WILLOW WOOD, Ohio — Top-seeded Symmes Valley left no doubt in its playoff opener Friday night, blanking No. 9 Steubenville Catholic Central 55-0 in a Division VII, Region 27 quarterfinal at Symmes Valley High School. The Vikings improved to 11-0 with the win, which The Columbus Dispatch and the Ironton Tribune both reported as a 55-0 final, while Catholic Central’s season ended at 8-4.
The shutout was Symmes Valley’s fourth in a row, according to the Vikings’ schedule record on MaxPreps. The Vikings closed the regular season by blanking Sciotoville East 49-0 and Portsmouth Notre Dame 47-0, beat South Gallia 56-0 in the finale, and have now outscored their last four opponents 207-0. Across all 11 games, MaxPreps credits Symmes Valley with 560 points scored against just 62 allowed.
Friday’s quarterfinal was the Vikings’ first game in two weeks. The Ohio High School Athletic Association’s regional quarterfinal pairings listed Symmes Valley as Region 27’s No. 1 seed at 10-0, and the top four seeds in each region received a first-round bye. Catholic Central arrived in Willow Wood as the No. 9 seed at 8-3, according to the OHSAA pairings, but the Crusaders never found the end zone against a defense that has made scoreless football a habit this fall.
The playoff rout capped a championship regular season in Lawrence County. The Ironton Tribune reported on Oct. 20 that the Vikings had clinched at least a share of the Southern Ohio Conference Division I title with their 47-0 win at Notre Dame, reaching 9-0 for the first time since 2021. Symmes Valley then finished the job a week later, shutting out rival South Gallia 56-0 on Oct. 23 to complete a 10-0 regular season.
Junior quarterback Bronx Carpenter has driven the offense all season. According to the Ironton Tribune, Carpenter had thrown for 2,705 yards and 42 touchdowns through the Notre Dame game, spreading the ball to targets including Jackson Fields, Andrew Isaacs and Levi Russell. The Tribune also noted the Vikings were Division VII, Region 27 semifinalists a season ago, and Friday’s win puts them right back in that round — this time as the region’s team to beat.
Catholic Central, meanwhile, heads home after an eight-win season that carried the Crusaders into the regional quarterfinals. The 55 points matched Symmes Valley’s scoring output from its first two games of the season, wins over Chesapeake and Meigs, and marked the Vikings’ seventh game of 49 points or more this fall.
What happens next is a semifinal with fresh drama attached. Symmes Valley will host Shadyside on Friday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. in a Region 27 semifinal, according to the Vikings’ schedule on MaxPreps. Shadyside (10-2) advanced Friday by rallying from 19 points down in the final minutes to stun Reedsville Eastern 27-26. The winner moves on to the regional final on Friday, Nov. 20, two wins from a trip to the state semifinals.
Photo: Brendan J Ross, CC BY-SA