“Real good!” the players shouted.
A 42-14 victory against rival Wayne provided that kind of feeling. Springfield (4-3, 4-0) won its fourth straight game since an 0-3 start, while ending Wayne’s three-game winning streak. The Warriors (4-3, 3-1) fell into a tie for second place with Fairmont (3-4, 3-1).
Springfield now stands alone atop the Greater Western Ohio Conference standings with three games to play. It plays Beavercreek (3-3, 2-1), Fairmont and Northmont (0-7, 0-4) in the last three weeks as it seeks its first GWOC championship since 2022.
Springfield has outscored four GWOC opponents 128-21.
“It’s always, ‘Win the GWOC,’” Springfield coach Maurice Douglass said, “and if you win the GWOC, you’re going to have the opportunity to get a good seed in the playoffs.”
Springfield ended a two-game regular-season losing streak in the series. It lost 36-6 at home to Wayne in 2024. In 2023, Springfield lost 27-22 at Wayne in the regular season but beat Wayne 38-14 in the first round of the playoffs.
Since 2018, counting two playoff games, Springfield is 8-2 against Wayne.
Springfield took a 7-0 lead when Sherrod Lay Jr. returned the opening kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown.
“We know he can do that,” Douglass said. “He’s one of the best athletes. He may not be the biggest or have the biggest name, but he’s one of the most competitive players in the GWOC, and I’ll take a handful of Sherrod Lays all day against anybody. We’ve been blocking all year for him, and this is the first time he got an opportunity to get one.”
Wayne answered on its first possession with a 6-yard touchdown run by Isaiah Thompson. It was his seventh score of the season.
The Wildcats then scored 35 straight points.
Christopher Wallace threw touchdown passes of 10 and 9 yards, respectively to Braylon Keyes and Deontre Long in the second quarter. Springfield took a 21-7 lead into halftime.
Fourteen seconds into the second half, Springfield’s Jack Cherry returned a fumble 22 yards for a touchdown.
Wallace threw a touchdown pass to Preston Allen to give Springfield a 35-7 lead.
Springfield players were especially excited about the touchdown by Allen, who ran for 11 touchdowns last season as a junior at Northwestern but had not caught a pass for the Wildcats until the touchdown.
“Big P!” Douglass said. “(His teammates) know what type of athlete he is.”
Keyes caught a 52-yard pass from Wallace to extend the lead to 42-7 with 27 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Keyes caught seven passes for 114 yards.
Wayne broke Springfield’s 35-0 run with a 4-yard run by Kye Graham with 7:04 to play.
Wallace completed 21 of 32 passes for a season-high 255 yards. He has 13 touchdown passes and seven interceptions.
“He’s always been a great leader,” Douglass said. “But when you haven’t played for so long, it’s going to take time. You’ve got to remember we’ve got four brand-new linemen. Only one of our linemen was playing football last year on Friday nights. One was playing in the band. The other three were playing on Saturday mornings at 10 o’clock, and then the quarterback hadn’t played for years.”
Wallace, the son of offensive coordinator Chris Wallace, a star quarterback at South High School and Toledo in the 1990s, played basketball at Springfield the last two years but decided to return to football for his junior year.
“It’s finally starting to click,” Douglass said. “We saw glimpses of it in the summer, but now you’re starting to see it. You can tell that he’s been doing his film study, and he’s always been a student of the game. His dad is going to make sure of that.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
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