ASHLAND – It’s hard to drive past Community Stadium and not simply assume there’s another home game coming up for the Ashland Arrows.
It’s hard to think about how it all ended on Friday at St. Francis DeSales’ Alumni Stadium.
On a 50-50 reception through a fog that surrounded the south end zone with five seconds left, the Stallions stole the thunder of one of the most dominant teams in the 119-year history of Ashland High School football.
The Arrows had managed to pull off a stirring second-half comeback at the tail-end of an unforgettable playoff game that had six lead changes.
They could have been down three possessions in the third quarter but instead were leading after a touchdown with 5:27 remaining in the game.
Conversations could be had regarding their strength of schedule, but it can be argued that this collection of Arrows was the most offensively superior ever at AHS.
Outside of its 35-21 triumph in Week 3 at Clyde, Ashland’s average margin of victory was 33.7 points in its wins.
None of the teams throughout its program history come close to that level of prodigious supremacy. It would have been even more remarkable if not for running clocks and the fact that the starters rarely played beyond the third quarter.
That’s part of what made Friday’s finality so hard to stomach for the team, for its families and fans.
In its abrupt, white-knuckle 33-29 comeback victory, DeSales – the same team Ashland beat in the same round a year earlier – had put an end to it all.
One more stop, a few more seconds, and the Arrows would have moved on to play against nationally known Massillon Washington at historic Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
Unfortunately, this team – particularly its record-breaking senior class – will have a hard time thinking about it any other way.
“There are so many things throughout a game that could take things one way or the other,” 20th-year Ashland head coach Scott Valentine said Monday. “As a coach, you always look back and think, ‘What’s something I could have done? Where could I have done something a little bit different?’
“I’m sure the kids do that, too. But in the end, it’s all about the whole thing when it comes down to it. They made one more play than we did, but it wasn’t just that last one.”
As a coach, you always look back and think, ‘What’s something I could have done? Where could I have done something a little bit different?’
Ashland head coach scott valentine
There were so many things that simply felt a little bit off Friday night.
It rained at the stadium later in the day than the forecast suggested, so the home stands surely were less full than they would have been.
For Ashland’s fans, meanwhile, massive traffic backups on I-71 kept the vast majority of them from getting to their seats until after the game began.
The AHS band – always a spirited, energetic element of the Arrows’ Friday nights – wasn’t settled into the stadium until midway through the first quarter.
Valentine said that, had his team not left 45 minutes ahead of when it usually departs for its road games, it might have been at risk of being late for kickoff as well.
“When we came out of the locker room, I’m standing in the front with (seniors Nathan Bernhard and Brandon Briggs) and Nate’s like, ‘The band’s not even here yet,’ ” Valentine said. “Usually they’ll wait, and when the band starts to play, they’ll run on the field.
“You’ve just got to focus and you can’t let (things like that) impact you, and I thought our kids really did a great job adjusting to things.”
Then there was the fog that progressively overtook the turf as the teeter-totter fourth quarter unfolded.
While the visibility was better for fans looking down onto the field, it was hard for the teams to see across to the opposite sideline by game’s end.
Everyone I spoke with said they had never played or coached in anything like it.
“It was kind of hard to see to the sideline for plays, but it was pretty cool to play in,” Ashland senior Gunner Lacey said. “It was kinda like playing in a graveyard.”
Valentine said that after Bernhard scored on his 1-yard touchdown run to put the Arrows ahead, 29-26, he was worried that the special teams unit might have issues on the ensuing kickoff.
“They had had a couple big kickoff returns and I was concerned that our kids going down the field might not be able to see where the ball ended up,” he said. “Then who knows if they run a reverse or something like that and you don’t see it happen?”
Ashland senior kick returner Gabe Baith said he had some concerns at times as well.
“In the fourth quarter when they were kicking the ball off,” he said, “I looked downfield and I could hardly see it.”
Fortunately, it didn’t seem that either team gained a real advantage from the fog, but it added to the aura of a night that had plenty of unique elements away from the actual game itself.
For his part, Bernhard seemed like he remembered every single play when speaking after it was all over.
The record-breaking, Appalachian State-bound senior went through a laundry list of things he felt could have easily gone differently.
Bernhard said Ashland’s early missteps on offense – not scoring on the first two drives after getting inside the DeSales 25-yard line both times (turnover on downs, lost fumble) – helped give the Stallions a critical upper hand.
In last year’s 27-14 playoff win over DeSales – one of the biggest home wins in Ashland history – the Arrows had a 20-7 lead at halftime and owned a key 3-0 advantage in turnovers forced.
Bernhard ran for 126 yards and three touchdowns that night, so he barely needed to go to the air.
But on Friday, it was the Stallions and their own record-setting quarterback, junior RJ Day, who took early control and had Ashland playing catch-up, leading 23-14 at the half.
DeSales head coach Ryan Wiggins, who has led the program to four Final Four appearances in his 19 seasons guiding his alma mater, said it was the fifth time this season his team won a game when trailing in the fourth quarter.
Bernhard was masterful in the effort, accounting for four touchdowns in a game for the 10th time this season. His 485 yards (365 passing, 120 rushing) were the second-most in a game in his career – trailing only his epic 522-yard, eight-touchdown night at West Holmes in 2024.
He spun the highlight reels with huge touchdown passes to Killian O’Brien (86 and 17 yards) and Dakota Kruty (76), and also had a 59-yard run to set up the final touchdown of his career.
That 1-yard score gave Bernhard 52 total touchdowns as a senior – the first player in AHS history to account for more than 50 in a season.
Unbelievably, he finished this fall with 2,878 yards passing, 31 touchdown passes and a minuscule two interceptions.
But the numbers were a distant second place to a win for him after the game.
“We handed them points offensively and defensively with our mistakes,” he said. “We were able to get something going and make some plays (in the second half), but it wasn’t enough.”
Wiggins said he wasn’t sure what the Stallions would have done had the final touchdown pass fallen incomplete. With five seconds left, the safe play would have been to try to send the game to overtime with a 20-yard field goal from Elvis Castro-Alvarado, who had made a pair of field goals already.
It was a decision the coach was happy he didn’t have to make.
“With Bernhard you’re just never (comfortable),” Wiggins said. “Even when there’s one second left, you’re nervous – he’s that good.”
The coach also had the benefit of his own star triggerman in Day. A three-year starter whose 5,575 career passing yards and 2,571 passing yards this season are both DeSales records, he accounted for more than 500 yards on his own Friday night.
The junior has college offers from 13 Division I FBS schools, and he matched Bernhard with three touchdown passes and one rushing score.
“Our biggest thing is always to just compete,” said Day, the son of Ohio State head coach Ryan Day. “I grew up in a football family and competing was something that was instilled in me at a young age.
“To be a true competitor, you’re never really out of any situation. You’ve just got to use that and take it one play at a time.”
There’s a video on YouTube of Massillon fans intently watching the end of the Ashland-DeSales game on the giant digital scoreboard at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium after the team’s 62-7 dismantling of Hoover last week.
Rather than host the seventh-seeded Arrows (10-2), the third-seeded Tigers (8-3) will have to travel to face the second-seeded Stallions (9-2) this week.
The Massillon-DeSales matchup will be historic in its own right. The two storied programs have never met, and both are among the most experienced in Ohio when it comes to the playoffs (DeSales is 64-28 with three wins in state championship games; Massillon is 61-30 with one title-game victory).
Ashland, meanwhile, will still be thinking about its heart-wrenching fate. And while silver linings are never a true antidote, the Arrows should consider what it took to beat them:
- The greatest passing game in DeSales history (482 yards for Day).
- One of the greatest receiving games in DeSales history (10 catches, 228 yards for Dax Middleton). The junior’s 2025 is the best ever for any Stallions receiver, with school records in catches (57), receiving yards (934) and receiving TDs (11).
- One of the greatest catches in DeSales history (a 3-yard, over-the-defender grab to win the game by junior tight end Jordan Karhoff, who has roughly 30 FCS offers).
- The absence of Ashland’s leading running back, Grayson Baith (81-509-9 rushing, 19-227-2 receiving this season). The junior had one carry Friday, essentially missing his second playoff game due to a leg injury suffered in Week 10 at Lexington.
“I have a ton of respect for Ashland, Nathan (Bernhard), Killian (O’Brien) and their coaching staff,” Day said. “They’ve had a great team the last two years.”
I have a ton of respect for Ashland, Nathan (Bernhard), Killian (O’Brien) and their coaching staff. They’ve had a great team the last two years.
St. francis Desales quarterback RJ Day
Obviously, the Arrows don’t play for consolation prizes, and fans would much prefer to be taking another drive on I-71 this week to Massillon.
But years from now, when players and fans roll down memory lane, they’ll recall the history this team and this group of seniors leaves behind.
“We talked in the offseason about the impact that those guys who were going to be seniors had on last year’s team,” Valentine said, “but also how important it was for them to realize that they were going to be known by what they do their senior year.
“I think they came out and were leaders in how we were going to work in practice, then were able to have a great season as we went through it this year.”
Ashland history / records set this season
TEAM
- Program record for points per game (41.2).
- Fewest points per game allowed in a decade (15.8).
- Second-longest regular-season win streak in program history (19 games).
- One of the longest home win streaks in program history (15 games and counting).
- Sixth season with double-digit wins in program history.
- Top 10 finish in the Associated Press state poll for the fifth time in program history (No. 9 in Division II).
QB NATHAN BERNHARD
- Ashland career records in passing yards (8,817 are unofficially Top 25 in Ohio history), passing TDs (T-1st, 76), total yards (10,991), total TDs (127), completions (631), attempts (1,006), rushing yards by a QB (2,174), rushing TDs by a QB (51), consecutive passing attempts without an interception (336), wins as a starting QB (T-1st, 29).
LB Gunner Lacey
- Ashland career record for tackles (416).
WR Gabe Baith
- Ashland career record for receptions (177).
K Carson O’Brien
- Close to Ashland records for career PATs (135/151), field goals (17/22), kicking points (186), single-season PATs (62/64).
When Ashland kicks off in 2026, it will begin the 120th season in program history with a 569-512-40 all-time record over 1,121 games.
Valentine will need five more wins for 200 in his 30-year head coaching career.
The Arrows will return standouts Grayson Baith, Killian O’Brien (74 catches, 1,486 yards, 20 TDs receiving in his career), Jeff Hickey (18 tackles, 6 INTs this year) and Liam Hubacher (55 tackles this year) alongside a talented group of underclassmen from this fall.
“They’ve got the capability to be good,” Valentine said, “but there’s some work we have to put in.”
“I really hope we rubbed off on the other players (returning),” Lacey added. “Hopefully they can learn from us and I have all the faith in the world they can come back and be just as good as we were.”