www.sanduskyregister.com/story/201711170021Shelby pulls away from Bellevue in regional title gameKevins Shields - Sandusky Register
ASHLAND — It was far from a perfect half from Bellevue.
The Redmen got the ball into Shelby territory four times, but only came away with points once.
Yet Bellevue had the unbeaten Whippets — who’d played 12 running-clock games coming in — on the ropes as the teams entered the halftime locker room with the Redmen trailing by just a touchdown.
How quickly things changed.
Shelby’s Brady Hill returned the second-half kickoff 85 yards for a score. Then the Whippets scored again just over three minutes later after a Redmen fumble when Brennan Armstrong connected with Uriah Schwemley for a 35-yard TD strike.
Shelby used a 21-point third quarter to pull away for a 42-21 victory in the Division IV Region 14 championship contest held at Ashland’s Community Stadium.
The Whippets (13-0), who’ve won a school-record 13 games, will face Steubenville (13-0) Friday in a rematch of last year’s regional final won by the Big Red, 29-15. Bellevue saw its run to a third regional final in six years come to a close at 9-4.
Hill finished with three TDs for Shelby, catching three passes for 106 yards. Armstrong ran for a scored and added three more through the air, rushing for 130 yards and passing for 181.
“Brady Hill is a Swiss Army Knife,” Whippets coach Erik Will said. “He literally does everything for us. He’s probably one of the best defensive backs I’ve coached. He’s pound for pound the toughest kid on the team.”
Kolten Henry’s 4-yard TD catch with 18 seconds left in the opening half, ended a 10-play, 80-yard Redmen scoring drive.
Bellevue outgained Shelby 212-211 in first-half yardage, racking up 146 on the ground.
“We didn’t do anything different tonight from the first time we played them. We just did a better job of it,” Redmen coach Ed Nasonti said. “There wasn’t any new plays in there. There wasn’t any new wrinkles.”
Hill reversed the field in the opening quarter with a long punt return to the Bellevue 27. That setup a 2-yard scoring run from Devon Brooks just five plays later. Schwemley’s first of six extra points made it 7-0 at the 5:39 mark of the first.
The Redmen nearly scored on the ensuing drive. Treston Francis outran the coverage and had a good 5-yard cushion on any defender, but just missed hauling in a would-be scoring pass at the 3. He made up for it quickly, though, catching a pass for a first down the next play, then breaking off a long run to get to the Whippets’ 20. But the drive ended when Renwand’s fourth-and-9 pass from the 9 was knocked down in the end zone.
Bellevue scored on three of seven trips into Shelby territory on the night as missed opportunities became a theme.
Having held up on defense after the long 15-play, 73-yard drive, the Whippets pushed their lead to two scores.
Armstrong — a soft University of Minnesota commit — was held in check most of the opening quarter by the Redmen defense. But he finally broke loose, finding a gap up the middle of the defense for a 42-yard TD run to make it 14-0 with 9:39 left in the half.
“That stuff is tough to stop for 48 minutes,” said Nasonti of Armstrong’s ability to scramble and make plays with his arm and feet. “You can do it for 24 minutes, but 48 minutes … he breaks a tackle here and they get a receiver loose behind the defense. They have good players everywhere and your margin for error is really small.
“Throw that opening second-half kickoff and that long punt return in there, that’s two scores right there,” he added.
Francis had a 35-yard touchdown run called back on a holding call on Bellevue’s second drive, which would’ve given the Redmen a 7-0 lead.
Francis still finished with 99 yards on the ground and added 81 yards on seven catches. He caught an 11-yard TD that he tipped to himself in the end zone to bring the Redmen within 28-14 in the third quarter.
Bryce Ray ran for a game-high 132 yards on 23 carries. Bellevue ran for 257 yards as a group. Renwand finished 15-of-29 passing for 133 yards, but was intercepted three times.
Still, it was a much better result than Week 4’s 46-0 loss to the Whippets.
“We knew it was going to be different tonight,” Will said. “Everyone thought it was 46-0 the first time around and it shouldn’t be an issue, but they don’t know Ed Nasonti and Bellevue. We knew they were going to be better at the point of attack and they were going to be more physical.
“They were given new life and they utilized each second of it,” he added.
Bellevue will lose 18 seniors from a group that only lost to teams with 10-0 records or better.
“I’m proud of our kids…they’re 2-2 after four games and they stayed the course. There was never any finger pointing going on. They did a lot of things they can be proud of. There’s going to be a lot of good memories for everyone involved.”