Football: Werntz plays hero in Celina’s win over Bath

By
Chris Howell
-

Kaiden Werntz of Celina throws a stiff arm against Bath on Friday night.

Chris Howell | The Lima News

CELINA — When the game is on the line, put the ball in the hands of your best players.

That’s exactly what Celina coach Brennen Bader did on Friday night against Bath and it resulted in a perfectly executed two-minute drill that culminated with a touchdown and a game-winning 2-point conversion to secure a 36-35 victory.

Celina quarterback Bobby Morris found Kaiden Werntz on each of the final two plays, an 11-yard touchdown with 0:02 left and a 2-point conversion to the same corner of the endzone.

Both Morris and Werntz said there wasn’t a true play call on the touchdown, but rather an ultimatum of “get open” from coach Bader.

“Coach said just play backyard football, get open and all I had to do was make the throw,” Bobby Morris said. “We stay after practice all the time to get our chemistry up and it paid off tonight.”

“Bobby just saw me at the right time,” Werntz said. “We’ve been playing together for years now and we have a really good connection. He knows I can make plays and he put the ball right where it needed to be.”

A 24-yard completion from Morris to Carson Weitzel set up the final play at the 11-yard line. Weitzel was tackled in the middle of the field and with no timeouts to spare, Morris and the offense was forced to rush up to the line and spike the ball with 18 seconds left.

Morris initially rolled out to the right on the final touchdown, then he looked back left and dropped the pass directly over one defender into the hands of Werntz, who was fading into the corner of the endzone.

“He’s a senior with a lot of time and he made two huge plays,” Bader said of Werntz. “Great throw by Bobby and Werntzy just made a huge play. He demanded the ball and he wasn’t going to be denied on either one of those. Just great plays.”

According to Bader, the decision to go for the win was made long before Werntz scored. The game-winning play looked almost identical to the touchdown, a pass from Morris to Werntz in the home-side corner of the endzone.

“As soon as Bath scored we had 1:50 left and I told the offensive staff that we were going for two,” he said. “I wanted them to keep it in the back of their mind so we’d know what we liked the best in that situation. Whatever that play was, it worked out.”

“We knew we were going to score and for us, it was now or never on that play,” Morris said of the two-point conversion. “We never want overtime. We always want to win.”

Just under two minutes earlier, it appeared as if Bath had manufactured the game-winning drive.

The Wildcats traveled 76 yards on 12 plays to take a 35-28 lead. Running back Mike Hale touched the ball on nine of those plays after briefly exiting earlier in the fourth quarter with an injury.

Hale ended the drive with a 6-yard touchdown, his second of the night. He finished the game with 188 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns. Hale scored on a 2-yard reception and runs of 6 and 11 yards.

Bath’s 35-28 fourth-quarter lead was the only time it played from in front all night.

Zach Welsch finished 17 of 29 for 187 yards and a pair of touchdowns with 72 rushing yards and a score. Josiah Clark was Bath’s leading receiver with 4 catches for 48 yards and a touchdown.

For Celina, Morris completed 16 of 24 passes for 183 yards and two touchdowns, both to Werntz who caught seven balls for 115 yards. Jon Lutz rushed for 71 yards on 13 carries.

Bader admitted after the game that he was most proud of his team for the grit it showed in bouncing back from a loss to Elida last week.

“Last week we had a lot of self-inflicted wounds along with the weather,” he said. “Elida handled everything better than us and they deserved the win. We just take things one week at a time. This league is too good to take a week off and it’s easy to look back at that game and think that we’re going to lose, but we put our foot in the ground tonight and refused to lose.”

Morris said, “Our guys believed. We weren’t going to go down without a fight. We trusted our coaches and trusted our practice and we put it all out there tonight.”

Score by quarters

B 7 7 7 14 – 35

C 7 14 7 8 – 36

Scoring Summary

C — Parker Bertke 13-yard run (Karsyn Smalley kick) — 8:28, 1st

B — Mike Hale 2-yard reception from Zach Welsch (Carson Myers kick) — 2:43, 1st

C — Bobby Morris 1-yard run (Karsyn Smalley kick) — 10:40, 2nd

C — Kaiden Werntz 35-yard reception from Bobby Morris (Karsyn Smalley kick) — 9:23, 2nd

B — Mikey Hale 6-yard run (Carson Myers kick) — 6:39, 2nd

B — Josiah Clark 19-yard reception from Zach Welsch (Carson Myers kick) —5:55, 3rd

C — Bobby Morris 6-yard run (Karsyn Smalley kick) — 0:28, 3rd

B — Zach Welsch 1-yard run (Carson Myers kick) — 9:41, 4th

B — Mikey Hale 11-yard run (Carson Myers kick) — 1:54, 4th

C — Kaiden Werntz 11-yard reception from Bobby Morris (Morris to Werntz for 2PT conversion) — 0:02, 4th

Passing

B — Zach Welsch 17/29 187 yards, 2 TDs

C — Bobby Morris 16/24 183 yards, 2 TDs

Rushing

B — Mikey Hale 25 carries, 151 yards, 2 TDs

C — Jon Lutz 13 carries, 71 yards

Receiving

B — Josiah Clark 4 catches, 48 yards, TD

C — Kaiden Werntz 7 catches, 115 yards, 2 TDs

Total yards

B — 392

C — 334

Reach Chris Howell at 567-242-0468 or on Twitter/X at @Lima_Howell

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