ROCKY RIVER, Ohio — Two unbeaten seasons walked into Rocky River Stadium on Friday night, November 13, and for three quarters the home one looked safer. Then Grady Hirst took over. Hirst ran for two touchdowns in the final 5:37 as third-seeded West Branch rallied to beat second-seeded, previously unbeaten Rocky River 21-12 in an OHSAA Division IV, Region 13 semifinal, according to The Canton Repository’s game recap. The Mansfield News Journal’s statewide scoreboard, The Columbus Dispatch’s scoreboard and High School On SI’s statewide scoreboard all confirmed the 21-12 final.
The start belonged to the Pirates. Rocky River scored two first-quarter touchdowns — quarterback Carter Atwater ran for one and threw for another — but the conversions betrayed the hosts all night: a missed extra point after the first score and a failed two-point pass after the second, The Canton Repository reported. West Branch answered once in the first quarter on a 39-yard Hirst touchdown run, and the 12-7 score held through halftime and a scoreless third quarter.
Hirst’s night, in full, is the story of the game. He carried the offense almost alone — 203 rushing yards and all three West Branch touchdowns, The Canton Repository reported — while also quarterbacking it: 11-of-18 passing with no interceptions. A dual-threat quarterback who is also his team’s workhorse back is a defensive coordinator’s November nightmare, and Rocky River, which had allowed almost nothing all season, had no answer in the fourth quarter.
The go-ahead drive finished the way West Branch wanted the whole night to go. Hirst scored on a 2-yard run with 5:37 left, and Rocky River’s conversion failures turned the kick into a lead change — West Branch in front 14-12, The Canton Repository reported (its Stark County roundup box score puts the go-ahead score at 5:32; the Repository’s game recap says 5:37, and this report follows the recap). Three minutes later Hirst did it again, another 2-yard touchdown run with 3:27 left, and his two-point conversion pass to Landon Coffee stretched the lead to 21-12 — two possessions, with Rocky River out of time to waste.
“The exclamation point,” as The Canton Repository put it, came on defense. Gavin Marshall intercepted a pass on Rocky River’s final drive, allowing West Branch to take a knee and run out the clock; Jeremy Ramsey also intercepted a pass for the Warriors, The Canton Repository reported. Marshall was West Branch’s top receiver, too, with five catches for 54 yards, and Coffee added two pass deflections to his two-point catch.
Rocky River’s offense never recovered from its first-quarter burst. The Pirates were limited to 173 yards of total offense, The Canton Repository reported, and Atwater finished with a touchdown pass and two interceptions against a West Branch defense that pitched a shutout over the final three quarters. Kentucky recruit Tristin Hughes was held to three catches for 44 yards, and Rocco Baon led Rocky River on the ground with 50 yards on 16 carries — a stat line that measures how completely the Warriors’ defense owned the night after the first quarter.
The regional final West Branch earned is the one covered in West Geauga Stuns Top Seed Streetsboro 14-7 on Dzurilla’s Late Plunge — the Wolverines knocked off the region’s top seed on the road the same night, so Region 13’s championship game pairs the two road warriors who ruined the bracket’s top half. West Branch (11-1) and West Geauga (11-2) have both now won regional semifinals away from home; one of them gets to keep the run going.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: the Region 13 final pairing is set, West Branch against West Geauga on Friday, November 20. 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: Rocky River’s season ends at 11-1, its unbeaten run stopped at home in the final six minutes, and West Branch — which lost its only game early and has won every week since — is a win from the state semifinals.
Division IV’s other northeast finalist survived the same way, in the game covered in Shelby Rallies Past Perkins 20-14 in Fourth Quarter to Stay Perfect: a fourth-quarter comeback, a defense that allowed nothing late, a season extended by the thinnest of margins. November football in Ohio rewards exactly that profile, and West Branch has it.
What happens next: West Branch (11-1) faces West Geauga (11-2) in the Division IV, Region 13 final on Friday, November 20, at a site the OHSAA announces Sunday, November 15. The winner advances to the state semifinals on November 27.