Wellington loses opener to Clearwater 41-13
Quarterback Cade Phelps makes this tiptoe down the sidelines run that garnered about 8 yards before getting out of bounds late in the first half.
Sumner Newscow report — It wasn’t the kind of opener the Wellington football team was looking for. Clearwater came in and buried the Crusaders 41-13 Friday night at Sellers Park. But for two quarters and six minutes this game looked anything but the final score.
Wellington took the opening second half kickoff and drove 61 yards on 10 plays, capped by a quarterback Cade Phelps to receiver De’Andre Washington 9-yard touchdown roll-out throw narrowing the margin to 14-13.
Perhaps, the game should have been called right there. Clearwater would dominate the Dukes thereafter, outscoring Wellington 27-0. The final blow came when Ethan Wells went on a 92-yard romp after the Crusaders had reached the 9 and took over on downs.Â
“At the end of the day, I just didn’t do a good enough job preparing them,” said Zane Aguilar, Wellington head football coach.
It was clear from the onset that Clearwater’s running game was going to give the Crusader’s front line fits all night. Using the three-headed monster of the Collin Ellis, Ethan Wells and Cody Layton, Clearwater gained big chunks of yards. In the end the running backs combined for 440 yards. Wells thanks to his two touchdown runs of 59 and 92 would accumulate 229 yards.
Clearwater never threw the ball all night. It didn’t have to.
Wellington held strong though for 3o minutes of real time football and might have led at halftime had it not stalled out at the 6 on the team’s second offensive possession. And before half’s end, Phelps threw into double coverage for an interception when the Crusaders were knocking at the door.
Wellington’s defense which was left in shambles in the end did stop Clearwater on two big  possessions in the first half including making a key fumble that led to the Duke’s first score.
But in the end, Wellington could not establish any consistency after Clearwater touched the ball for the first time in the second half.
The Crusaders travel to El Dorado Friday night.
| Clearwater 41 Wellington 14 | ||||||
| Clearwater | 6 | 14 | 13 | 14 | — | 43 |
| Wellington | 0 | 7 | 6 | 0 | — | 14 |
| C- Layton, 10 run. (PAT run no good). | ||||||
| W- Phelps to Ybarra, 23 TD Pass (Glover PAT) | ||||||
| C- Ellis 1 run (Wells PAT run). | ||||||
| W- Phelps to Washington, 9 TD Pass (PAT no good). | ||||||
| C- Ellis 7 run (PAT no good) | ||||||
| C- Wells 60 run (PAT kick good) | ||||||
| C- Ellis 2 run (PAT kick good) | ||||||
| C- Wells 91 run (PAT kick good) | ||||||
