Tigers recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

"Our kids fought all the way to the end. There's no doubt about that," Mahaney said. "That's all you can ask."

The Shelby coach lamented seeing his team make three other trips to the red zone, only to come away with no points.

"Those missed opportunities, those missed points, they matter, they count," Mahaney said. "We've got to find ways to execute."

"As bad as this is right now, we still control our own destiny if we can win out. We've got to shore up our defense, and offensively, we've got to quit turning the ball over. We have to determine where we're going to go as a football team. Are we going to pack it in, or are we going to step up, handle some adversity and move forward?"

With Ramsey held in check, Wheeler and Heydinger picked up the slack. Wheeler caught eight passes for 126 yards, and Heydinger added five receptions for 94 yards.

Dick said he was pleased with how his team responded after struggling on short-yardage situations last week.

"We've got to get tough," he said. "That's what good smash-mouth teams do."

Dick said the Tigers might have matched up better with Shelby than they did with Clear Fork.

"The MOAC is hard every week. There are no byes," he said. "Every week is about going 1-0."

mcaudill@gannett.com

419-521-7219

Twitter: @MNJCaudill

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Galion fends off Shelby 34-27 in Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference football