For one quarter on Friday night, unbeaten Big Walnut looked vulnerable. Louisville’s defense twice turned the Golden Eagles away in the opening quarter — including a goal-line stand inside the 5 — and when a botched punt snap handed the Leopards the ball at the Big Walnut 14, Cody Zahler ran 14 yards for a touchdown on the very next play, according to Leopard Nation’s game report. Louisville led 7-0, and the No. 7 seed’s upset bid was alive in Sunbury.
It did not survive the second quarter. Big Walnut scored the game’s final 37 points to beat Louisville 37-7 in a Division II, Region 7 regional quarterfinal, a final confirmed by scoreboards published by The Columbus Dispatch, The Canton Repository, the Mansfield News Journal, the Zanesville Times Recorder, High School On SI and MaxPreps. The No. 2-seeded Golden Eagles improved to 11-0 in their postseason opener after a first-round bye, while Louisville’s season ended at 9-3.
Nolan Buirley powered the answer, according to Leopard Nation’s game statistics. The junior back tied the game four seconds into the second quarter on a 2-yard touchdown run that capped a 72-yard drive, then broke it open just before halftime — quarterback Eli Stumpf found Buirley for a 62-yard touchdown pass with 1:52 left in the half, and Owen Pyles drilled a 43-yard field goal as time expired to send Big Walnut to the locker room up 16-7, nine points in the final 1:52 of the half.
Buirley’s night, as recorded by Leopard Nation, finished at 251 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns: 169 rushing yards and two scores on 22 carries, plus three catches for 82 yards and the long touchdown. Stumpf threw for 252 yards and two touchdowns on 15-of-27 passing with no interceptions, and added 50 rushing yards for 302 yards of total offense, Leopard Nation reported. Brody Shuster caught a 24-yard touchdown in the third quarter and Jackson Bowers added a 6-yard scoring run early in the fourth before Buirley’s 45-yard touchdown run closed the scoring.
The defensive turnaround matched the offensive one. Big Walnut outgained Louisville 516-139, held the Leopards to seven first downs and 2-of-12 on third down, and intercepted Zahler twice — Drew Harris near the goal line to kill a red-zone threat, and Tanner Harkness later — according to Leopard Nation’s box score. Louisville star back Lucas Neff, who ran for 146 yards and three touchdowns in the Leopards’ first-round win over North Canton Hoover, was held to 5 yards on 11 carries. Zahler accounted for 130 of Louisville’s 139 total yards.
The meeting was the first ever between the two programs, Leopard Nation noted, and it extended very different postseason stories. Louisville’s win over Hoover on Oct. 30 was the program’s first playoff victory since 2015 and its first home playoff win since 2008, according to Leopard Nation, and the Leopards’ all-time playoff record now stands at 15-19. Big Walnut, by contrast, has made November runs a habit.
The Canton Repository’s playoff preview reported that Big Walnut is the two-time defending Region 7 champion and has reached the state semifinals in back-to-back seasons, beating Massillon in the regional final each time, according to The Canton Repository. The Golden Eagles’ last loss came in the 2025 state semifinal, a 29-22 defeat against Cincinnati Anderson.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is confirmed: the 37-7 final, verified by seven independent score listings; Big Walnut’s 11-0 record and Louisville’s 9-3 finish; and the individual lines above, which come from Leopard Nation’s box score — the Leopards’ athletics site was the only source in this reporting with a full scoring summary, and no other outlet’s box score has been published to cross-check it against. No postgame quotes from either coaching staff were published in the sources reviewed, so none are reported here.
Waiting on: the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s official bracket update confirming kickoff details for next week, and any injury news out of either camp after a physical quarterfinal. Neither school had posted additional information as of early Saturday morning.
What happens next brings the region’s heavyweight back to Sunbury. Massillon Washington (10-1) visits Big Walnut on Friday, Nov. 13, for the Region 7 semifinal — the Tigers advanced with a 48-0 shutout of Columbus DeSales on Friday night. It is a rematch loaded with history: Big Walnut has beaten Massillon in the regional final two straight years, according to The Canton Repository, and a third straight postseason meeting now arrives one round earlier.
The winner moves to the Region 7 final on Nov. 20, one win from the state semifinals. For Louisville, the season closes with a nine-win campaign and a playoff win that ended a decade-long drought — a foundation the Leopards will try to build on. For Big Walnut, the unbeaten season rolls on, with its biggest test of the year waiting under the Friday night lights in Sunbury.
Photo: Sixflashphoto, CC BY-SA 4.0 — the Big Walnut Local Schools district administrative office in Sunbury.
[…] Ohio’s other unbeaten powers kept rolling Friday as well — read our coverage of Big Walnut’s 37-7 win over Louisville in the same […]