CINCINNATI — Elder survived the kind of fourth quarter that defines this rivalry. The Panthers retook the lead with 2:19 to play and then stopped St. Xavier twice at the 1-yard line to close out a 27-23 win on Friday night, November 13, in an OHSAA Division I, Region 4 semifinal, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer’s live game report.
Elder struck first, taking a 7-0 lead early, before St. Xavier pulled even at 14-14 late in the second quarter, The Enquirer reported. Nothing about the first half suggested either team would give ground easily — and neither did.
The second half swung on three plays. Elder quarterback Kaden Estep opened the half with a touchdown run to put the Panthers back in front, according to The Enquirer. St. Xavier answered by taking the lead after a safety — the kind of two-point swing that can flip a playoff game — and held that lead into the final minutes.
Then came the finish. Elder drove to retake a 27-23 lead with 2:19 left, The Enquirer reported, and St. Xavier’s last chance died at the goal line: two stops at the 1-yard line sealed the win and sent Elder to the regional final.
Estep’s role fits the résumé he built all fall. The Elder senior was named a Division I Co-Offensive Player of the Year in the Ohio Prep Sports Media Association’s All-Southwest District teams this week — the honors our newsroom covered in Southwest Ohio All-District Football Honors Go to Estep, Norman and Scalf — and on Friday he produced the go-ahead score that started the second half.
The win moves Elder to 10-2. St. Xavier, which entered the night 7-4 and had to win its way into the regional semifinals as the region’s No. 6 seed, finishes its season at 7-5 after coming within a yard of extending it.
Elder was not the only Cincinnati winner Friday. In the other Region 4 semifinal, Princeton beat Moeller 40-36 — a game the Vikings led late in the fourth quarter, according to The Enquirer, with the final confirmed on the statewide scoreboard — which means the regional final pairs Elder with the region’s unbeaten top seed.
The Princeton-Moeller semifinal was nearly as wild. Princeton scored on an 80-yard play on the game’s first snap and added a blocked-punt touchdown, according to The Enquirer’s live updates, then had to hold on as Moeller rallied to within 40-36 in the fourth quarter before the Vikings closed it out. Around the rest of the Cincinnati bracket, Anderson routed Troy 50-7 and Tippecanoe edged McNicholas 28-27 in finals reported by The Enquirer.
It was a championship-caliber Friday across Cincinnati high school sports: two of the city’s volleyball powers also met for a state final berth, as covered in Seton and St. Ursula Meet Friday in All-Cincinnati Division I Volleyball Final.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: the Region 4 final pairing is set, but its site is not. The OHSAA announces regional-final sites on Sunday, November 15, and Elder and Princeton will meet on Friday, November 20, with a state semifinal berth at stake.
Games between Elder and St. Xavier rarely lack a fourth-quarter plot twist, and Friday’s edition packed several into one half: a go-ahead touchdown run by the district’s co-offensive player of the year, a safety that flipped the lead, a go-ahead drive inside the final two and a half minutes, and a last stand measured in a single yard. For the Panthers’ seniors, it was the kind of win over the Bombers that gets retold at reunions.
For St. Xavier, the ending will sting precisely because it was so close: a safety-forged lead, a drive to the 1-yard line in the final minutes, and two snaps that needed one more yard. The Bombers’ season ends with a regional semifinal loss to their west-side rivals.
What happens next: Elder (10-2) faces Princeton (12-0) in the Division I, Region 4 final on Friday, November 20. The winner advances to the state semifinals on November 27 — and Elder goes in having already won the hardest kind of game there is in Cincinnati: one decided at the goal line, against St. Xavier.