The loudest result in Ohio on Friday night came from the smallest schools. No. 9 St. Henry walked into unbeaten, top-seeded Tri-Village and won 49-14 on Nov. 6 in a Division VI, Region 24 regional quarterfinal, scoring 35 points in the first quarter and leading 49-7 at halftime. The final was confirmed by the Columbus Dispatch, the Mansfield News Journal, the Zanesville Times Recorder, High School On SI and the Ironton Tribune.
Press Pros Magazine, reporting on site in New Madison, described an opening that stunned the home crowd twice in ten seconds: Tri-Village senior Griffin Richards returned the opening kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. From there, Press Pros reported, the quarter belonged entirely to the Redskins.
According to Press Pros Magazine, St. Henry answered with a seven-play drive finished by a 36-yard touchdown pass from Landon Schwartz to Drew Langenkamp, and about 40 seconds later Langenkamp returned an interception of Tri-Village quarterback Brecken Gray for a touchdown and a 14-7 lead. Press Pros reported Schwartz added a 9-yard touchdown run, Will Speck scored after Richards fumbled a kickoff return inside the 20, and Langenkamp’s 4-yard touchdown run — his third score of the quarter — made it 35-7 after Tate Boeckman intercepted a pass to set it up.
The second quarter only widened it. Press Pros Magazine reported Schwartz threw two more touchdown passes to Boeckman, both from 14 yards, the second as time expired in the half, sending St. Henry to the locker room ahead 49-7 and putting the second half under a running clock. Tri-Village’s only other score came on a short touchdown run against St. Henry’s reserves in the third quarter, Press Pros reported.
The first-half numbers Press Pros Magazine compiled underline the rout: Schwartz threw for 123 yards and three touchdowns before halftime and ran for 52 yards and another score; Langenkamp carried 12 times for 118 yards and a rushing touchdown in the half; and St. Henry piled up 362 of its 439 total yards before the break. Press Pros reported Tri-Village committed four turnovers, three of them in the first quarter.
Context makes the upset bigger. St. Henry (9-3) plays in the Midwest Athletic Conference, Ohio’s most decorated small-school league, and finished second to unbeaten Marion Local, Press Pros Magazine reported. The Redskins opened their postseason with a 42-0 win over Madison-Plains on Oct. 30, a result also listed by High School On SI’s Region 24 bracket. Tri-Village, which had a first-round bye, finishes 10-1.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
Confirmed: the 49-14 final and the quarterfinal round, listed by at least six outlets; the seeds and pregame records — No. 9 St. Henry (8-3) at No. 1 Tri-Village (10-0) — from the OHSAA’s Nov. 1 regional quarterfinal pairings; and next week’s opponent, Versailles, which beat Cincinnati College Prep 35-10 on Friday, a score confirmed by the Dispatch, the Mansfield News Journal, the Zanesville Times Recorder and Cincinnati.com. The detailed scoring sequence and statistics above come from Press Pros Magazine’s on-site report and are credited to it. Still waiting on: the semifinal site — St. Henry coach Josh Werling told Press Pros Magazine he believed his team would host, but the OHSAA had not published official semifinal pairings in the sources checked, so NewsForce247 is not stating a site.
What happens next: St. Henry meets Versailles on Friday, Nov. 13, in the Region 24 semifinal, per the OHSAA’s playoff calendar. It is a rematch — St. Henry won the regular-season meeting 34-21 in September, a result reported by both Press Pros Magazine and Heavy.com and shown on Versailles’ MaxPreps schedule.
Versailles (8-4), the No. 12 seed, is itself a MAC program that knows St. Henry well, which sets up a familiar, physical semifinal. The Redskins, meanwhile, carry a simple truth into the week: the team that scored 35 points in one quarter at the region’s top seed fears no one left in the bracket.
There is a league-wide footnote, too. Press Pros Magazine noted St. Henry finished second in the Midwest Athletic Conference to unbeaten Marion Local — the program that sets the small-school standard in Ohio — which means the Redskins’ three losses came against a schedule with no soft weeks. Friday’s first quarter in New Madison looked like a team hardened by exactly that schedule: no panic after the opening kickoff return, four straight scoring answers, and takeaways on three straight Tri-Village possessions, all as Press Pros Magazine described the sequence.