IRONTON, Ohio — The rematch southern Ohio waited all season for turned into a runaway. Ironton shut out rival Wheelersburg 42-0 on Friday night, November 13, at Tanks Memorial Stadium in an OHSAA Division V, Region 19 semifinal, according to the statewide scoreboard compiled by Joe Eitel, with MaxPreps’ Ironton schedule confirming the 42-0 final.
It was the Fighting Tigers’ second consecutive 42-0 playoff shutout. Ironton blanked Ridgewood by the same score in last week’s quarterfinal, a game in which the Generals managed just 68 total yards, The Ironton Tribune reported. Through 12 games, Ironton has scored 506 points and allowed 100, according to MaxPreps.
The rivalry needed no building up. The two programs did not play in the regular season for the first time in many years, The Ironton Tribune reported, and their last playoff meeting — a 2021 Region 19 semifinal — went to Wheelersburg, 17-14. Ironton, the 2024 Division V state champion, was facing the program that finished as the 2025 Division V state runner-up.
Wheelersburg arrived with credentials of its own. The Pirates shut out South Point 44-0 in the quarterfinals, The Ironton Tribune reported, in the program’s 39th all-time state playoff appearance; Wheelersburg has not missed the playoffs since 2011 and won its fourth straight Southern Ohio Conference championship this season, according to the Tribune. On Friday, none of it traveled — the Pirates were shut out for the first time in this postseason.
Ironton’s only loss this season came on September 25, a 47-40 overtime defeat against Division II power Big Walnut, and Friday’s win was its sixth in a row since. Wheelersburg’s season ends at 9-4.
It was also the second time in eight days that Ironton posted a 42-0 shutout on its home field, after the Ridgewood quarterfinal followed the same script a week earlier.
In the other Region 19 semifinal, Fort Frye beat Columbus Academy 19-7, according to the Eitel scoreboard, setting up a regional final between the region’s top two seeds.
What happens next: Ironton (11-1) meets Fort Frye (11-1) in the Division V, Region 19 final on Friday, November 20, at a site the OHSAA announces Sunday, November 15. The winner moves on to the state semifinals.
Photo: Vasiliymeshko, CC BY