Wellington defeats Winfield 14-7 to win district opener…
Chi Barton and Deyton Araujo with tackle in Wellington’s big win over Winfield. (Photo by Eric Rinehart).
by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Wellington returned to district opener winning form with a 14-7 victory over Winfield in another bruising contest with our neighbor to the east.
The win gives Wellington a leg up in the district race but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done as Mulvane destroyed Ulysses 40-14 in the other district game. Mulvane is on tap Friday night.
The big negative for the night is that the stature of quarterback Cade Phelps is unknown after suffering a knee injury in the second quarter. He did not return to the game. Wellington junior Michael Ledbetter played the rest of the contest, guiding the Crusaders despite Wellington head coach Zane Aguilar saying he has had limited practice at the position.
Wellington broke a four-game losing streak against Winfield and earned its first win against its former head football coach Linn Hibbs. Like every game with Winfield, this seemed like a never-ending struggle with the Vikings driving deep late in the game. Wellington would thwart the drive on a fourth-down incompletion at the 32 with 1:25 to play to preserve the win.
Joe Ybarra rushed for 169 yards Friday night.
The Crusaders may look back at this one and think, they made the game more difficult than what they needed to make it. Wellington accumulated 325 yards of offense to Winfield’s 155. Throw out the 79 yard touchdown pass from Hayden Gibson to Jayden Tate in the first quarter and the Vikings were held to 76 yards of offense for the night.
The Vikings rushing attack was rather ineffective against the vaunted Crusader defense getting just 20 yards on 22 attempts. Jack Mull was the leading rusher with 24 yards on 14 attempts.
That one touchdown pass loomed large as it was the only offense Winfield had for the whole half. Yet Wellington was driving up and down the field and failed to score anything on its first two red zone possessions.
Finally on the third time, after the Phelps injury, Ledbetter fed the ball into De’Andre Washington at the 2 on a short leaping pass for 12 yards. That was followed by a 2 yard touchdown plunge by Joe Ybarra to tie the game at 7-all.
In the second half, Wellington and Winfield had rather rough third quarters, as Aguilar started to use a bevy of running backs because Ybarra missed most of the quarter getting a bloody jersey changed. He started the night as No. 5 but ended the game wearing a No. 12 jersey. Six different running backs touched the ball in the third and fourth quarter.
Deyton Araujo had 4 carries for 38 yards.
In the fourth, Wellington started to march with the ball and thanks to a Deyton Araujo 17-yard carry followed by a Trayson Probst 10-yard run, Wellington moved into the red zone. Ybarra came in right in time to score on a 5-yard run.
Winfield would have two chances to drive upfield. The first drive was thwarted on a Ledbetter interception.
The second one started at 2:41 and it made Wellington fans squirm uncomfortably in their seats. Winfield would get two big passes, and then got another first down on a Winfield unsportsmanlike penalty to drive into enemy territory. But the defense got tough and held Winfield to +4 yards to get the ball turned over on downs.
Statistics provided by Joey Sprinkle, Ark City Traveler/Winfield Courier Sports Editor.
Wellington 14, Winfield 7
Wellington 0 7 0 7 — 14
Winfield 7 0 0 0 — 7
First Quarter
Win — Jayden Tate 79 pass from Hayden Gibson (Mark Clifford kick), 5:32.
Second Quarter
Wel — Joe Ybarra 2 run (Karsten Gill kick), 2:27.
Fourth Quarter
Wel — Ybarra 5 run (Gill kick), 9:55.
TEAM STATISTICS
Wellington, Winfield
First Downs 23 7
by Run 16 2
by Pass 5 4
by Penalty 2 1
3rd Down Conv 5-12 2-10
4th Down Conv 1-3 0-2
Rush Att-Yards 55-249 22-20
Passing Yards 76 135
Pass Comp-Att-Int 7-13-1 7-21-1
Sacked-Yards Lost 2-10 2-18
Int Ret-Yards 1-0 1-12
Fum Ret-Yards 1-0 1-27
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-1
Kickoffs-End Zone 3-0 2-0
Kick Ret-Yards 2-61 3-57
Punt Ret-Yards 1-20 2-18
Punts No.-Avg. Yards 3-31.0 5-33.6
Penalties-Yards 9-80 5-50
Time of Poss 31:05 16:55
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Wellington, Joe Ybarra 38-169, Deyton Araujo 4-38, Trayson Probst 6-22, Grey Hatfield 1-17, Cade Phelps 1-10, Julian Jimenez 1-(minus 3), Michael Ledbetter 4-(minus 4). Winfield, Jack Mull 14-24, Hayden Gibson 2-4, Izzy Amezcua 1-1, Steele Morin 1-0, Kyle Sawyer 3-(minus 1), KC Crandall 1-(minus.
PASSING — Wellington, Cade Phelps 1-2-0 2, Michael Ledbetter 6-11-1 74. Winfield, Hayden Gibson 6-17-1 126, KC Crandall 1-4-0 9.
RECEIVING — Wellington, De’Andre Washington 4-45, Julian Jimenez 2-29, Gage Cunningham 1-2. Winfield, Jayden Tate 3-104, Landon Davis 2-18, Steele Morin 2-13.
MISSED FIELD GOALS — Wellington, Karsten Gill, 26 (WL).
