CAREY — The Carey Blue Devils earned a share of the Northern 10 Athletic Conference championship Friday night, but, according to coach Jonathon Mershman, the team has much bigger goals that remain.
“We have that locked up, but I would like to win an outright title next week and that’s our focus right now,” Mershman said. “We’ve never won the N10 in football and that’s our goal right now. It’s a big deal. It’s a big deal for us and that’s what we’re going for.”
The Blue Devils took advantage of two Wynford fumbles on the Royals’ first two possessions of the game and turned them into touchdowns en route to a 37-14 win.
With the win, Carey improved to 6-0 in the conference, 8-1 overall. The Devils can win an outright title next week at Buckeye Central.
The Royals fell to 3-3 in the conference, 4-5 overall. They travel to Mohawk next week.
Wynford’s early miscues turned into a 24-yard touchdown run by quarterback Derek Lonsway and a three-yard run by running back Jordan Vallejo to take a 14-0 lead just 10 minutes into the game.
“You turn the ball over against a good football team, that’s going to happen,” Wynford coach Gabe Helbert said.
“You get a good gain on first down to start the game and, on second down, we fumbled the football,” Helbert added. “We turned the ball over at critical times.”
From there, Vallejo added a 14-yard run as Carey held a 21-0 lead after one quarter.
It was a deficit Wynford could never overcome.
“We took advantage of their fumbles and turned them into points, and you can usually win games when you do that,” Mershman said. “And you can always lose games when you give up turnovers. We took advantage of the opportunities we were given.”
Wynford cut the lead to 21-7 midway through the second quarter when Cobey Allen hit a wide-open Owen Whitmeyer in the middle of the field on a 79-yard touchdown catch-and-run.
But another huge miscue cost the Royals again.
With less than a minute to go in the half, Wynford had stopped the Devils on a third-and-six play at the Wynford 30. But the Royals were penalized for targeting on the play, extending the drive.
Two plays later, Vallejo scored from 10 yards out and added the two-point conversion to give Carey a 29-7 lead at the half.
“Before the half, that was a real tough situation where we had them stopped and, unfortunately, a penalty kept their drive going, and that was a big-time score for them,” Helbert said. “At the half, we could have gone in at 21-7 and feeling pretty good about ourselves.”
Carey took the ball to open the second half and got a 69-yard scoring pass from Lonsway to Bryce Conti as the Devils extended the lead to 37-7.
Wynford got the final score of the game on a 16-yard pass from Allen to Jaron Filliater in the fourth quarter.
Despite the loss, Helbert said that he feels his team is still improving.
“I was really proud of our kids,” Helbert said. “I still see an improving football team. I think our kids have a desire to continue to compete and I’m very proud of them for that. It says a lot about their character. It’s been difficult at times just because we’re not overly used to some of these things. But I am proud of our kids, proud of our effort.”
Vallejo paced the Devils with 147 rushing yards on 20 carries and Lonsway added 89 on 13 carries. But Lonsway also completed nine of 21 passes for 145 yards.
Mershman said that he may have thrown the ball more than normal.
“Whatever the defense was giving us is what we are going to take,” Mershman said. “I thought we ran a ton of plays tonight so we may have thrown the ball a little more tonight, but the ratio may have been the same.
“I thought our front seven on offense and defense played very well tonight,” he added. “And that’s the heart and soul of our team.”
Helbert said that the Devils earned their championship.
“Carey is a very good football team,” Helbert said. “Their offensive line is very good; their defensive line is very good, and their skilled players are good. Their quarterback is good, their running back is a load.
“Hats off to Carey to win a share of the league tonight,” he added. “It’s a special feeling and their kids have worked hard to earn that. You have to give them credit as well.”
Box score
Wynford 0 7 0 7 — 14
Carey 21 8 8 0 — 37
First quarter
C — Derek Lonsway 24 run (Anthony Bell kick), 9:22.
C — Jordan Vallejo 3 run (Bell kick), 2:59
C — Vallejo 14 run (Bell kick), :26.
Second quarter
W — Owen Whitmeyer 79 pass from Cobey Allen (Trent Greene kick) 6:29.
C — Vallejo 10 run (Vallejo run), :33.
Third quarter
C — Bryce Conti 69 pass from Lonsway (Vallejo run), 10:59.
Fourth quarter
W — Jaron Filliater 16 pass from Allen (Greene kick) 10:54.
Individual statistics
Passing
Wynford: Cobey Allen 10-20-0 168. Carey: Derek Lonsway 9-21-0 142.
Rushing
Wynford: Kaden Blair 6-20, Owen Whitmeyer 3-8, Cobey Allen 5-3, Kendall Blair 1-(-1). Carey: Jordan Vallejo 20-147, Derek Lonsway 13-89, Anthony Bell 9-39.
Receiving
Wynford: Owen Whitmeyer 3-99, Jaron Filliater 5-45, Avery Langenderfer 1-9, Kendall Blair 1-9, James Schiefer 1-6. Carey Bryce Conti 5-111, E.J. Boes 1-10, Gage Summit 1-9, Austin Niederkohr 1-6, Lance Woods 1-6.
Team statistics
W C
First downs 7 18
Yards rushing 15-30 42-275
Yards passing 168 142
Passes 11-20-0 9-21-0
Fumbles-lost 3-2 1-1
Punts 3-32.8 1-27.0
Penalties 4-59 4-50