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BAY VILLAGE, Ohio – Cloverleaf senior running back Ethan Gray has had his number called many times during the 2025 season. He came into Friday night’s Division IV, Region 14 first-round playoff game with 152 carries for 691 yards and five touchdowns for the 7-4 Colts during the regular season. And he knew during the week that his team would be calling his number quite a bit Friday night at Bay Memorial Stadium if his team was going to make history and win its first-ever playoff game. When it was all said and done, after a wild roller coaster of a ride that saw Bay (6-5) erase an early 21-point lead and tie the game late in third quarter, only for No. 10 seed Cloverleaf to come away with an emotional 42-35 victory, a spent Gray stood in the end zone after carrying the ball 37 times for 133 yards and two touchdowns. He added a third score on a 90-yard kickoff return midway through the third quarter, knowing that he left everything he had out on the field and it paid off in victory. “I’m exhausted,” Gray said. “I feel as the leader of the team, it would be expected of me to put this team on my back and I knew I would be the main running back. I knew, every time I had the ball, I had to play hard because every yard is not given. Our team fought hard and we played great. “I knew coming that this could be my last game, and us seniors and upperclassmen really played for each other. We knew wanted at least one more game here before we were done. I was going to do everything in my power to make sure we got at least one more game. It’s always hard to get that thought out of your head that this could be your last game, but you have to use that positively to help your game. It’s sweet knowing that our senior class won our first conference championship in 50 years and now our first playoff win in school history.” Cloverleaf coach Justin Vorhies knew that if his team was going to make history, they needed to rely on Gray in order to get that done. “I told Ethan yesterday before our practice in front of our team that he was going to be the man tonight, and he should be the man,” he said. “We knew we were going to ride him and everything’s going to happen off of that and it did. “(Quarterback) Isaac (Smith’s) big runs were because they were keying on (Gray). The two touchdown passes to (Marzell Davis) and Jimmy (Tolley) were because they were keying on him. He deserves it. He’s been playing varsity for us since his freshman year, and we were going to ride him tonight. And he carried us to victory and to history, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.” Gray was thought of so highly by his teammates that he was voted a captain just after his sophomore season. Smith, who finished with 92 yards passing on an 8 of 9 night with two touchdowns, while adding 90 yards rushing on 14 carries and a touchdown, echoed his coach’s sentiments. “He’s a beast, man,” Smith said. “He’s one of the best players I’ve ever played with, if not the best. He’s a great running back, and he can play at the college level for sure. This game was a big part of him. He did a lot of for our team for this win.” That was evident on what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown for the Colts with 9:47 remaining in the game. After giving up a one-play touchdown drive in the waning seconds of the third quarter – a 61-yard touchdown pass from Bay quarterback Patrick Chaney to Brody Beggs with 45 seconds left – Cloverleaf got the ball on the 50 after 2 big penalties on the Rockets. Smith called a read-option, pulled the ball from Gray and raced down the sideline for an apparent 50-yard touchdown. He was ruled out of bounds at the 11, and they started feeding the ball to Gray. Gray went 9 on the next play to the 2, then gained a yard for a first down, lost 3, then lost 2 on third-and-goal from the 1. On fourth-and-goal with everyone crowding the line expecting another Gray run, Smith called a play-action pass, jumped and hit Jimmy Tolley in the middle of the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown pass. That score wound up holding up as the game-winner after the Colts defense stepped up and the offense (led by Gray) was able to grind the clock down with two long drives. “Teams are going to focus on him a lot, and that opens up some things for the other guys on the ground and in the passing game as well,” Smith said. “When they think we’re running, we can play action pass and they’re not ready for it. He opens up every aspect of the game for us, and when they are ready for those aspects, we go right back to him and he’s the same beast he was.” Gray scored twice in the second quarter – both on 1-yard runs – that helped the Colts open up a 21-0 lead. But, after Bay scored just before halftime and then opened the second half with a touchdown drive, all hell started to break loose. The wild sequence started when Gray fielded the ensuing kickoff and raced untouched down the home sideline for a 90-yard kickoff return touchdown, putting his team back up, 28-14. Then, after Bay fumbled the ensuing kickoff, Smith called a play-action pass and hit Davis for a stunning 20-yard touchdown following a holding penalty to make it 35-14. Those plays loomed large after the Rockets quickly scored two more touchdowns thanks to big special teams plays – a 79-yard kick return down to the 1 by Jimmy Boehnien and a blocked punt – that cut the deficit to 35-28. And, in a one-score game when momentum was shifting, it turned out to be one of the key plays of the game. “We’ve been trying to break one all year, and it was the perfect time to do it right then at that point,” Gray said. “Our KOR (kickoff return) team set the wedge perfectly, I found a lane and we were able to capitalize. “We knew that those plays that they made were just mistakes, Gray said. “It was mistakes that we made and they capitalized, so we knew that if we fixed a few things, that we would make more plays to win.” Thanks to Gray helping to fix those mistakes, the Colts get to travel to 9-1 Galion next Friday night to extend that season one more game. One more time for Gray to carry his team.
