Warriors senior Marty Tobin rushed for 135 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries as Walsh Jesuit improved to 2-0. Last week, they beat defending D-III champion Toledo Central Catholic 17-14 — snapping their 26-game home winning streak.
“They’ve got a good team and they’re going to be a contender in D-II,” said Springfield coach Maurice Douglass. “They’re playing a team from Canada next week and I hope that team from Canada can get ready for that because we didn’t give them no good film to watch.”
Wildcats quarterback CJ Wallace went 16-for-28 for 172 yards and a touchdown. Wildcats senior Sherrod Lay caught seven passes for 52 yards and freshman Timmothy Thompson had three catches for 47 yards and a TD.
Early in the first quarter and facing a fourth down inside their own 5-yard line, a punt snap sailed over punter Preston Allen’s head and through the back of the end zone for a safety, giving Walsh Jesuit a 2-0 lead.
The Warriors (2-0) scored on a 3-yard run by Marty Tobin in the second quarter to make it 9-0 at the half.
On the first possession of the third quarter, Wallace hit freshman Thompson on a 26-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to three points.
Third quarter: Walsh Jesuit 9, Springfield 6. CJ Wallace finds freshman Timothy Thompson for a 25-yard TD pass on the Wildcats first possession of the half. The 2-point try failed. 7:30 remaining. pic.twitter.com/gELgJIaQHJ
— Michael Cooper (@ByMichaelCooper) August 30, 2025
But the Wildcats wouldn’t get any closer. Walsh Jesuit pulled away in the second half on a 1-yard TD run by Carlos Smith, a 9-yard TD run by Tobin and a 2-yard by David Ternosky to make it 30-6.
The game was “way closer than the score indicated,” said Warriors coach Nick Alexander. He was pleased with the way his team responded in the second half knowing Springfield would make a push like it did last week against Winton Woods.
“We were in the locker room at the half and we knew they were going to give us their best,” Alexander said.
Walsh Jesuit is located in Cuyahoga Falls, just north of Akron in Summit County. Douglass and Alexander connected earlier this year when neither program could find a Week 2 opponent, Alexander said.
“We both couldn’t find anybody to play,” he said. “Springfield, this was an awesome place. ... The atmosphere was really cool. Their band is awesome. It was a cool place to play.”
The Wildcats will be looking for answers this week before they travel to Trotwood (2-0) next week, Douglass said.
“We gotta learn how to play,” Douglass said. “We gotta learn to play if we want to play football. We gotta make a decision. Do we want to play or do we want to be pretenders?”
The programs have played close games each of the past two seasons. Springfield won 15-14 last season and the Rams won 21-20 in 2023.
“We gotta try try to win this one next week,” Douglass said. “We just gotta try to find 11 guys that want to play offense and defense. Gotta find us 11.”
About the Author
