SHELBY, Ohio — For three quarters, the unbeaten season was slipping away. Shelby trailed Sandusky Perkins 14-7 entering the fourth quarter of its Division IV, Region 14 semifinal on Friday night, November 13 — and then, in the Mansfield News Journal’s account, the Whippets simply decided the season was not ending. Shelby scored twice in the fourth quarter and beat Perkins 20-14 at the Whippet Athletic Complex, according to the Mansfield News Journal’s game recap. The Columbus Dispatch’s scoreboard, the Reflector’s score list and High School On SI’s statewide scoreboard all confirmed the 20-14 final.
“There is something about this team,” Shelby coach Rob Mahaney told the Mansfield News Journal. “Whether it was being down against Pleasant or not having Michael Shepherd for two weeks and finding a way against Bellevue and Galion and again tonight. We have guys who stepped up and made plays and it is a collective group effort. Our 23 seniors do their jobs, trust each other and I couldn’t be more proud.”
The comeback started with a conversion. Facing third-and-8 with 10:37 left, Shepherd connected with Griffin Yeager for 18 yards, the Mansfield News Journal reported, igniting a 13-play, 68-yard drive that Shepherd finished himself with a 1-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-goal to tie the game 14-14. Shelby’s defense, pushed around in the first half, then forced a punt — the Whippets held Perkins scoreless for the entire second half and allowed just 199 yards of total offense, the Mansfield News Journal reported.
The winning drive asked even more. Shepherd completed a pass through two Perkins defenders to Jaiden Wilson for 16 yards on third-and-10, the Mansfield News Journal reported, and two plays later found Brady Bowman — who had been shadowed by multiple defenders all night — for 44 yards with 1:06 left, down to the Perkins 6-yard line. Shepherd ran it in from 6 yards out for Shelby’s first lead of the night.
“We really couldn’t get anything going all game, but coming down to the last two minutes, I just know I needed to make a play,” Bowman told the Mansfield News Journal. “Michael trusted me. We ran the play earlier and I was in a different position, so we knew what the safety was going to do. It worked out.”
Perkins, unbeaten itself at kickoff, still had a drive left in it. The Pirates reached the Shelby 33-yard line with the game in the balance — and sophomore Luke Blevins ended it, coming off the edge for a strip sack that senior Gavin Garrett fell on for the turnover that handed Shelby the win, the Mansfield News Journal reported. Blevins made the play on a serious ankle sprain suffered early in the game, and he never came out.
“Coaches told me to rush half a man so I did that and I literally turned the corner and the ball was right there,” Blevins told the Mansfield News Journal. “Right in my face. I just knocked it out.” Garrett, who recovered it, told the Mansfield News Journal: “Dive on it. Get there as quick as I can. It was like a free piece of candy and I had to grab it. That was one of the best moments of my life right there.”
The final line on Shepherd tells the whole night: 9-of-18 passing for 99 yards with two interceptions, and 19 carries for 76 yards and all three Shelby touchdowns, according to the Mansfield News Journal. Gavin Baker added 51 rushing yards on seven carries, and Bowman finished with four catches for 46 yards — three quiet quarters and one catch that will be remembered in Shelby for years.
Friday’s other northeast Division IV semifinal ended the same way — a lower seed refusing to leave — in the game covered in West Geauga Stuns Top Seed Streetsboro 14-7 on Dzurilla’s Late Plunge. West Geauga survived on fourth-quarter stops; Shelby survived on fourth-quarter conversions. Region 13 and Region 14 both go to championship week with their most resilient teams still standing.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: the Region 14 final pairing is set, Shelby (12-0) against Clear Fork (10-2), which beat Ottawa-Glandorf 35-9 in Friday’s other semifinal, according to the Mansfield News Journal’s statewide scoreboard. The site is not set — the OHSAA announces regional-final sites on Sunday, November 15, according to the Canton Repository’s bracket report. What is settled: Perkins’ season ends at 11-1, its only loss delivered in the final minutes on the road, and Shelby is in its third straight regional championship game, having won the title last season against Galion, the Mansfield News Journal reported.
The standard Shelby now chases was set Friday by the defense in the game covered in London Blanks CHCA 14-0 to Reach Regional Final Behind Ferocious Defense — a shutout with a final berth attached. Shelby’s version was louder: no points allowed after halftime, against an 11-0 team, with the season on the line.
What happens next: Shelby (12-0) faces Clear Fork (10-2) — a fellow Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference program — in the Division IV, Region 14 final on Friday, November 20, at a site the OHSAA announces Sunday, November 15. “It is similar to the last two years,” Bowman told the Mansfield News Journal. “We have another MOAC opponent for a regional championship. We just have to do what we do at a neutral site and take care of business.”
Photo: Randybroderick, CC BY-SA