WHEELING — Wheeling Park and Parkersburg came down to another nail-biter, but the Patriots were unable to return to the favor and stun the Big Reds.

Instead, it was Parkersburg that advances to the quarterfinals of the W.Va. Class AAA playoffs with a 28-21 victory at Wheeling Island Stadium.

“It is always a good one when we play these guys,” Parkersburg coach Mike Byus said. “It always comes down to the wire and (Friday) was no different.”

Wheeling Park had its chances in the final minutes.

First with 2:40 to go, Wheeling Park took over at its 42. After an Alex Dunlevy pass to Jack Stakem gained 9 yards on first down, Steven Mitchell was stuffed on 2nd-and-1.

The third-down pass was incomplete.

Going for it on fourth down, again Mitchell was stopped short.

“It was a cat-and-mouse game between their linebackers and us,” Wheeling Park coach Chris Daugherty said. “We probably made as many plays in the RPOs and throwing. Some of our biggest plays came off the exact same thing. We won some and we lost some. But at the end of the day, you have to go and get a yard and we didn’t do that.”

Parkersburg was stopped for a loss on a first-down play and after gaining a yard on second down, Byus pulled another play out of his bag of tricks.

With a minute left and Wheeling Park out of timeouts, quarterback Jake Johnson laid down a perfect pooch punt that rolled dead at the Patriots 2.

Despite being able to take another 30 seconds off the clock, Byus gambled on making the Patriots go the length of the field with no timeouts.

“You get two things and we did realize it was third down for those yelling in the stands,” Byus said. “If we run one more play, then we would be running it with our regular punt team and they were this close to blocking it twice. We would also be punting with them having a return man back there.

“To step back and punt on third down, we were able to do it without anyone back and you saw what happened. Our quarterback practices that pooch punt daily.”

Wheeling Park was able to advance to 29 before an incomplete pass ended things on fourth down.