H.S. Football: Dom Bell, Zane Bungard set records as Black River beats Wellington

SULLIVAN TWP. — The Dom Bell-to-Zane Bungard connection was so electric Friday that the southwest, northwest and southeast light towers couldn't handle the power and glitched off. While the former is absolutely an exaggeration, the latter did happen. Neither Bell nor Bungard cared, as both broke multiple school records, including one together, in Black River's 48-7 Lorain County League blowout of backyard rival Wellington that was all but decided in the first quarter. Bell, a freshman who's lived up to the billing, passed for 402 yards and five touchdowns while also picking off two passes from his cornerback position and making a touchdown-saving tackle near midfield to end the first half. Bungard, meanwhile, annihilated Pirates standards for receptions (11) and yards (256) while also tying the record for receiving touchdowns (three). The second half was played exclusively on the east end of Art Stevenson Field. The southeast lights, the last of the three in sequence to go out with 5:00 left in the first half, came back on, so officials and coaches decided to flip the field once the possessing team crossed the 50-yard line. "I mean, it's a whirlpool of emotions, man," Bungard said. "I'm happy, sad, getting to do this with your boys. But then in the back of your mind you're never going to get to do it again. You've just got to ball out." What about the lights — or lack thereof? "I thought it was kind of funny, actually," he said with a chuckle in the west end zone that was, in fact, pretty dark. "I thought we should have kept playing with the lights off, but I'm not sure you'd be able to see. I don't know if it was possible." Bungard caught a school-record 90-yard TD on third-and-17 and also found the end zone from 10 yards twice. The physical, 6-foot-3, 190-pound senior was a menace from start to finish against a defense of the Dukes (3-6, 1-5) that usually only had one deep safety, racking up non-TD grabs of 11, 36, 18, 9, minus-1, 43, 20 and 10 yards to also give him school season records of 56 catches for 960 yards and 13 TDs. Last season's opening-night starting quarterback, who readily admits he never enjoyed that position, also had a crushing sack of Wellington's Gaven Wacker as the Pirates (5-4, 4-2), who are in the driver's seat to make the Division VI, Region 21 playoffs after Chagrin Falls upset Rootstown, held the Dukes to 218 yards total offense. "He just comes in every week and works his butt off," Bell said. "If you work your butt off so hard, it's going to pay off. That's what he's done for the last four years. "Just our connection tonight, he went up and got those 50/50 balls, and that's what he's best at doing." Bell, meanwhile, threw for 148 yards in the first quarter and 297 in the half that ended with Black River up 27-7. The game plan was clear from the start, as the Pirates rushed only the necessary amount to keep Wellington in that one-high safety look that allowed Bungard, Bryce Murray (three catches, 69 yards, TD), Hunter Varney (seven carries, 48 yards, TD; two catches, 39 yards) and Carson Steidl (four, 38) room to work outside. Bell completed 20 of 27 passes, including his final eight attempts. He blew past Eric Groesser's record of 326 passing yards set in 2022 at Wellington and surpassed a five-way tie that included Varney for passing TDs when he flipped a quick screen to Murray for his fifth with four seconds remaining in the third quarter. Bell also broke Groesser's season record for passing TDs (16) and is only 141 from passing Groesser's 1,803 yards. The right-hander is averaging 266.3 yards during Black River's three-game winning streak. "I gotta tell you, man, he's 15 years old and he's amazing with the vision that he has and the elusiveness that he has," Bungard said. "We have a great line (Jack Vancooney, Trenton Delesky, Jamison Triplett, Gabriel Negron, Gianni Bonidie) that he stands behind that helps him out and a great receiving corps, but I can't take anything away from him. He's an amazing quarterback." Down 21-0 after one quarter in which nothing went right and 27-0 after Bungard's 90-yarder, Wellington got a shot in the arm when reigning LCL Defensive Player of the Year Trey Moore took a trap handoff left, broke multiple tackles, lowered his head to truck two more defenders in the open field and rumbled down the sideline for a 54-yard touchdown. The Dukes got the ball back and drove into the red zone, but Bell picked off Wacker (13-for-25, 157 yards) to end the threat. "We don't look past anybody," Bell said. "You can't look past anybody. It's the LC8. Anybody can come to play." Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.