WATERFORD, Ohio — The region’s best defense finally met an offense it could not hold under thirty. Seventh-seeded Garaway beat sixth-seeded Waterford 29-25 on Friday night, November 13, at Waterford in an OHSAA Division VI, Region 23 semifinal, according to the Mansfield News Journal’s statewide scoreboard. The Columbus Dispatch’s scoreboard, High School On SI’s statewide scoreboard and the Reflector’s score list all confirmed the 29-25 final.
The matchup was the classic November contrast, and the Times Reporter’s semifinal preview laid it out in numbers. Garaway arrived riding a three-game winning streak and averaging 45.5 points across its first two playoff games — 91 points in all, including a 49-28 quarterfinal win over Nelsonville-York, the Times Reporter reported. Its season scoring average was 37.2 points per game.
Waterford’s counter was the stingiest defense in the region: 66 points allowed all season, an average of 5.5 per game, according to the Times Reporter. The Wildcats had shut out Berne Union 61-0 in the opening round and beaten West Jefferson 21-14 in the quarterfinal. No team had scored more than 14 points against Waterford in the tournament — until Garaway put up 29.
That makes Friday’s result the hinge game of Region 23’s bracket. Garaway did not beat a fading team; it beat, on the road, the defense that had defined the region all season, and it did so by scoring roughly five times Waterford’s per-game average. The Pirates’ offense, the Times Reporter noted entering the game, has now carried them through three straight postseason wins.
In Friday’s other Region 23 semifinal, Monroe Central routed River 43-14, according to the Mansfield News Journal’s statewide scoreboard. The final therefore pairs the region’s hottest offense against a Monroe Central team that won its semifinal by 29 — a championship game between the two most convincing winners left in the bracket.
No play-by-play account of Friday’s semifinal was published by the sources used for this story, so this report does not invent one. The verified record — the score, confirmed by four scoreboards, and the season context reported by the Times Reporter — is enough to rank the win: it is the best road victory in Region 23 this postseason.
What happens next: Garaway (10-3) faces Monroe Central in the Division VI, Region 23 final on Friday, November 20, at a site the OHSAA announces on Sunday, November 15. The winner advances to the state semifinals on November 27.
Photo: Kreuzfeld, CC BY-SA