OTTAWA – Heading out on the road in Week 13 didn’t seem to faze Clear Fork much.
Even throwing in an 8 p.m. start time — to accommodate Ottawa-Glandorf fans traveling to watch the volleyball team play for a state title in Dayton earlier in the day — as a curveball hours before kickoff was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
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“I think our schedule has helped tremendously, especially early on,” Clear Fork coach Aaron Brokaw said. “We had both of our scrimmages and our first two games on the road, so we just reminded the guys this week that this is not new territory.
“We haven’t done it in a little while … but we’ve done this before and you guys performed at a very high level — that’s the expectation.”
Clear Fork’s Trey Sellers sheds a tackle from Ottawa-Glandorf’s Gage Bellman for a big gain. The Colts beat the Titans 35-9 in a Division IV, Region 14 semifinal at Ottawa-Glandorf High School on Nov. 13, 2026.
The four-seed Colts exceeded those expectations throttling undefeated top-seed Ottawa-Glandorf 35-9 on the Titans’ own turf in a Division IV, Region 14 semifinal.
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“Coming out with energy was a big focus this week, but us seniors are playing for our football careers,” Clear Fork’s Trey Sellers said. “We have to come out with energy each game from here on out, we’re playing for our football lives.”
And that was apparent from the opening drive as the Colts needed less than four minutes to score with Sellers ripping off a 33-yard touchdown run on the sixth play of a drive that started from their own 32.
“Our o-line came out full of energy to start off,” Sellers said finishing with 17 carries for 118 yards and two touchdowns. “And Alex Schlosser came up with a few big blocks, it was amazing.”
Traditionally a team that dictates the tempo and grinds out possessions eventually ending in the end zone, the Colts flashed a few big plays that swung momentum in their favor.
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Their second touchdown was a 33-yard strike from Marcus Hoeflich to Nash Evans, and they linked up again in the second quarter on 3rd-and-12 for 23 yards to extend a drive that ended in a Schlosser rushing score. And their final touchdown was a Hoeflich-to-Evans 29-yard completion. Hoeflich was 6-of-9 passing for 104 yards, Evans caught four passes for 91 yards.
Clear Fork’s Nash Evans makes a reception. The Colts beat the Titans 35-9 in a Division IV, Region 14 semifinal at Ottawa-Glandorf High School on Nov. 13, 2026.
“We like to pound the ball down other team’s throats,” Sellers said. “I think we do a good job running the ball and our RPO off that. Marcus has been a great quarterback for us all year as a dual threat — the kid’s a beast — playing off him with the other guys around, we can be scary.”
Clear Fork still stuck to its roots, though, rushing 49 times for 272 yards to control the block and give the defense ample time to rest between drives. Schlosser added 90 yards on 16 carries, Marcus Hoeflich 34 yards, Davis Hoeflich 16 yards.
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“That’s just who we are,” Brokaw said. “We’re going to try to run the ball, we’re going to find different ways to try to run the ball … and if we came out doing something other than that … our guys (would ask) what happened to coach, what’s going on?
“Their mentality is that they love that, they expect it, and it’s easy to call that stuff when they’re going out and executing the way they are right now.”
As much as the Colts love embracing the ground-and-pound, they might love played defense even more. For the seventh time this season they limited an opponent to single-digits scoring.
The Titans became the first team in the last month to score against Clear Fork on a 24-yard field goal early in the second quarter — it ended a 285-minute shutout stretch dating back to Oct. 6 — but otherwise struggled to string together meaningful possessions totaling 253 yards on 47 plays with 69 of that coming on Ottawa-Glandorf’s lone touchdown.
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“We got a lot of guys that like to play football, and they like to play aggressive football,” Brokaw said. “The more of those guys we get on the field, the more defense is fun. And it’s not just one guy, everybody’s flying around and that’s the way we teach it. That’s the way we do it and the kids love it.”
Clear Fork’s Jackson Brubaker (9) and Quentin Rinehart (3) tackle Ottawa-Glandorf’s Gage Bellman. The Colts beat the Titans 35-9 in a Division IV, Region 14 semifinal at Ottawa-Glandorf High School on Nov. 13, 2026.
Clear Fork sacked O-G’s Tanner Vogt four times — Sellers nabbing a pair on back-to-back plays — and the Colts found themselves in the backfield pressuring Vogt or getting hands on a running back more times than not.
“Trey’s had a phenomenal season, but he has really taken it to another notch here in the second half of the season and in the postseason,” Brokaw said. “He’s a pain for defenses the way he runs and he’s a pain for offenses the way he comes after the quarterback.”
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For the third consecutive season the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference will pit a pair of rivals against each other deep in the postseason. In 2024 it was Shelby and Ontario playing out a thrilling regional semifinal at historic Arlin Field, last fall it was Shelby getting the best of Galion at Arlin Field for a regional title, and next week Clear Fork gets another shot at the Whippets … at Arlin Field? That’s still to be determined.
“Shelby is a great team and they’ve done a lot of really good things the last four or five years,” Brokaw said. “We played with them at our place … they have a tremendous team, and we feel like we’ve got a tremendous team. It’s going to be a good ol’ Richland County cross-county rivalry. And I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing Arlin Field’s going to be packed for that.”
“I’m pumped up for a rematch,” Sellers added. “Shelby has a good program and good coaches, but I’m fired up and ready to go.”
zholden@gannett.com | 419-617-6018 | Twitter/X: @Zachary_Holden
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Clear Fork pummels top-seed Ottawa-Glandorf in regional semifinal
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
