By JIM WALKER

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 SOUTH POINT — As The Beatles once sang, “Get back. Get back. Get back to where you once belonged.”

Well, the Ironton Fighting Tigers are back in the Final Four where they belong by earning the program’s 15th trip to the lofty playoff position.

Ironton (13-1) advanced to the state semifinals with a resounding 55-0 win over the Wheelersburg Pirates on Friday in the Division 5 Region 19 championship game.. The Fighting Tigers will face West Liberty-Salem at 7 p.m. next Friday, at Chillicothe High School.

Ironton head coach Trevon Pendleton knows he has a talented team, but even he was surprised with the final outcome.

“When you play a program like Wheelersburg, you don’t expect that. Those are few and far between, I’m just proud of my kids,” said Pendleton.

“Obviously, Wheelersburg is a great program and well-coached. Our kids just executed and took advantage of some opportunities.”

The other semifinal game will pit South Range against Liberty Center. The semifinal winners will meet at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton.

In the Division 5 playoffs, South Range  edged Poland Seminary 17-16, Liberty Center routed Edison 34-6 in a battle of unbeatens, and West Liberty-Salem downed Indian Lake 21-14.

The offense amassed 454 total yards with quarterback Braden Schreck completing 15-of-17 passes for 249 yards and 3 touchdowns. Shaun “Mr. Electric” Terry caught 7 passes for 144 yards and 3 scores.

The running game had 130 yards with 8 different ball carriers led by Zayne Williams with 38 yards on 4 carries and a touchdown. Schreck ran 5 times for 28 lads and a score.

The Fighting Tigers’ defense was swarming once again as they shut down the Pirates by limiting their offense to 177 total yards and only 23 passing.

Ironton also had a pair of interceptions as Josh Johnson and Tyler Carmon each had a Pick-6.

“Obviously, when you can be very diverse in what you’re doing and you’re having multiple people making plays, it makes you harder to defend,” said Pendleton. “Defensively, there aren’t very many weaknesses. They fly around and overcome any adversity.”

Ironton came out with rapid fire by taking a 21-0 first quarter lead.

After forcing Wheelersburg to punt on the first series of the game, the Fighting Tigers went 65 yards in 9 plays with Schreck hitting Terry on a 28-yards catch and run play for the score with 6:04 on the clock.

Beckham Waginger’s conversion kick made it 7-0.

A quick 3-and-out gave the ball back to the Fighting Tigers at their own 47. This led to a one-play drive as the Schreck-to-Terry combination covered the 53 yards and it was 14-0 with 4:05 left in the quarter.

The Pirates picked up a first down but a third down pass was intercepted by Johnson who returned it 55 yards for the touchdown with just 1:22 to go in the quarter and it was 21-0.

“Anytime you’re scoring at that clip you can change the scoreboard pretty quick and you can really swing momentum,” said Pendleton.

Wheelersburg managed to put together its own drive to the Ironton 8-yard line, but a fourth down pass went incomplete and Ironton took possession.

It took 11 plays to reach the Pirates’ 9-yard line and a penalty on the play had the ball at the 5-yard line. Schreck scored on a keeper and the lead was 28-0 with 2:12 to play in the half.

Wheelersburg was forced to punt with less than a minute to play and Ironton got the ball at its own 30-yard line.

After an incomplete pass, Schreck went to work as he threw to Kayden Edwards for 17 yards, Tyler Roach for 12 more and then scrambled to his right, and saw Terry standing alone in the end zone and threw a bull’s-eye to the senior wide receiver and Missouri recruit for a 41-yard touchdown pass and a 34-0 lead with just 9 seconds left in the half.

The Pirates (9-5) recovered an onside kickoff to begin the second half but couldn’t move the ball and turned the ball over on downs.

Ironton had no trouble moving the ball by going 61 yards in just 3 plays aided by a 15-yard penalty.

Schreck hit Terry for 4 yards and Copas for 11 yards. Williams then broke tackles and dragged defenders en route to a 23-yard touchdown jaunt and it was 41-0 with 6:37 on the third quarter clock.

Edwards took over at quarterback with the second team and threw a swing pass to Nick Sites who broke tackles and raced 69 yards to the Pirates’ 24. Two plays later, Edwards ran a keeper and scored from 18 yards out and it was 48-0.

The final score came when Carmon picked up a pass and returned it 53 yards for the touchdown and David Fields kicked the conversion and it was now 55-0.

“Our kids and our coaches are putting in a lot of long hours. I’ve got to give a shout out to my wife. She’s putting up with it. Everyone is doing what’s asked of them. They’re really honing in on the attention to details and the kids are responding to it,” said Pendleton.

Both Ironton and Wheelersburg came into the game riding a 7-game winning streak. Each team played Harvest Prep during their streaks with Wheelersburg losing 12-6 and Ironton winning over Prep 41-13 last week.

Wheelersburg 0 0 0 0 = 0

Ironton  21 13 7 14 = 55

First Quarter

Irn— Shaun Terry 28 pass from Braden Schreck (Beckham Waginger kick) 6:04

Irn — Shaun Terry 53 pass from Braden Schreck (Beckham Waginger kick) 4:05

Irn — Josh Johnson 55 interception return (Beckham Waginger kick) 1:22

Second Quarter

Irn— Braden Schreck 5 run (Beckham Waginger kick) 2:12

Irn — Shaun Terry 41 pass from Braden Schreck (kick blocked) 0:09

Third Quarter

Irn— Zayne Williams 23 run (Beckham Waginger kick) 6:37

Fourth Quarter

Irn— Kayden Edwards 18 run (Beckham Waginger kick) 7:30

Irn— Tyler Carmon 53 interception return (David Fields kick)

—————

Wh Irn

First downs 9 18

Rushes-yards 40-154 18-130

Passing yards 23 324

Total yards 177 454

Cmp-Att-Int 4-16-2

Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-1

Penalties-yards 3-25 6-60

Punts-average 3-29.0 0-00.0

—————

Individual Leaders

RUSHING—Wheelersburg: Braylon Rucker 12-103, Elijah Brown 23-26, Brady Music 1-15, Ison Emnett 2-8, Stephen Hall 1-2, Brycen Longfellow 1-0; Ironton: Zayne Williams 4-38 TD, Braden Schreck 5-28 TD, Shaun Terry 3-17, Tyler Carmon 1-7, Kayden Edwards 2-25 TD, Jesse Copas 1-0, Braiden Linn 1-1, Tyson Harvey 1-4.

PASSING—Wheelersburg: Braylon Rucker 4-13-1 23, Jack Doerr 0-3-1; Ironton: Braden Schreck 15-17-0 249 3-TD, Kayden Edwards 2-2-0 75.

RECEIVING—Wheelersburg: Kenyon Evans 2-19, Ison Emnett 1-11, Elijah Brown 1-minus 7; Ironton: Shaun Terry 7-144 3-TD, Kayden Edwards 4-57, Tyler Roach 2-20, Zayne Williams 1-17, Nick Sites 2-75, Jesse Copas 1-11.

MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.