Big Plays Lead Wilmington Back To D10 Final

Tagged under: District 10, Game Photos-Videos, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

Shane Lux | November 9, 2025

Grove City – Wilmington is heading back to the District 10 title game.

Big plays were the name of the game for the Wilmington Greyhounds as they punched their ticket back to the District final with a 42-7 thumping of Cambridge Springs.

“It’s always an honor when you have the opportunity to compete for a championship,” said Wilmington head coach Brandon Phillian. “It starts in the offseason with the weight room, then you go through the summer, and everything that leads up to this opportunity. We’re not going to take it for granted. We’re looking forward to getting ready this week.”

Coming off a bye week, there certainly was no rust, as the ‘Hounds jumped out to a 28-0 halftime lead and cruised to a mercy rule victory.

With the win, Wilmington will now rematch Greenville for the title. A contest they won 26-21 a season ago.

The traditional Wing-T isn’t known as being an explosive offense, but rather a three yards in a cloud of dust offense. Somebody forgot to tell Wilmington that Saturday night at Forker Field.

Of their five offensive scores, every one was at least 21 yards, including two of 50+ yards, as well as a pair of 30 and 45-yard passing scores, also something the Wing-T is not known for.

“It starts up front with our five senior linemen,” Phillian said. “Those guys led the way up front, gave our backs some great blocking, then our skill guys did an excellent job finishing. I thought they had great vision, they made great cuts, and it was a total team effort tonight.”

The Blue Devils did their best against the state-ranked Greyhounds, forcing them to punt on their initial drive, but Wilmington was not going to be denied, scoring on their next five possessions, with the defense also reaching the end zone before Cambridge Springs.

A fumble recovery at the Blue Devils’ 48-yard line in the latter stages of the opening stanza gave the ‘Hounds the early lead when leading rusher Chase Mitcheltree scored on a 21-yard run five plays later.

Wilmington then put the game away with three scorching second-quarter touchdowns.

It was Cael Kettering who got things going when he ripped off a 50-yard touchdown run 49 seconds into the quarter. He finished the evening with 88 yards on four attempts.

The Blue Devils then tried to get cute on a fourth down, and a Dale Smith pass off a gadget play was intercepted and returned 64 yards for a touchdown by Freddie Zehetner.

Taking over at their 24-yard line with 1:11 to play in the first half isn’t ideal for a Wing-T offense trying to put points on the board, but the Greyhounds made it look easy and quickly drove 76 yards in four plays with Wesley Vass-Gal connecting with Zehetner on a 45-yard touchdown pass with 26 seconds to play.

Freddie Zehetner wasn’t done, as he helped Wilmington invoke the mercy clock early in the third quarter when he caught a 30-yard touchdown from Vass-Gal.

“I thought we did a nice job throwing towards the end of the season, particularly against Karns City,” Phillian said. “We’ve worked on it to continue to grow and develop it during the bye week. It helps make the offense more multidimensional when the passing game is called. We feel prepared to do that, and we executed tonight.”

Late in the third quarter, Mitcheltree pushed the lead to 42-0 when he raced 74 yards before the Greyounds pulled their starters to close the third stanza.

Mitcheltree rushed for a game-high 164 yards on 10 carries with a pair of touchdowns, while Zehetner caught three passes for 84 yards and two, returned an interception for a touchdown, and added 11 yards rushing.

“This one feels really great, we’re just hoping to be able to carry this momentum into next week,” Zehetner said. “I know we don’t throw that much, but when we do, I want to make the most of it and haul those passes in. On that interception there, they had a little momentum going, but we were able to solve that.”

Cambridge Springs got the scoreboard in the fourth quarter against the Wilmington reserves when quarterback Brandon Hoover scored on a 35-yard touchdown run following a 9-play 80-yard drive.

Hoover rushed for 67 yards and completed 4-of-7 passes for 26 yards with an interception. Wyatt Keem led the Blue Devils with 83 yards on 13 carries.

“You watch Hoover on film and he jumps off the screen at you,” Phillian said. “He’s certainly a kid who impresses you. I thought the boys did a nice job rallying to the football tonight. There were times when I felt we had multiple tacklers to the ball. That’s something you want to see during playoff football.”

Wilmington will now take on Greenville in the District 10 A final. The Trojans beat Reynolds 27-14 in the other semifinal. The two schools opened the season against each other with the Greyhounds coming out on top, 21-7.

Game Highlights:

Wilmington 42 Cambridge Springs 7

Score by Quarters

Cambridge Springs – 0 0 0 7 – 7

Wilmington – 7 21 14 0 – 42

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

W – Chase Mitcheltree 21 yd run, (Ryder Tervo pat), 3:13 – 5-48

Second Quarter

W – Cael Kettering 50 yd run, (Tervo pat), 11:11 – 3-67

W – Freddie Zehetner 64 yd interception return, (Tervo pat), 5:57

W – Zehetner 45 yd pass from Wesley Vass-Gal, (Tervo pat), 0:26 – 4-76

Third Quarter

W – Zehetner 30 yd pass from Vass-Gal, (Tervo pat), 7:59 – 3-50

W – Mitcheltree 74 yd run, (Tervo pat), 2:06 – 1-74

Fourth Quarter

CS – Brandon Hoover 35 yd run, (Everett Moraski pat), 8:02 – 9-80

Individual Stats

Rushing: CS – Wyatt Keem 13-83, Hoover 19-67, Jon Daley 6-31. Totals: 38-181. W – Mitcheltree 10-164, Kettering 4-88, Zehetner 1-11, James Bruckner 3-10, Hunter Stuble 2-3, Liam Crowley 2-19, Dominick Hagens 2-5, John Pataki 1-3, Cam Kettering 1-1, Vass-Gal 1-5. Totals: 27-309.

Receiving: CS – Colton Hoover 2-4, Corbin Schenk 1-10, Kaydin McFarren 1-12. W – Zehetner 3-84.

Passing: CS: – Hoover 4-for-7, 26 yards, 1 INT, Dale Smith 0-for-1, 1 INT. W – Vass-Gal 3-for-4, 84 yards, 2 TD.

Interceptions: W – Zehetner, Cael Kettering.

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