Pirates end Shamrocks luck in postseason for 4th-straight time
- Staff
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
WHEELERSBURG - Different year.Â
Different round.Â
Different players.Â
Different venue.Â
But, still same result - now four football postseasons running.
That's because, for the fourth consecutive state playoffs, the Wheelersburg Pirates put an end to the Barnesville Shamrocks' season - and this time they had the opportunity to put Barnesville to bed in the Pirates' seniors home finale.Â
With Wheelersburg scoring 36 of the final 42 points over the game's final 32 minutes and 16 seconds, the Pirates ended the Shamrocks' season in Friday night's Division V Region 19 semifinals by a count of 36-13 - as Barnesville made the visit to Wheelersburg's Ed Miller Stadium for this fourth straight Region 19 matchup.
The undefeated and top-seeded in Region 19 Pirates raised their Jolly Roger record to a perfect 12-0. and remarkably remain the only Ohio team to defeat Barnesville in the past four seasons.
Before Friday night, the Pirates had twice traveled to Barnesville in 2022 and 2024 - in the Region 19 quarterfinals and opening round respectively.Â
The Pirates returned home, three-and-a-half hours away, with wins - sandwiched around the Region 19 semifinals two years ago, when Wheelersburg beat Barnesville at Hamilton Township.
In all three instances, the Shamrocks were undefeated when they encountered the Pirates - twice at 10-0 (2022 and 2024) and once at 11-0 (2023).
This season, Barnesville entered at 9-2 - having had their 41-game regular-season win streak snapped by visiting George Washington out of Charleston, W. Va. (17-14), before losing against Independence on a neutral field 42-21.
This year marked a pair of firsts for Barnesville-Burg Part IV - that the top 12 teams in each region qualified for the Ohio High School Athletic Association state playoffs, followed by the regional semifinals being held at home sites.
But apparently, it doesn't matter where the Shamrocks and Pirates play - the outcome was the same on Friday night as it has been the past three years.
The only other meeting between the two was in 1992 - when they played in the snow at Groveport, and Barnesville won 10-7 in a Division IV regional semifinal.Â
Wheelersburg coach Rob Woodward was asked about the secret to the Pirates' success against the Shamrocks.
After all, the Orange and Black has outscored Barnesville by a combined score of 141-64, as the 26-13 doubling up two years ago was Wheelersburg's smallest margin of victory.
"Barnesville is a great team and Coach (Blake) Allen does a great job. I remember in my early years, we were always trying to strive for how can we get over that hump and how can we get better with that. With Barnesville, I am not saying we're better at it, but we've been able to recognize what we need to do, and we've had great athletes and great coaches that have found ways to put our kids in situations to be successful," said the 18-year Pirate mentor. "We took advantage of some of those situations tonight. We continued to stay after it for four quarters, and that's what I'm so proud about of this senior group. They are able to bounce back, they don't let anything sit with them for long at all, they are moving on to the next play. You saw that in several situations tonight."
Two situations Woodward discussed stood out - both Barnesville scoring drives.
The Shamrocks took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards in 13 plays, while devouring six minutes and 56 seconds off the first-quarter clock.
They picked up five first downs, including the a 42-yard pass play to set up the two-yard Trey Tolliver touchdown run - a scrambling job on 3rd-down-and-23 by quarterback Cole Francis.
 He heaved the ball downfield, and somehow found Jack Anderson open for the completion from the Pirate 44-yard line.
The Shamrocks led 7-0 with the extra-point kick, but after an exchange of punts following a pair of three-and-out-possessions, Wheelersburg scored 22 consecutive points - spanning the midway points of the second and third quarters.
More on that momentarily.
The Shamrocks then got to within 22-13 with 2:11 left in the third - crafting an eight-play and 72-yard drive that took up three minutes and 35 seconds, and once again featured a short Tolliver touchdown run, which immediately followed Barnesville's biggest gainer of the night.
 That was an Evan Wells 46-yard dash down the sideline.
However, the extra-point kick was blocked, the Shamrocks couldn't quite pull within a touchdown, and the Pirates put together a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives sandwiched around Kenyon Evans' interception of Francis.
Truth be told, Barnesville barely had the ball beyond the opening drive - as the Shamrocks finished with only 17-and-a-half minutes in time of possession.
Trailing 15-7, the Shamrocks moved to the Pirate 48, but a pair of sacks of Francis resulted in a total loss of 33 yards - back to the Shamrocks' 16.
With Wheelersburg leading 36-13, Barnesville held the ball for almost three full minutes - but Brycen Longfellow intercepted Wells in the end zone with only 80 seconds remaining.
Barnesville had 97 yards apiece in rushing and passing, but the standout sophomore running back Tolliver was limited to only five yards a carry (81 yards on 16 carries).
Wells was checked to 22 yards on his six other attempts, and completed 3-of-7 second-half passes for 33 yards.Â
Francis threw for 64 yards on 5-of-8, but was sacked four times - totaling minus-52 in the rushing department.
Wheelersburg has allowed only double digits in points three times all season, as Ironton's 15 on Sept. 26 remain the most the Pirates have surrendered.
"Great pressure. Just relentless pressure," raved Woodward of the defensive effort. "Our guys condition hard and prepare hard and they are ready to go out and play hard physical football for four quarters. Our guys are flying around."
Offensively, outside of their only punt - and senior quarterback Braylon Rucker's first interception of the season - the Pirates played well once again.
Rucker completed 10-of-12 passes for 57 yards, but did most of the damage with his legs once again - like he did the past two years against Barnesville.
With the zone read his wheelhouse, Rucker ran for 123 yards on 15 tries - as he got the Pirates on the board with a 23-yard sprint at the 8:16 mark of the second stanza.
That capped a four first-down and 10-play and 61-yard drive, which began with a minute and 25 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
A Rucker two-point conversion pass to Hunter Henderson made it 8-7, and the Pirates never trailed again.Â
In fact, they got the ball right back - as "Riverboat Rob" rolled the proverbial dice and called for an onside kick, in which the kicker Cooper Heimbach recovered at the Shamrock 47.
The next Pirate march consisted of 11 plays in four minutes and 15 seconds, and featured four more first downs - including a pair of fourth-down conversions.
Both of those went for eight yards, including Xavier Miller making one of his four receptions to convert 4th-and-4 at the Barnesville 41.
Stephen Hall had the one-yard touchdown run at the four-minute mark, Heimbach made the first of his four extra-point kicks, and the Shamrocks never got any closer.
"We had to overcome a fourth down in that drive which kept us going and which was huge. We could have given up the onside kick in that situation, but we took that chance, so might as well take a fourth-down chance," said Woodward. "Our coaching staff has our guys ready to take advantage of any opportunity that we may see. And take chances. You're going to have to do that in the playoffs against good teams."
Hall, who had 39 yards on nine carries, had a two-yard TD dive to make it 22-7 with six minutes left in the third - finishing off a 12-play and 80-yard drive that officially took up six minutes and six seconds.
In the fourth quarter, Rucker ran in from a yard out at the seven-and-a-half minute mark, capping another dozen-play drive - this one which covered 62 yards and which ran off six minutes and 40 tics.Â
Finally, after Evans' interception and return to the Barnesville 40, the Pirates ran six more plays in 2:51 - with Rucker's 24-yard run setting up Elijah Brown's one-yard plunge.
Brown carried the most of any rushers with 17 totes, and was six yards shy of an even 100.
The Pirates put 254 rushing yards on 46 attempts, and tallied 21 first downs.
"We ran the ball well and Braylon (Rucker) has been so efficient this year," said Woodward.
Rucker, Brown, and the remainder of the Pirates must be efficient on Friday night - as they play for the Region 19 championship against undefeated and fellow 12-0 Nelsonville-York.
The third-seeded Buckeyes edged second-seeded and host Columbus Academy 10-7 in Friday night's other Region 19 semifinal - as Nelsonville-York and Wheelersburg last met in the playoffs in 2016, which was another regional semi.
The OHSAA was set to announce the regional championship site on Sunday, as speculation Saturday centered on Jackson's Alumni Stadium - the same site as that 2016 tilt.
Barnesville 7 0 6 0 = 13
Wheelersburg 0 15 7 14 = 36
First Quarter
Bar — Trey Tolliver 2 run (Luis Garcia kick), 5:04.
Second Quarter
Wh — Braylon Rucker 23 run (Hunter Henderson pass from Braylon Rucker), 8:16.
Wh — Stephen Hall 1 run (Cooper Heimbach kick), 4:01.
Third Quarter
Wh — Stephen Hall 2 run (Cooper Heimbach kick), 5:54.
Bar — Trey Tolliver 1 run (kick blocked), 2:11.
Fourth Quarter
Wh — Braylon Rucker 1 run (Cooper Heimbach kick), 7:29.
Wh — Elijah Brown 1 run (Cooper Heimbach kick), 4:10.
———
Bar Wh
First Downs 12 21
Scrimmage plays 43 58
Rushes-yards 28-97 46-254
Passing yards 97 57
Total yards 194 311
Cmp-Att-Int 8-15-2 10-12-1
Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 4-22 6-50
Punts-Ave. 2-33 1-46
Time of Possession 17:30 29:30
———
Individual Leaders
RUSHING — Barnesville: Trey Tolliver 16-81 2TD, Evan Wells 7-68, Cole Francis 4-(-52), Team 1-0; Wheelersburg: Elijah Brown 17-94 TD, Braylon Rucker 15-123 2TD, Stephen Hall 9-39 2TD, Kenyon Evans 2-4, Brady Doss 1-3, Team 2-(-9)
PASSING — Barnesville: Cole Francis 5-8-1-64, Evan Wells 3-7-1-33; Wheelersburg: Braylon Rucker 10-12-1-57
RECEIVING — Barnesville: Jack Anderson 1-42, Phoenix Graham 1-29, Hines Ford 2-11, Koby Jones 2-8, Trey Tolliver 2-7; Wheelersburg: Xavier Miller 4-20, Kenyon Evans 2-20, Hunter Bivens 2-12, Brady Doss 2-5