Truckers break scoring drought, but fall at Tiffin

TIFFIN — Norwalk led 7-6 early and got some things going offensively Friday night at Tiffin Columbian, which hadn't been the case since Week 4. Columbian and running back Masen Seitz responded to the early deficit and ran away for a 47-20 win in SBC Lake play. Before Friday night, the Truckers hadn't scored since Week 4. "Offensively, we've been working on some things and we kind of got away from some things," Norwalk coach Keith Mora said. "We started to struggle in the middle of the season, so we decided to just go back to the basics and rededicate ourselves to it. Tonight, we saw some of the fruits of that labor." However, with a banged-up defensive line, the Truckers (2-7, 0-3 SBC Lake) didn't have an answer for TC's run game and sophomore running back Seitz. Seitz tallied 27 carries for 257 yards and six touchdowns. "Defensively … we have about 35 guys on our sidelines right now with a lot of guys battling injuries or illness," Mora said. "We lost our three leading tacklers and we have a lot of lineman going both ways. That's actually a spot where we thought we were really strong in at the beginning of the season, but we have to find a way to get back to that." After Columbian's Johnny Bremyer scored on a 41-yard pass from Zach Shawberry in the opening quarter, Norwalk responded as Brayden Viock ran in a 5-yard TD to give the Truckers the 7-6 advantage with 5:16 left in the first quarter. That snapped a scoreless drought that had spanned 199 minutes and 40 seconds of game action. But then Seitz took over. He scored the next four touchdowns for Columbian (4-5, 1-2) as it led 33-7 at the half. Out of the half, Viock threw the ball right through a TC defenders hands into Ben Rothhaar's hands for a 71-yard score. Then Seitz scored two more times to induce a running clock, but Norwalk did score on the final play of the game as Brady Singer found freshman tight end Cade Evans for a 1-yard TD. Despite being 2-7, the Truckers still might have a chance at the playoffs as Clyde visits next week. "We're somehow still in the playoff picture because the state of Ohio thought we should have 16 teams in each region make it, but it would be great to finish off the regular season with an upset of Clyde," Mora said. "That's another really good team. But our kids are battling and not quitting." Norwalk 7 0 7 6 — 20Columbian 12 21 14 — 47 C — Johnny Bremyer 41 pass from Zach Shawberry (pass failed)N — Brayden Viock 5 run (Tommy Vanderpool kick)C — Masen Seitz 6 run (run failed)C — Seitz 22 run (Seitz run)C — Seitz 6 run (run failed)C – Seitz 11 run (Liam Kerr kick)N — Ben Rothhaar 71 pass from Viock (Vanderpool kick)C — Seitz 6 run (Kerr kick)C — Seitz 1 run (Kerr kick)N — Cade Evans 1 pass from Brady Singer