WELLS — This time, Wells High really did have trouble running the football against Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale.

But the Warriors showed they can gain big chunks of yardage with the passing game. Junior quarterback Cal Moody completed 11 of 15 passes for 224 yards and a pair of touchdowns to Riley Murphy as Wells won a battle of unbeaten Class D South teams, 30-13, in a well-attended regular-season finale Friday night.

“The pass game was working when we started out, so we just kept going with that,” Moody said.

Wells (8-0) will be the No. 1 seed in the regional playoffs, and both teams will get a bye into the semifinals. In their fourth season in Class D, the Warriors have never lost to a Class D opponent, going 12-0 in both 2017 and 2018, and winning a third state championship last season when they returned to the division despite losing three regular-season games to Class C teams.

Winthrop (7-1) will be the No. 2 seed, which means if both teams win their semifinal games, they will meet in the regional final for a second straight season.

“A few things didn’t go our way. We played well. We came out physical,” said Winthrop senior running back Carter Rivers (15 carries, 56 yards). “We knew we could hang with them. They’re a good team. A very good team. I think we played well. We’re going to go back to practice and figure out what we need to fix, and we’re going to get better and hopefully meet them again.”

Last season, Wells beat Winthrop 41-0 in the regular season and 35-6 in the regional final, rushing for 390 yards in the playoff game, with junior backs Dominic Buxton (167 yards, 3 TDs) and Eli Potter (121 yards) having big games after Winthrop supposedly – at least according to Buxton – had made pregame comments about shutting down Wells’ run game.

On Friday, Winthrop bottled up Buxton completely. He was held to 28 yards on 18 carries, and his fumble led to a 40-yard return by Ross Fichthorn for Winthrop’s first touchdown, which cut Wells’ lead to 16-6 with 2:30 to play in the second quarter.

“We felt pretty good about our game plan. I thought the kids played well,” Winthrop Coach Joel Stoneton said of his run defense.

Wells had only 44 yards rushing in the first half despite holding a 23-6 lead.

Wells Coach Tim Roche said he uncharacteristically “ripped into them hard at halftime. I wasn’t happy with the way we played. I mean, give (Winthrop) a ton of credit. They’re a physical, tough team. I’m not taking that away from them, but I was not happy with our performance.”

Potter, the fullback, got untracked in the second half and finished with 141 yards on 17 carries, including a 50-yard touchdown burst on a third-and-short play to push the lead to 30-6. The possession had been set up when Dominic Carbonneau intercepted Winthrop quarterback Braden Branagan (9 of 14, 94 yards).

Winthrop handed Wells its first two points when a punt snap sailed over Gabe Robinson’s head for a safety. Wells then converted the free kick into a 42-yard drive, finished by Buxton’s 1-yard run for a quick 9-0 lead.

Winthrop responded with a lengthy drive, featuring Rivers’ runs to the outside, and it looked like Rivers had capped the drive with a sliding catch in the end zone on a fourth-and-8 throw by Branagan from the Wells 22. The play was ruled incomplete, a call the Winthrop sideline disputed.

“I don’t know what the ref saw. I thought I caught it. Maybe he saw something different,” Rivers said. “Reffing’s hard. I do it for basketball sometimes for little kids, and it’s hard.”

Wells then went to its passing game, and it paid off. Moody found Buxton open in the middle of the field, and he turned it into a 66-yard gain. Then it was Murphy running fast enough to be able to stick out his left hand and haul in a 27-yard, one-handed touchdown catch for a 16-0 lead following Sabin Piatek’s extra point.

“You can always reach out and grab it,” Murphy said. “Me and (Moody) are just getting more and more in sync with each other. We’re always just getting better and better in the pass game.”

After Fichthorn’s fumble return, Wells moved 75 yards in 2:26, with Moody completing five passes to four receivers, including a 12-yard touchdown to Murphy with five seconds to play in the half.

The second half was a relatively even affair, with Potter’s score for Wells and Rivers scoring late on a 1-yard run for Winthrop.