Coldwater’s Cody Depweg twirls into the endzone for his second touchdown for the Cavaliers. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
Coldwater flashed enough finesse to augment a robust running game and dominant defense that pushed Bluffton aside and advanced the Cavaliers to the Division VI state championship game.
Veteran columnist Bruce Hooley writes Ohio State basketball and sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Wapakoneta, OH – It began in conditions ideal for the National Hockey League’s outdoor Winter Classic, which turned out to be fitting given Mason Welsch’s contribution to Coldwater’s Division VI state semifinal victory Friday at Harmon Field.
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While his name won’t officially appear in the scoring summary of the Cavaliers’ 28-6 victory over Bluffton, had the game been played on a rink and not just in snow-globe style conditions at the outset, Welsch would have emerged with three assists and not just seven receptions for 88 receiving yards.
In hockey, you see, they give you credit for the play that leads to the play that lights up the scoreboard.
Welsch had one colossal contribution to each of Coldwater’s three first-half touchdown drives that effectively decided the outcome and advanced head coach Chip Otten’s Cavaliers (14-1) to Saturday’s 10:30 a.m. state title game against Kirtland (15-0).
Miles Pottkotter drives through an attempted take down to pick up extra yardage for the Cavaliers.
“You always have to know where Mason is because he’s going to make a play if we need a play to be made,” quarterback Baylen Blockberger said.
Welsch’s 13-yard catch on Coldwater’s first possession converted a third-and-nine to set up Miles Pottkotter’s five–yard run for the opening touchdown at 6:38 of the first quarter.
Welsch, though, had plenty more in store for Bluffton before the half ended.
Early in the second period, with the Cavs facing fourth-and-13 at the Bluffton 25, he adapted his pattern to go deeper than planned, then rose and snatched Blockberger’s dart while tight-roping and toe-tapping the right sideline for 16 yards.
I was running a five-yard route,” Welsch said. “We had a curl concept, so the other guys were going deeper. I wasn’t open, so I cut up the field and Bay hit me on a great pass. That was just awesome. It was hanging up there perfectly for me and I just went up and got it.”
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Cody Depweg smashed across from the two for a 14-0 lead that grew to 21-0 after Coldwater held the Pirates to negative yardage following a kickoff return to midfield.
Welsch started that drive with a 10-yard catch and sophomore Braxton Taylor chipped in three runs that got the Cavs moving until a holding penalty threatened to derail the threat.
Mason Welsch pulls down a pass from quarterback Baylen Blockberger.
Instead, Welsch took a middle screen for 14 yards on third-and-18 and Pottkotter rumbled for nine yards on fourth-and-five, feeding his 14-carry, 77-yard performance.
Another 14-yard throw to Welsch preceded Depweg’s four-yard run for a 21-0 lead before the half.
“Defensively, we couldn’t make the plays we needed to,” Bluffton head coach Jeff Richards said. “There were a few times we had opportunities to stop them and they just out-executed us and outplayed us.
“The fact of the matter is, Coldwater is a great team and deserves to be playing for a state title.
That’s hard to argue, given the Cavs’ balance offensively (183 yards rushing, 133 passing) and defensively.
Bluffton (13-2), which scored 563 points and averaged 388 yards per-game, managed just 188 yards, a lone fourth-quarter TD and went 0-for-10 on third down.
Blockberger was an efficient 8-of-13 in the frigid conditions, showing the poise to keep his gaze downfield when rolling out, while also gaining 32 yards on the three times he chose to run.
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“You have to get your hands warm and keep them warm with gloves and hand-warmers,” Blockberger said. Then you just act like it’s warm out. You can’t really think about it or you’re not going to throw a good ball.”
Coldwater’s only blemish in an otherwise sterling advance were five fumbles, two of which it lost.
Noah Welsch takes down Pirate quarterback Tayte Giesige for a sack.
A repeat of that would likely prove fatal against Kirtland, which has reached its 13th state title game in the last 14 years and will be playing a Midwest Athletic Conference opponent for the fourth straight year with a championship on the line.
MAC teams are 2-1 against Kirtland over that span, with Versailles taking the Division V crown from the Hornets in 2021 (20-16), before losing to them last year, 32-15.
In between, Marion Local claimed a 14-6 win over Kirtland for the 2022 Division VI crown.
“We’ll have to take care of the ball better next week for sure,” Otten said. “Those kind of mistakes can kill you if the game is close. We know they’re a physical team, so that’ll be a challenge for us with our quickness and our blitzes.”
Coldwater, like Kirtland, has seven titles of its own, five under Otten, whose 5-4 mark in state championship games includes a split against the Hornets.
Quarterback Baylen Blockberger picks up yards in the Cavaliers state semi-final win over Bluffton.
There will be plenty of time for rehashing that history, and the MAC’s against Kirtland in recent years, as the week progresses. Friday night, however, was time for the Cavaliers to enjoy their advance one step closer to the goal that’s fueled them since losing senior classmate Cale Wenning in a tragic accident in August on the cusp of the season-opener.
Wenning, the Cavs’ starting center, was at the forefront of his teammates’ minds after the win over Bluffton.
“This feels awesome, doing it for Cale and everybody,” Welsch said. “This whole town needed it. We know what we need to do to win this state championship for Cale and for our town. This feels absolutely amazing for our seniors and our team. We’ve been through a lot.”
Depweg couldn’t discuss his three touchdowns without crediting Wenning for ingraining the mindset that made them possible.
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“He was always the one pushing the coaches, ‘Let’s go under center. We need to go under center in case we need to play power football.’ “ Depweg said.
In the jubilant post-game locker room, Otten noted that the bond goes deeper than football with the seniors who will suit up for him one last time on Saturday at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton.
“This senior class has a bunch of smart guys and they all hang out together,” he said. “There are 15 of them, 16 really, because Cale is a part of this team. They’re all buddies. For whatever reason, this is a really close group. They all like each other. Practice is easy with them.”
Running back Cody Depweg crosses the goal line for a Cavalier touchdown.
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