Determined Norwalk ended league skid

Along the home side fence at Contractors Stadium, each senior banner told a story.But of all the different poses by the various Norwalk football players, one has proved most striking. Gabe Bellamy is one of the smallest players on the NHS roster based on weight. But for the custom photo on his banner, Bellamy is flexing his muscles like an NFL linebacker would on a Sunday. "I think I remember someone telling me real quick to flex, and I was trying to figure out a pose," Bellamy said. "So I just did it. But it goes back to me not being the biggest kid out there, but I'm going to be the toughest." That imagery came full circle last week for the Truckers. When the picture was taken, legitimate questions about the health of the program were growing louder. Yet over the past month, Norwalk leaned into an identity. It not only ended a five-year losing streak in league play, but also gave the program a baseline and a clean slate in a new conference moving forward. "I've always known we had a good group of players here," senior fullback AJ Weilnau said. "But it turned out our time was mostly about trying to hold this team together. We had those few rocky years, and obviously we lost some players because it's really hard for some kids to come out for a losing team. "The players we kept were probably the best part of what we had. We just had to find a way to get them going and moving to where they should be." Digging out On Aug. 9, Keith Mora stood outside the Norwalk locker room at Contractors Stadium and was trying to find the right words. The Truckers had just scrimmaged Clear Fork with a little over 30 players in uniform. The combination of injuries and participation in general had gutted the roster, and the season was still weeks away. The third-year coach was also trying to sell a full-scale reset of an offensive philosophy to the Wing-T, a more "old school" style based on deceptive running plays with just one receiver split wide. Days later, the decision was made to cancel the junior varsity season. It was a fine line to walk for a program that had six wins over the past four years. "The feeling back in August, even though we knew we weren't going to have great numbers, I still knew we had this senior class that would keep us in games," Mora said. "I knew there were guys we could trust, but I didn't know what our depth would look like. "If they couldn't stay healthy, we knew how young we'd get and how fast that would happen," he added. "But if we stayed healthy, we could stay in games. Early in the season we did have injuries and had to rely on some of those younger kids in tough spots." That showed with a 1-4 start, saved from 0-5 when an injured Tommy Vanderpool kicked a field goal in overtime to win at Toledo Start in the season opener. With a defense that had played well with an offense that struggled to produce points, the Truckers then got their spark in Week 6. Trailing 9-7, Bellamy returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown with 4:30 left in the game for a 14-9 upset win. Norwalk trailed Tiffin Columbian by 18 (21-3) in the second half when consecutive TDs gave it a chance. But the Tornadoes held on for the 21-16 win. After a 48-3 loss at Perkins, a game Mora admitted he felt like it was the only one this season his team was never in, the Truckers found themselves in a position to remove some negativity. After eight consecutive opponents with winning records, Norwalk was set to host a 1-win Sandusky that also struggled to score in its home finale on Oct. 17. "I can't remember a season, even when we were in junior high, where we won a ton of games early," Weilnau said. "We never did really well at the beginning of a season. We've always been a team to get rolling and to realize what our jobs are later on, "I always had faith in the team and that at some point, things would pick up." Breaking through Of course, the best-laid plans went awry. After fumbling on their own 26, the stout Norwalk defense — which had already given up 21 points in the first half — again couldn't hold. Sandusky scored with six seconds left and took a commanding 28-14 halftime lead. "When we came in the locker room, we weren't down or sad," senior left guard Nate King said. "We were kind of angry, to be honest." Weilnau, who committed one of the two fumbles, said the Truckers had to get it together. That meant hearing some things they didn't want to hear. "We got yelled at a little bit for that first half, but we deserved it," he said. "Football is about whoever executes best as a team. I've always liked the idea and been the kind of player who likes to try to bully the other team. "Halfway through that game, we weren't doing that. Things couldn't have been worse, but getting yelled at and hyped up at the same time got us back." Still, a great drive ended with a turnover on downs at the Sandusky 4-yard line to start the second half. But after a stop, Weilnau capped a 69-yard drive with a 1-yard TD run. Trailing 28-21, the Truckers got a key defensive stand and the ball back. Weilnau scored again on a bulldozing 4-yard run with 6:27 left. Just a minute later, the Norwalk offense got the ball back and was faced with a fourth-and-1 from midfield. Weilnau broke tackles on his way to the first down, only for a 44-yard TD run by Bellamy to be negated on a holding penalty. Still, Bellamy got 19 yards, and the Truckers continued to chip away at the clock and short yardage. That brought out the reliable Vanderpool for an extra-point range field goal attempt. He boomed it through from 19 yards out as time expired for the 31-28 win. For the first time since Sept. 25, 2020 — a span of 1,848 days and more than five years — the Truckers had won a league game after 21 consecutive defeats. "We see the ball go through the uprights, and it's not necessarily a weight lifted off our shoulders," Mora said. "It wasn't so much the losing streak, but more of, 'We've known we can do this all along, and here it is happening for us.'" Identity forged Perhaps the most telling takeaway from the Sandusky win, and possibly the season, was the way the Truckers won. In their attempt to establish the Wing-T as the offense moving forward — it's been implemented at all grade levels within the program — the Truckers found the proof. Norwalk attempted just two passes for seven yards. But the Truckers ran 55 times for 370 yards and 4 TDs on the ground. "Obviously as a lineman, we love it," King said of the offense. "We were so ecstatic when we found out about running the ball like that. We trust in our blocking schemes and our running backs. Last week, we fixed the game plan at halftime and said, 'We're going to commit to this and keep going.'" The Truckers are 3-6 overall entering Friday's regular season finale at Clyde. They would need a win and a lot of help to extend their season. But several of the seniors have already seen their takeaway from 2025. First, the losing streak in league play was snapped at a critical time. The 10 current Lake and Bay Division schools in the Sandusky Bay Conference will form the Northern Ohio Conference beginning in 2026. The Truckers enter the new league without the stigma of the streak. Norwalk also improved on its win total from 2024, when it went 2-9. The win over Sandusky is also the first time in five years the Truckers closed out the home schedule with a victory. It showed a player like Bellamy, all 155 pounds of him, that success can be had out of the Wing-T. He ran for 107 yards and 2 TDs against Sandusky. "Playing against the Wing-T can be humbling if you can't stop it," Bellamy said. "I came from Buckeye Central two years ago and was used to small numbers, but the spread offense. I may not be the heaviest kid out there, but I've always been physical about everything. "I will do what I have to do. We love the physicality of it. It's just a belief in being the more physical team." In the locker room after the game, Mora was struck by his team's reaction when he informed them of the rushing totals. "The pure elation will stick with me," he said. "We said this is what Norwalk football does now, and our kids went nuts. They were excited. No one was in the back of the room pouting because they didn't get enough passes thrown to them. "Our kids want to win, and sometimes that means you do what you have to do to win the game. It was pretty cool for them to be able to see, "This is what we want to do, and we were able to do exactly that." Weilnau ran 35 times for 190 yards and 2 TDs in the 48-minute game. "Our offensive line had a lot of movement with guys not being able to practice or play," he said. "But once they started to figure out their roles, we've been able to play well. "I always knew we had something unique to us," Weilnau added. "We've never been the biggest team, but we have always worked hard to get what we can out of our talent. It was great to see us get an opportunity and take it."