Elder Stops St. Xavier Twice at the 1 to Seal 27-23 Thriller at The Pit

One yard. Twice. With the season on the line, Elder’s defense stuffed St. Xavier’s Aidan Newdigate at the goal line on two straight plays as time ran out Friday night, preserving a wild 27-23 win over the Bombers in an Ohio High School Athletic Association Division I, Region 4 semifinal in front of a sellout crowd of 9,500 at Elder’s The Pit, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

The win sends Elder (10-2) to the Region 4 final against undefeated Princeton at Paycor Stadium on Friday, November 20, and keeps the Panthers perfect at home in the playoffs — 21-0 all-time in postseason games at The Pit, according to the Enquirer. It was the 112th meeting between the two Greater Catholic League rivals and their ninth in the postseason, CSwaff Media reported.

The night belonged, until its final seconds, to Elder senior quarterback Kaden Estep. Estep rushed for 215 yards and three touchdowns and threw for 141 yards and another score, accounting for all four Elder touchdowns, the Enquirer reported. Most of his rushing yards came on four gains of more than 40 yards — two for touchdowns and two that set up short Panthers scores.

Elder struck first, taking a 7-0 lead early, before St. Xavier tied the game 14-14 late in the second quarter, according to the Enquirer’s live game report. Estep opened the second half with a touchdown run to put Elder back in front, and the lead changed hands again when a safety — the ball going out of the end zone — pushed the Bombers ahead in the third quarter, the Enquirer reported.

The winning drive started with 4:08 to play, after St. Xavier missed a field goal. Estep’s last big run ended at the Bomber 6-yard line with about three minutes left, and he punched in the go-ahead touchdown on third down with 2:19 remaining to make it 27-23, according to the Enquirer.

St. Xavier (7-6) drove right back — all the way to the 1-yard line. The Bombers actually outgained Elder 369-349 and held the ball for 28:55 to Elder’s 19:05, and running back Aiden Graham finished with 120 rushing yards and 70 receiving yards, CSwaff Media reported. But on the game’s final two plays, Elder’s defense met Newdigate at the goal line both times, and The Pit erupted as the clock emptied.

“I feel great,” Estep told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Being at home in the playoffs, last game in The Pit, we knew we were going to get it done. I had all the confidence. We played our hearts out.”

Estep’s night also rewrote Elder’s record book. Already the school’s all-time passing leader after breaking that mark in Week 10, he passed Peyton Ramsey — now an Elder assistant coach — for the career school record in total offense, reaching 9,454 career yards against Ramsey’s 9,400, the Enquirer reported. Estep has thrown for 55 touchdowns and run for 26 more in 37 games as Elder’s quarterback, and the Panthers are 28-9 since he took over as a sophomore in 2024, according to the Enquirer.

The result flipped the rivals’ regular-season meeting: St. Xavier had won at Elder 31-29 on September 25. Friday’s final was one of two Region 4 classics that set up championship weekend across Greater Cincinnati — the same night, Anderson routed Troy to reach its own regional final and Harrison held off Trotwood-Madison to join them there, results NewsForce247 covered Friday night.

Both teams had earned their way into the classic. St. Xavier arrived off a 51-14 quarterfinal rout at Lakota West, and Elder had beaten Springboro 37-20 at home in its quarterfinal, according to the regional semifinal pairings coverage — which is how a 7-5 Bomber team and a 9-2 Elder team came to meet for the second time in seven weeks with a regional final berth, and a trip to Paycor, on the line.

What happens next is a championship stage: Elder meets Princeton — which beat Moeller 40-36 in Friday’s other Region 4 semifinal — for the regional title on Friday, November 20, at Paycor Stadium, in Elder’s second straight regional final. Game details in this report are from the Cincinnati Enquirer, with additional statistics reported by CSwaff Media.