Hilliard Darby’s football season ended Friday night, Nov. 13, in a 56-14 loss at Huber Heights Wayne in an Ohio High School Athletic Association Division I, Region 2 semifinal. The final score is listed in the Mansfield News Journal’s statewide regional-semifinal list, The Columbus Dispatch’s third-round scoreboard, High School On SI’s statewide finals and the Reflector’s Friday scores.
Wayne, the region’s No. 4 seed, scored early and often against the No. 8-seeded Panthers. The Delaware Source’s Nov. 13 Delaware-area playoff roundup reported that Wayne led 14-7 after the first quarter and 43-14 at halftime, then charged to a 56-14 lead heading into the final quarter, with neither team scoring in the fourth.
Darby (8-4 entering the game, in the OHSAA pairings reported by the Zanesville Times Recorder) finishes its season 8-5. The Panthers reached the regional semifinal as the lower seed still standing in Region 2, but Wayne’s first-half burst put the game out of reach before halftime.
Wayne improves to 8-4 with the win. The Warriors entered the night 7-4 as the No. 4 seed, and Friday’s 42-point margin was the widest of any Division I regional semifinal played in Ohio on Friday night, according to the statewide scores published by the Mansfield News Journal and The Columbus Dispatch.
The sources used for this story published no individual scoring plays or player statistics for the semifinal itself, so none are reported here. What the scoreboards agree on is the shape of the night: a competitive first quarter, a decisive Wayne second quarter, and a scoreless fourth once the outcome was settled.
Darby’s seniors close a season that carried the Panthers into the second weekend of November, one step short of a regional championship game. For a program that entered the bracket as the No. 8 seed, the semifinal trip itself marked a postseason run past two higher-seeded rounds of the bracket.
Wayne advances to the Division I, Region 2 final on Friday, Nov. 20, against Springfield, which beat Perrysburg 21-14 in the other Region 2 semifinal on Friday, according to the Canton Repository’s regional-final schedule. The OHSAA will announce the neutral site for the final on Sunday, Nov. 15.
Photo: Sixflashphoto, CC BY-SA 4.0