Bath quarterback Zach Welsch, left, follows the block of Clayton Rex during Friday’s win against Defiance.
Jessica Trinko | The Lima News
BATH TOWNSHIP — There’s a saying around Bath football, “Do your job.”
There was little doubt who did their job Friday night in the Wildcats’ 28-0 victory against Defiance: Everyone.
“Defense did its job. Offense did its job. Everybody did his job,” said Bath’s Zach Welsch. “That’s something we say around here, is, ‘Do your job tonight.’”
Welsch did his share of doing his job too. The quarterback ran for four touchdowns, rushing 18 times for 100 yards. He also completed 19 of 28 passes for 207 yards, with completions to five different players as the Wildcats (5-3, 5-2 WBL) racked up 343 yards. He also completed his final eight passes of the game.
Defensively, Welsch also had an interception at the 5 just before halftime that helped preserve the shutout. The Bath defense held the Bulldogs (5-3, 5-2 WBL) to just 166 total yards, 181 yards below its average this season.
“They just do everything we ask them to do,” Bath coach Frank Russell said. “Like I said earlier in the year, the only thing we want to do is get better every day. We had some tough drives out there. Our guys just continued to improve.”
The win gave Wapakoneta (8-0, 7-0 WBL) at least a share of the WBL championship and created a three-way logjam in second place, with Bath, Defiance and St. Marys all at 5-2 in the league.
The Wildcats put a lot of pressure on Defiance quarterback Brez Zipfel, sacking him four times, including two by Bath’s Landon Oglesbee. Zipfel completed 11 of 20 passes for just 97 yards. Noah Gomez ran for 90 yards on 11 carries, mostly in the fourth quarter when the outcome wasn’t in doubt.
“It was a lot of fun,” Oglesbee said. “It’s especially fun when we have other good guys who can wash the QB down to you, can push him out to you. I felt like we were really playing well together.”
Offensively, Welsch kept moving the ball around and cashed in on run-pass option plays for touchdowns, running for a 1-yard score in the first quarter, a 5-yard TD in the second quarter and then fourth-quarter tallies of 14 and 16 yards. He also made some nice passing plays, such as a 26-yard play that made Vinny Vendetta stretch for the catch in the second quarter and a 43-yard play to Josiah Clark in the third quarter to keep a scoring drive alive.
Defiance’s defense was defiant about letting Bath running back Mikey Hale get going. Hale, who averages 104.7 yards per game on the ground, finished with 13 carries for 36 yards but didn’t mind drawing defenders away from his quarterback. Welsch put up his impressive stat line, including completing eight passes to Clark for 83 yards and six passes to Logan Marley for 59 yards.
“I feel great for our team,” Hale said. “Zach scored four touchdowns because he was doing his job. Everyone did their part, whether it’s catching the ball or making big plays.”
The Wildcats felt some measure of satisfaction, after losing a close game to Defiance last year on a missed extra point during a 20-point comeback in the fourth quarter. They were happier to have no doubt in Friday’s win.
“Last year’s game really pushed us,” Oglesbee said, “but this week we came in with a ‘win the next rep’ mentality. I’d really say we pushed each other and kept our gas tank full.”
Bath 28, Defiance 0
Defiance Bath
11 First downs 19
166 Total yards 343
69 Rushing yards 136
97 Passing yardage 207
11-21-1 Passing 19-28-0
1-0 Fumbles-Lost 0-0
4-29 Punts 1-43
1-5 Penalties 3-26
Score by quarters:
Defiance 0 0 0 0 — 0
Bath 7 7 0 14 — 28
First quarter
B-Zach Welsch 1 run (Carson Myers kick), 7:29
Second quarter
B-Zach Welsch 5 run (Carson Myers kick), 2:22
Fourth quarter
B-Zach Welsch 21 run (Carson Myers kick), 10:26
B-Zach Welsch 16 run (Carson Myers kick), 3:31
Reach David Trinko at 567-242-0467 or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
