SHELBY — Logan Green and Shelby’s rugged defense came to play on Friday night.

The Whippets limited Lucas to five first downs over the final three quarters and rolled to a 37-7 win in a matchup of unbeaten teams at W.W. Skiles Field.

​

A junior linebacker, Green was especially active as Shelby short-circuited Lucas’ power rushing attack. The Cubs were held scoreless for the final 38 minutes.

​

“Their outside linebacker (Green) did a nice job of setting the edge for them tonight and their defensive ends (Caleb Baker and Nathan Zehner) stood out to me,” Lucas coach Scott Spitler said. “I was impressed by their film but I was even more impressed in person with their defensive line and Green.”

​

The Whippets (5-0) struck on their opening possession when quarterback Marshall Shepherd hooked up with Connor Henkel on a 64-yard scoring strike on a third-and-long. Henkel caught the ball in the middle of the field before weaving through the Lucas defense for the score and a quick 7-0 lead.

​

Lucas responded with one of its hallmark run-centric drives that that took almost eight minutes off the first-quarter clock. Grant Barrett capped it with a 1-yard plunge to tie the score at 7-7 with 2:47 remaining in the first quarter.

​

After that it was all Shelby.

​

Owen Fisher plowed in from a yard out on the final play of the first quarter to make it 13-7 before Shepherd booted a 22-yard field goal with 1:38 to play in the first half to make it 16-7.

​

“We felt like we were in it at the half. It was 16-7 against a very talented team,” Spitler said. “We just needed to figure out a way to be us.”

​

The Whippets took control in the third, scoring a pair of touchdowns. Shepherd found Andre Hill on a quick out and the shifty junior took care of the rest, racing 58 yards for the score and a 23-7 Shelby lead with 6:49 to play in the third.

​

“We think Andre is as good as any receiver around,” Shelby coach Rob Mahaney said. “We’re trying to find ways to get him the ball more and he’s taking advantage of that.”

​

The Whippets sealed it when Shepherd found senior wideout Cody Lantz on a 16-yard TD with 2:53 remaining in the third.

​

“I know we have four really good receivers and we have a quarterback who knows how to get them the ball,” Mahaney said. “We knew we had some matchups we thought we could win.”

​

Shelby capped the scoring when Skyler Winters bulled in from 2 yards out with 2:47 left in the fourth.

​

“I’m not taking anything away from Shelby, but I don’t think we played Lucas football tonight,” Spitler said.

​

“They exposed a lot that we’ve got to get better at, but I’d rather find out now than two weeks from now.”