Ashland's comeback attempt falls short at Canal Winchester in Week 11

CANAL WINCHESTER — As if Division II, Region 7 needed any further proof it's the strongest in the state, Friday's regional first-round matchup between No. 5 Canal Winchester and No. 12 Ashland was the smoking gun.

After the Arrows snuck into the playoffs as the final qualifier with a win in Week 10 with a .600 record, they were rewarded with a nearly 100-mile trip down to face the Indians. And Ashland made sure that drive was well worth it, pushing Canal Winchester to its limits in a game that featured 80 points between the teams.

In the end, it's the Indians who are moving on to Week 12 thanks to a defensive stop late in the fourth quarter in a 43-37 win.

"That team came in here ready to play and they played their heart out," Canal Winchester coach Corey Coe said. "You gotta give those guys respect because they had nothing to lose coming in here. I know what it's like to have a two-hour bus ride, and for them to come out and play like that, I give those guys a heck of a lot of credit."

Canal Winchester opened the scoring on its first possession, marching down the field with ease and capping off the drive with a 13-yard run from Jamari Snow. The Arrows responded with a Liam Hubacher-to-Killian O'Brien seven-yard connection but missed the extra point to trail by one. Ashland took the lead on a 19-yard field goal from Layton Roop, but that was short-lived as Snow punched in his second to regain the lead with 5:05 in the half.

With a little over a minute to go, before half, Kian McGhee found a wide open Rai'montez Hughley — the Ashland defensive back slipped on the turf — who went for 50 yards setting up Snow's third touchdown of the half, this time from three yards out, for a 21-9 lead at the break.

"We knew coming in that he's good," Ashland coach Scott Valentine said of Snow. "He's a guy we were going to have to tackle and he's just tough to get down. He's a physical guy and he's going to get his yardage, you just gotta try to limit it."

After mustering just nine points in the first half, Ashland exploded for four touchdowns, starting with another Hubacher-to-O'Brien strike from 30 yards out just 31 seconds into the second half. They linked up again from 16 yards out as a response to an 11-yard McGhee keeper on the Indians' first possession. Cody Noble hit a 28-yard field goal for Canal Winchester to push a 31-22 lead that the team would take to the end of the third quarter before then extending that to 37-22 on a Snow one-yard burst up the middle followed by a blocked extra point.

Hubacher called his own number from two yards out less than a minute later. Then, when the Arrows got the ball back again, he found Nevin LaRue in the end zone for the 20-yard score to make it 37-35. And Valentine trusted his quarterback again on the two-point conversion as Hubacher barreled in to tie the game with 3:41 remaining.

Another defensive lapse from the Arrows led to Sir'Anthony Washington wide open for the go-ahead 30-yard score to put the Indians on top 43-37 following another blocked punt.

With under two minutes to play, Killian O'Brien fielded the kickoff and gave the Arrows great field position to which Hubacher marched the team down to the 13. But the drive ended in an incomplete pass in the end zone on fourth down with 2.2 seconds on the clock.

"You gotta make plays one way or the other," Valentine said. "They made a couple plays, and then we had an opportunity to put ourselves in the position — that's all you can ask, right?

Just like a last season's Week 12 clash at St. Francis DeSales, the Arrows had a chance to win it late but came up short.

"It's definitely one of the toughest regions in Ohio," O'Brien said. "And I can't say I hate being part of it because I love the challenge, you get to see some dudes every year. Just two years now we fell by one score ... the opportunity was there; we just couldn't finish."

It was a night where O'Brien became the program's single-season receptions leader (95) after a 12-catch, 187-yard performance with three touchdowns and a week after he nabbed the career receiving yards record (2,746) and extended his career receiving touchdowns mark to 34.

"It means a lot ... I've worked my whole life for this, and it's one of the goals I wanted," O'Brien said. "I'm happy to see myself accomplish it, I just wish we could've got the win tonight."

"He's just an incredible player, an incredible teammate, and an incredible young man," Coe added of O'Brien. "He's really a better person than he is a football player. I'm just proud of his personal development and where he's gone since his freshman year into sophomore year, he just continues to become a better and better young man."

He also had an interception on defense and played a key role on special teams, returning kicks which set up the offense with great field position several times throughout the night.

"This is my best game now," O'Brien said. "There's three phases to the game — special teams, defense, and offense — I gotta do it all when I'm on the field."

It helped having someone on the other side of the field to feed off, too, as Snow finished the night with 35 carries for 314 yards and four touchdowns. The two playmakers combined for 501 yards and seven scores.

"He's a heck of a player and he's their guy," O'Brien said. "They rely on him to do a lot of things, and I feel like I have a lot of weight on my shoulders to do a lot of things. We just had a respectful battle back and forth ... we were hyping each other up."

The loss brings an end to what was a tumultuous season for the Arrows (6-5), who swept their nonleague opposition the first three weeks before dropping the first three games of Ohio Cardinal Conference play. But they closed out winning three of the last four to make the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season.

"Hopefully we learned some lessons," Valentine said. "When you have a young team, they've gotta grow up and they gotta do the work in the off-season. I can go back and look at things from last off-season, and some of the guys didn't think they were going to be playing as much as they ended up playing ... we just gotta get better and work harder in the offseason to get ready for next year."

Canal Winchester (8-3) now shifts its focus to four-seed New Albany (8-2) in a regional quarterfinal. It will be the second time the teams have met this season.

"They're a juggernaut," Coe said. "We were in a slugfest with them last time and ended up beating them 35-28, but I'm sure they probably left that game thinking they didn't play their best. But anytime you get to play New Albany, it's a great opportunity. Our kids are excited for it, and I know they'll be ready for the rematch at their place. This region is incredible and I'm just grateful and proud that we're still playing."

And he's now 6-0 since taking over the program after Week 5 when the Indians fell to 2-3 coming off a narrow loss to Pickerington Central.

"Canal Winchester football is my life, apart from my family," Coe said. "It's a different role I'm still learning — that universal perspective — because I'm a defensive guy and sometimes I gotta be careful about being too defensive-minded on the sideline and be more in-tune with game management. That's not an easy thing when you're still running the show on defense.

"But it's an honor and a privilege, these kids are incredible and I'm proud to be their head coach."

zholden@gannett.com | 419-617-6018 | Twitter/X: @Zachary_Holden