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NELSONVILLE – Nelsonville-York showed why it's the top-seeded team in Division VI, Region 23 Friday night.
And it did so early.
With a full moon hovering above, the Buckeyes put on a dominating first-half performance, scoring 28 points, including 14 in the final 2-plus minutes, en route to clobbering eighth-seeded Shadyside, 34-0, in a regional quarterfinal tussle at Boston Field.
In winning, Head Coach Rusty Richards' unbeaten squad earned a date against Fort Frye in next Friday's regional semifinals. The Cadets won, 8-0, in the closing seconds against Northmor.
The Tigers, meanwhile, ended their season at 7-4.
"They were a better team," Shadyside head coach Mark Holenka said. "You have to tip your hat to them.
"We lost three games this year by a total of 15 points that you can go back and go to bed at night and think those were 'if only' games. This wasn't an 'if only' game. They whipped us and they deserve to win."
The Buckeyes' tandem of quarterback Garrett Maiden and running back Keegan Wilburn came up huge, having a hand in four of their five scores, all but one coming in the first half.
Wilburn rushed for 128 yards, including a 27-yard TD. He also caught a 16-yard scoring strike from Maiden, who also tossed TD receptions of 40 and 50 yards, the final one going to Shakim Williams that made the score 34-0 in the third quarter.
Maiden finished with 142 yards passing on 6 of 9 attempts.
Shadyside trailed 7-0 after the first quarter. But Nelsonville-York poured it on in the second, including posting those late first-half touchdowns that all but put the game out of reach.
"We were pinned against the wall and we needed to get out of a hole," Holenka said.
While the Buckeyes were proficient on offense in the first half – racking up 233 yards of offense – the Tigers were stymied, collecting just 83 and a handful of first downs.
"I think up front they were as strong as us if not quicker than us," Holenka said. "They were in our backfield as much as we were across the line of scrimmage. That's a credit to them."
Shadyside played with three quarterbacks. Starter Anthony Coggins went out with concussion-like symptoms late in the first half. Then, early in the second half, freshman Jacob Visnic was hurt. Alex Krupa finished the game.
Holenka said that wasn't the reason was the loss, but it did throw a wrench into what the Tigers wanted to do offensively.
Coggins was still in the game early in the second quarter when the Tigers recovered the Buckeyes' only fumble of the night deep in Nelsonville-York territory. However, a penalty and a a stiff defensive stand by the Buckeyes kept them out of the end zone.
That's as close as Shadyside got until the closing moments when Krupa, who finished with 91 yards rushing, drove it to the Nelsonville-York 21 before the drive ended on an interception.
Holenka said that drive was indicative of the spirit his team fought with all season.
"The kids always fought, I knew that from the other games," he said. "At least we kept driving and tried to get on the scoreboard."