Ironton pounds West Liberty-Salem, cruises into DV state championship game

Brock Netter, Staff Writer

Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.

CHILLICOTHE — One more game. 

Playing in December was Ironton’s goal, and the Tigers can mark that off of their checklist. They are now one of the final two teams left in Division V. 

Ironton (14-1) started fast, built a double-digit lead before West Liberty-Salem could blink and put forth its most dominant performance of the season, pounding WLS by a lopsided 63-21 final in a Division V state semifinal on Friday. 

“We’re built to win. That’s what everything at Ironton is about and it means a lot to us to be in this position,” Ironton’s Josh Johnson said. “It simply came down to coming in here, rally the guys together, handle our business and get the job done. We’re onto the next one.”

It took three plays for West Liberty-Salem (13-2) to realize it was in for a long night. 

On the second play, WLS threw a pass that was picked off by Ironton’s Zayne Williams. On the next play, Williams bulldozed his way into the end zone from six yards out for an 8-0 lead.

After a West Liberty-Salem punt, Braden Schreck connected with Shaun Terry for a 41-yard, acrobatic catch. Two plays later, Williams cashed in with his second touchdown of the night, this time from two yards out, for a 15-0 count. 

“Zayne is a dog. He brings the energy not just on gameday, but in every practice as well,” Johnson said. “Seeing him get that interception, it just turned the whole team up and once we got that momentum, we weren’t stopping.”

From that point on, Ironton was full pedal to the metal. 

The Tigers scored two more times before the end of the first quarter.

Schreck found Terry for a 15-yard touchdown pass and Kayden Edwards took a handoff, found a hole and sprinted 66 yards for a score. 

“We knew that WLS gets a lot of bodies to the point of attack, so we had to play fast and swarm quickly,” Ironton coach Trevon Pendleton said. “Defense got a big turnover to open the game, special teams forced a couple bad punts and our offense was clicking all around. When you have all three phases working, the points are going to rack up pretty quick.”

The rest of the game produced more of the same.

Schreck ran for a 22-yard touchdown, Maddix Markel scored on a 19-yard run, Williams found the end zone for a third time, Terry tacked on a punt return touchdown, and Tyler Carmen added a rushing touchdown of his own.

West Liberty-Salem had two kick return touchdowns from Jack Bahan, and Josh Wilcoxon added a rushing score — but all came after Ironton had built a 30-plus-point lead.

Ironton advances to the Division V state championship game at 3 p.m. next Saturday at Canton’s Tom Benson Stadium. The Fighting Tigers will meet with Liberty Center, who defeated Canfield South Range to advance.

“I’m very proud of the effort our guys gave. But make no mistake about it, the job isn’t done yet,” Pendleton said. “A goal was definitely to make it back to the state championship, but it’s not the goal. The goal is to win it, and these guys have done the necessary step every week to put the team in positions to make plays to get us here.”

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