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Norwalk sophomore Kyle Kurtz drops back looking for someone to throw to in second quarter action.

SHELBY- It was a nightmare, and the best part of the game is that it's over. That was the growing sentiment on the visitor's side of the bleachers Friday night, as the Shelby Whippets demolished Norwalk, 37-0, in the 2005 Northern Ohio League opener. Norwalk has just one win at Shelby since 1970, and fell to (0-4, 0-1) on the season, while Shelby is quickly erasing last year's 1-9 mark with a (3-1, 1-0) start.

The story of the night, however, was the alarming drop-off of offensive production by the Norwalk offense. After picking up just 118 total yards vs. Perkins last week, that number was blown away on this night. Thanks largely in part to two bad snaps, the Truckers were a staggering -61 yards rushing, with 84 yards passing for a grand total of 23 yards of total offense.

"We had those fumbles on offense all night that put us in bad position," Norwalk coach Jeff Cole said. "We had a couple good plays and showed signs of getting better defensively, but the offense put them in bad spots with the fumbles."

The Truckers also had a major injury scare in the game, as two-way starter Josh Cook (FB/LB), a sophomore, took a swing pass out of the backfield in the third quarter. While fighting for extra yardage, Cook took a direct hit by reigning league tackle leader Pete Champer, right on his upper back in a crushing blow. Cook was knocked unconscious on the play. The game was delayed 22 minutes as he was taken off the field on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital. As of late Friday, Cook had sustained a concussion and was getting a Cat-Scan for further tests.

Norwalk trailed 14-0 after one quarter, but kept that as their deficit at the halftime intermission. Shelby got a 1-yard touchdown run and a 11-yard touchdown run from Josh Calver and BJ Taylor for the two scores. Meanwhile, the Trucker offense had exactly zero yards of offense at the 6:03 mark of the first half.

The Whippets added a Calver-to-Jon Gurney 10-yard touchdown pass and a 24-yard field goal from kicker Brant Aldous with 44 seconds left in the third quarter to take a commanding 24-0 lead, just before Cook's injury. Shelby then closed out the scoring with two more fourth quarter touchdowns. Taylor scored from five yards out, and Cody Baker maneuvered his way through the Norwalk defense on his way to a 57-yard touchdown run as the Whippets were trying to run out the clock with 3:19 left to wrap up the scoring.

"The bad snaps were just too much for our offense to overcome," Cole said. "But don't take anything away from Shelby, they are a good football team. They are a physical team and they showed why they are, they pounded it pretty good."

For Norwalk, Kyle Kurtz was efficient passing, but it was hard to notice with the rushing totals. Kurtz completed 16-of-23 passes for 84 yards, but the Truckers were hampered by the -61 rushing, which included the 42 yards alone lost on three botched snaps.

Shelby finished with 332 yards of offense (172 pass, 160 rush). Taylor paced the ground game with 94 yards and two touchdowns on 15 attempts, while Calver completed 11-of-18 passes for 170 yards and one touchdown, while receiver Garrett Hummel caught seven passes for 102 yards.

It only gets tougher for Norwalk, as a trip to Bellevue looms, a place where the Truckers haven't tasted victory since 1949. Bellevue (1-3, 1-0) broke their worst start in 15 years with a 55-13 blowout win over Upper Sandusky.