Travis Spitnale ran wild against Celina.

After carrying the ball 43 times for 378 yards and three touchdowns on Friday night in Defiance’s 35-14 win over Celina that locked up a WBL title, I’m pretty sure Defiance’s Travis Spitnale is going to be very sore on Saturday. While many people were asking me if his performance was a school record after the game, all I could tell them was I have the DHS record book back at the office.

But after further review, Spitnale’s 378 yards were 62 shy of tying the school record of 440 yards set by Dick Osborn against Van Wert in 1929. After telling people here at work about that, everyone of them said: “Oh, he was a leatherhead,” which of course means he wore a leather helmet back in those days.

But before I get too far off subject, let me say this about Spitnale … the guy is so humble that he couldn’t wait to tell me about how perfect the blocking by his offensive line was all night. His quote to me was: “The blocking was perfect, just like when we practice it against air.” That may be the case, but I’m pretty sure he got tackled a lot on Friday, so he may want to sit in the hot tub.

After 10 games, Spitnale has 1,557 yards on 268 carries with 16 touchdowns. the 1,557 yards are the third most in a season in Defiance High School football history. Let’s hope Travis can add to those totals with a Week 11 game at Avon. If www.joeeitel.com is correct (as of 2:45 a.m. Saturday), it looks like Spitnale and the Bulldogs will get the chance to do just that.