ASHLAND – There are wins and then there are wins like Friday night’s win for the Arrows.
Make no mistake about it. Ashland’s football team was dealt arguably the biggest home game in its 118-year history Friday night with perennial Ohio power St. Francis DeSales walking into Community Stadium for the Division II, second-round playoff showdown.
Ev DeVaul – who was the AHS athletic director from 1971 through 1998 – agreed with that statement when asked in the pressbox Friday.
Arrows 19th-year head coach Scott Valentine – a 1981 Ashland graduate – didn’t argue with it, either.
No, the fifth-seeded Stallions (now 9-3) weren’t at the top of the AP state poll this year, and they weren’t undefeated like the fourth-seeded Arrows (12-0).
But DeSales carries history with it wherever it goes.
The Stallions had played in more state championship games (nine) and had more playoff victories (63) than any team the Arrows had faced in their history.
DeSales entered the season 15th in Ohio record books in win percentage (.700; currently 487-207-4 all-time as a program) and is 10th in playoff qualifications (31).
The program has stacks of All-Ohioans and league titles and four different coaches who have won at least 69 games.
Facing the Stallions for the first time ever and with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line – in the last home game of what next week could become the winningest season in team history – the Arrows were staring down an all-time challenge Friday.
“Tradition’s important,” said 18th-year DeSales head coach Ryan Wiggins, a 1997 graduate of the school. “It’s a challenge for your team to live up to a tradition because you know those that have come before you.
“There’s a little bit of a target (on us); nobody has any trouble getting ready to play us.”
“They’re a great program,” Valentine said. “They’ve got a great coaching staff and they do a great job with their kids.”
On so many levels during their 27-14 victory Friday, the Arrows seized the moment.
Ashland won the turnover battle, 3-0. The hosts dominated the Stallions in time of possession and limited them to fewer than 170 yards of offense before their final drive.
DeSales featured an Ohio University commit in 6-foot-3, 265-pound lineman Ty Neubert and a 1,200-yard running back with multiple Division I offers in Jonathan Brown.
Sophomore quarterback R.J. Day – son of Ohio State University head coach Ryan Day – already is the program’s all-time leading passer. Wiggins called the QB a football junkie who studies the game relentlessly.
There were plenty of potential pitfalls.
Arrows junior quarterback Nathan Bernhard said it was “100 percent a prove-it game” for a team that had still been searching for its signature win despite a historic run.
“We were supposed to lose this game,” Bernhard said. “The (high school football projection websites) had us losing this game. … We kind of got disrespected a little bit.
“That’s a team that’s won (more than) twice as many playoff games as we’ve ever even played in. It’s a little bit of an upset right there. We got to prove ourselves tonight.”
Bernhard accounted for over 240 yards of offense and the Arrows scored four rushing touchdowns against a DeSales team that had allowed just 13 rushing scores all season.
Day entered the game with just three interceptions, but Ashland’s Killian O’Brien and Josh Ingani both picked him off in the second half.
“Hosting two playoff games, we knew this was a must-win game for us to leave (a bigger legacy),” Ingani said.
Multiple Arrows mentioned the reality of being the smaller, public school facing the big, private-school program.
O’Brien and Bernhard said a Columbus newspaper essentially said the Stallions should be able to cruise to victory over AHS.
They had the article on the wall in the locker room.
“We took that personally and came out here and won,” O’Brien said.
“This is a special team,” 10th-year Ashland athletic director Jason Goings added. “I’ve been watching these guys play together since they were 10 years old; I knew this year was going to be special and they’re proving it on the field.
“This is a big win for our kids against a storied program like DeSales.”
Notably, the coaching careers of Valentine and Wiggins have run amazingly similar parallels.
Both are leading their alma maters – Valentine in his 19th season and Wiggins in his 18th.
After Friday, Valentine is 147-66 with 12 playoff appearances in 213 games at Ashland, while Wiggins is 149-64 with 14 playoff appearances in 213 games at DeSales.
When Valentine and Ashland made the only Final Four run in program history in 2007, Wiggins and the Stallions were just a win away from playing in that same Final Four.
Had things gone right that season, the two programs would have met for the state championship.
Instead, the clash finally arrived Friday night at Community Stadium – the Arrows (now 14-14 in their playoff history) taking on the Stallions (now 63-28).
Ashland fans were treated with an all-timer.
“We’ve won games in the past where we weren’t the best team – physically, looking at (size and matchups) – we weren’t the best team,” Valentine said. “But on that night, we made plays and we were the best team. That’s all we’ve got to keep doing.”
“We’ve been 12-0 before and it’s really difficult,” Wiggins said. “They’ve got a lot going for them right now.
“From a pure football standpoint tonight, they did to us what we were hoping to do to them. I wish them luck.”
