High school football: Tailback Seth Gaspari has new-look Black River offense running smoothly

When Black River's offense was struggling midway through the season, the Pirates decided they needed to make some changes. Getting the ball to senior Seth Gaspari more was a big part of those changes and so far they've been paying off. The powerful tailback had five touchdowns in a 47-14 Lorain County League win over Brookside last Friday and has six touchdown in his last two games, lighting a fire under an offense that was averaging less that 10 points a game after its first three league games. "The coaches have been on us a little more to try to get us going," Gaspari said. "We've just been changing little things to try to perfect the offense. Everything is coming together great, I feel like we're executing every play perfectly." Gaspari has racked up 319 total yards rushing the last two games against the Cardinals and in a 42-7 win over Oberlin, averaging over 10 yards per carry. "Seth is kind of the highlight of our offense," Pirates coach Kyle Clark said. "He's had a tremendous last two weeks for us. Not only is he big, he's very fast which makes him dangerous. "If he breaks loose he's going to run away from people which isn't something that a 210-pound kid is normally going to do." After scoring just 16 points combined in back-to-back losses to Firelands and Keystone, the Pirates made some changes on offense. Specifically, elevating freshman Hunter Varney to starting quarterback and moving Zane Bungard to wide receiver, moves that have allowed Gaspari to thrive in the backfield. "He's getting more reps in the pistol formation behind the quarterback and he's really good at getting downhill and getting north and south," Clark said. "He sees it better and he's hitting the line of scrimmage faster now out of the pistol than when we had him at flanker and he was coming off of jet sweeps and things like that." Against Brookside, Gaspari had touchdown runs of 43, 48, 2 and 9 yards. He also returned the opening kickoff of the second half 85 yards for a score. "I feel like I have a pretty big role but I don't allow myself to get a big head, I just have to go out and do my part and let my playing do the talking," Gaspari said. "Our line is blocking their tails off, they're really the stars of the show." Black River has a trio of three-year letterwinners on the offensive line in Owen Chapman, Lukas Steinbrenner and Ryan Graves, in addition to sophomore Colton Moskal and freshman Trenton Delesky. "I feel like we're more than ready," Gaspari said. "Everyone is well-conditioned and we're all in a great state of mind right now." After scoring 89 points in its last two games and all but assuring itself of a Division VI, Region 21 playoff berth, Black River's confidence should be at an all-time high but with two of the top three teams in the LCL looming on the schedule over the final two weeks of the season the Pirates know they still have something to prove. "We're going to play Clearview and Columbia and they have, what, like three losses between them?" Clark said. "We're still an unproven team, we haven't beaten anyone who has one or two losses yet. So it's a mountain for us to climb but I like the kids on our team and the work they've been putting in." Through eight games, Gaspari has 820 yards rushing, 10 receptions for 108 yards and a total of 12 touchdowns. He also has 46 tackles as a starting linebacker. Gaspari has rushed for over 100 yards in three of the Pirates' four wins, including a season-high 214 in their Week 4 win over Wellington. "He's the prototypical running back you'd want in a high school offense," Clark said. "He's big and strong and he can run away from people. His conditioning is great. He's not getting tired and he's out there for every rep on defense and a lot of our special teams stuff as well." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.