Final Four!
By Kevin Wiseman Messenger sports editor
Nov 18, 2017
JACKSON — Nelsonville-York sophomore Keegan Wilburn held the regional championship trophy high above his head, asking for anyone around to capture the moment with a picture.
Wilburn and the Buckeyes have already made plenty of school history during this 2017 season, and it only got better on Friday night.
Nelsonville-York used big play after big play to defeat Coal Grove Dawson-Bryant, 28-7, in a Division VI, Region 23 final played at Jackson High School’s Alumni Stadium.
The Buckeyes are now 13-0 overall, and are going to the Final Four of Division VI. It’s the program’s third regional championship, but first in 35 years.
“You know, at the beginning of the season, we weren’t supposed to be the best team in the TVC,” Wilburn said. “Making it this far is really all the extra work that we put in January, February, March, you name every month of the year, that’s coach (Rusty) Richards working his butt off to make us a better football team.”
The Buckeyes proved to be the best football team in Region 23, comfortably beating a Hornets (9-4) squad that entered on a nine-game winning streak.
“Just unreal right now,” N-Y head coach Rusty Richards said. “These kids came out and played their game. We had some mistakes that we had to overcome, couple fumbles, interception, but they kept plugging along.”
The passing combination of quarterback Garrett Maiden and Wilburn were unstoppable on Friday. Maiden completed 14 of 21 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns. He rushed for 74 more yards. Wilburn was his top target, catching nine passes for 131 yards and a score.
The two foiled the Hornets’ defense all night.
“Boy, did Garrett Maiden and Keegan Wilburn step up for us. Just carried us and put us on our back,” Richards said.
The Buckeyes are a veteran squad with 16 seniors leading the way, but it was Wilburn who ran around Coal Grove (11-2) defenders all night. He added a team-high 81 yards rushing and two more scores, alternating carries between tailback and playing quarterback in a ‘wildcat’ package.
“Honestly, practice this week, I probably touched the ball three times,” Wilburn said. “I wasn’t expecting this many carries, and it all goes back to coach Richards, he sees things that are obviously open and they work.”
Wilburn opened the scoring with a 22-yard touchdown reception on a fade to the end zone.
When the Hornets tied the game on Kyle Sites’ 67-yard touchdown run, it was Wilburn who broke the deadlock.
Lined up at quarterback, Wilburn burst through the line of scrimmage, juked a defender in the open field and raced for a 30-yard touchdown run.
With 4:33 left in the first half, the Buckeyes had a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“The touchdown run Keegan had was fantastic,” Richards said. “We call it 28-stretch. I think he went through the five-hole and then he was back across the field.”
For all of Wilburn’s exploits, he didn’t even own the most breathtaking play of the night. That belonged to senior Shakim Williams.
The Buckeyes’ defense got a stop — thanks in part to a couple dropped passes by Coal Grove receivers — and took over as their own 29-yard line with just 27.0 seconds left in the first half.
Maiden hit Wilburn for passes of 12 and 6 yards, settling up one final heave.
Maiden dropped back to pass and lofted a deep ball toward Williams. The ball was going to sail too far, and a couple Hornet defenders appeared ready for a possible interception.
Williams turned into a defender and deflected the ball to keep Coal Grove from gaining possession.
The ball somehow ricocheted back toward Williams, who snagged it out of the air and raced 53 yards for the score. N-Y led 21-7 and only 4.8 seconds showed on the clock.
“I see Garrett throw it and two guys covering me, I think it’s an interception,” Williams said. “I’m about to start jogging off, but I see it’s in my vicinity. I go up to try to tip it and I just catch it somehow.
“Yeah, it surprised me. I didn’t know it was going to come to me right like that.”
A week ago, N-Y lost a 20-point second-half lead before ultimately outlasting Fort Frye in overtime.
No such drama was needed on Friday, and a 15-play third-quarter drive assured it.
N-Y’s 15-play drive covered 88 yards and ate 7 minutes and 43 seconds off the clock. They led 28-7 after Wilburn’s 1-yard touchdown run.
“That’s not really our style, 15 plays,” Richards said. “Usually it’s two or three, but hey we buckled down and did what we had to do. I think that just took all the wind out of their sails.”
Nelsonville-York converted all five of its third downs on the drive. Maiden found Wilburn for a 48-yard reception on a third-and-13 from the Bucks’ 38.
“That drive was a nail in the coffin,” Coal Grove coach Evan Ferguson said. “They had three over 10-yard third-down conversions. They took almost eight minutes off the clock. At that point, we saw the wind get sucked out of our kids.”
The Buckeyes’ defense was up to the task as well, as Tyler Speelman and Donovan McCollister applied constant pressure to quarterback Nate Harmon.
The Hornets did rush for 257 yards — 182 coming on 21 carries by Sites — but completed only 2 of 15 passes for 19 yards.
“Defense played exceptionally well,” Richards said. “Minus the one big play, we played pretty well defensively.”
By the time Speelman had consecutive sacks to short circuit a fourth-quarter Coal Grove drive, the Buckeyes were well on their way to a regional championship.
Nelsonville-York will face Kirtland on Friday in a state semifinal, at New Philadelphia High School.
The Buckeyes received their regional championship trophy after the game, the players and coaches reveling in the glory of the school’s first Final Four appearance in any sport since 1982.
“We’re a full team,” Maiden said. “We got every aspect. That’s why we’re here today.”
The Buckeyes have exceeded expectations all season long, and now they see their season extend into week 14.
“It just shows you that hard work pays off,” Richards said. “These kids believe from the get-go. Even our scrimmages, it was a little shaky, a couple of them. It wasn’t pretty. But they just kept battling and it just goes to show you that hard work can pay off.”
Paul Boggs of the Jackson-County Times Journal and Jason Arkley of The Athens Messenger contributed to this report.
Nelsonville-York 28, Coal Grove 7
Coal Grove 7 0 0 0 — 7
Nelsonville-York 7 14 7 0 — 28
NY — Keegan Wilburn, 22-yard pass from Garrett Maiden (Garrett Maiden kick), 1:48, 1st
CG — Kyle Sites, 67-yard run (Evan Holmes kick), 1:29, 1st
NY — Keegan Wilburn, 30-yard run (Garrett Maiden kick), 4:33, 2nd
NY — Shakim Williams, 53-yard pass from Garrett Maiden (Garrett Maiden kick), 4.8, 2nd
NY — Keegan Wilburn, 1-yard run (Garrett Maiden kick), 46.4, 3rd
TEAM STATISTICS
CG NY
First downs 12 18
Plays from scrimmage 58 59
Rushing (plays-yds) 43-257 38-152
Passing yards 19 224
Total net yards 276 376
Passes (cmp-att-int) 2-15-1 14-21-1
Fumbles (no-lost) 3-2 2-2
Penalties (no-yds) 4-35 5-44
Punts (no-avg) 3-37.3 3-36
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING
Coal Grove — Kyle Sites 21-182 TD, Nate Harmon 13-29, Joey Workman 4-25; Kimo Baldwin 4-15, Aaron Music 1-6; Nelsonville-York — Keegan Wilburn 13-81 2 TDs, Garrett Maiden 15-74, Colt Yinger 8-0, Team 2-(-3)
PASSING
Coal Grove — Nate Harmon 2-14-1-19, Jordan Case 0-1-0-0; Nelsonville-York — Garrett Maiden 14-21-1-224 2 TDs
RECEIVING
Coal Grove — Sam Angelo 1-14, Jeb Jones 1-5; Nelsonville-York — Keegan Wilburn 9-131 TD, Shakim Williams 1-53 TD, Chris Cook 1-20, Colt Yinger 1-10, Jonathan Richards 1-7, Levi Wickmann 1-3
And really a two point stance?? Those days of the 70's football is long gone. Oh and lets point out a turning point your coach going for it on 4th down in Buckeye territory how did that work out???
