Barnesville To Face Wheelersburg In Playoffs For Third Straight Year
photo by: Kim North
BARNESVILLE – The 13-member senior class on the Barnesville football team has enjoyed tremendous success during their 4-year careers. They’ve won 39 of 40 regular season games, including 36 in a row. They’ve won back-to-back OVAC Class 3A titles and beaten everyone on their schedules, with the exception of one team – Wheelersburg.
Well, the No. 3 Shamrocks (10-0) will get a third chance at the No. 14 Pirates (6-4) Friday night at Shamrock Stadium in the first round of the Ohio Division V, Region 19 playoffs. This will be the third consecutive season the two have met in the postseason, with the Scioto Countians prevailing in each contest. In 2022, the Pirates pulled away for a 55-31 victory in Barnesville before posting a 26-13 verdict in the regional semifinals last fall at Hamilton Township High School in suburban Columbus.
In fact, this will be the fourth meeting all-time as Barnesville claimed the first, 10-7 in a 1992 state playoff contest in Groveport.
Kickoff is set for 7.
“It’s just one of those deals. In our region, you know you’re not going to get an easy game. We know that,” Barnesville head coach Blake Allen said of the matchup. “It seems that the path is going to lead to one of those heavyweights. That’s where we want to be.
“We’ve been knocking at the door the past couple of years. This is where we want to be and the seniors are hungry for this game,” he added. “They’ve beaten every team they’ve played except one. We got over the Fort Frye hump this year. We know this game is going to be a dogfight, and we’re excited about it.
“We always set goals before the season and one of those is to beat our rivals,” Allen noted. “I consider Wheelersburg to be a rival of ours. This will be three years in a row with everything on the line. You can’t get much more of a rivalry than that.
“Two years ago this team was young. They played their hearts out but we lost it in the end. Last year, it was a really good battle that came down to the end,” Allen added. “I think that will be the case again this year.”
Wheelersburg head coach Rob Woodward echoed those thoughts.
“We’ve learned a lot about each other the last two years. We’ve scouted each other for three years now, so now it’s time to fine tune things,” he said. “There’s pros and cons both ways.”
The Shamrocks have used a balanced offensive attack and a seasoned line to average a whopping 52.2 points. They have scored at least 44 points in every outing, put up 50-or-more six times and eclipsed the 60-point mark once. They have run for just over 2,400 yards and 43 touchdowns, while passing for nearly 1,600 and 25 TDs.
Senior quarterback Casey Carpenter has enjoyed a second straight brilliant campaign under center. The southpaw has completed nearly 80 percent of his passes (84-106) for 1,518 yards, 23 touchdowns and zero interceptions. He also has five rushing TDs.
Sophomore tailback Trey Toliver has stepped in for the graduated Taison Starr and hasn’t disappointed. He has carried the ball 109 times for 1,248 yards and scored 18 touchdowns while averaging 11.4 yards per carry. He has fumbled just once. Junior fullback Koby Jones has rumbled for 510 yards on 54 attempts (9.4/carry) and reached the end zone 11 times.
Tight end Bradey McIntire is the leading receiver with 28 catches for 650 yards and 13 touchdowns. He averages 23.3 yards a reception. Wideout Camden Carpenter has caught 25 passes for 431 yards and four scores, while Eli Messenger had seven catches, but three have gone for six points. Colt Carpenter has 14 catches for 142 yards.
All those yards are possible due to the work up front by Luke Taylor, Dillon Lucas, Meade, Salvador Almaraz and Christien Hannahs, plus Camden Carpenter and Jones.
Defensively, the Shamrocks have given up a mere 6.5 points per outing as linebackers Hines Ford and Logan Craker have charted 96 and 90 tackles, respectively. Defensive end Marshall Meade leads with 9.5 TFLs and three quarterback sacks, while Messenger has six INTs, one more than Cole Francis. Casey Carpenter has four. The defense has charted four shutouts.
Placekicker Evan Lough has been steady during his senior season. He has booted 60 of 63 PATs and one of two field goal attempts. His kickoffs usual;ly pin the opposition around their own 20 to start.
According to Allen, the Shamrocks are healthy except for Braden Butler.
“He was one of our senior linemen who had worked his tail off for three years. He was a leader for us,” Allen pointed out. “Dillon (Lucas) has stepped in and we haven’t missed a beat.”
Wheelersburg is led by junior quarterback Braylon Rucker who has passed for 1,000 yards, 12 TDs and four INTs, while running for an additional 292 yards and seven scores. Junior running back Elijah Brown has carried the ball 99 times for 549 yards and scored six TDs. Other ball carriers are Ison Emnett (66-284) and Stephen Hall (68-286). The leading receiver is Kenyon Evans (27-423-3tds).
Defensively, the Pirates are led by linebackers Brown (70 tackles) and Jack Pickelsimer (62). Emnett has 43 tackles, 14 TFLs and four sacks. They have picked off eight passes and recovered four fumbles.
“They are bringing 59 kids down here Friday and we’ve got 59. Two years ago we looked over to their sidelines and they had 78 and we had about 40. A lot has happened in two years.
“People have been asking me what they look like, Allen said. “I tell them they look like Wheelersburg … big, strong and physical. They are well-coached and they are a very good program. I’ve told the kids to not look at their record or seed. Those are just numbers.”
Woodward said Barnesville has steadily gotten better.
“They have improved each year we’ve played them,” he said. “They’ve got a really good quarterback and No. 26 (Toliver) has great balance and runs hard when he totes the rock. They are well-coached. We’ll be in for a dogfight.”
While the Shamrocks have rolled over the 10 opponents, the Pirates started off 0-3 before reeling off six wins in their final seven outings.
“We opened up with the top team in Division V in Ironton (37-7), which is our rival,” Woodward noted. “We play them week 1 every year. Then we played D-III Cincinnati McNicholas (34-3) whose only loss was to Steubenville, and then we played Jackson (28-24), a big D-III school. We were trying to figure ourselves out at this point, but we’ve been playing our best football down the stretch.”
The other loss came at the hands of Canal Winchester Harvest Prep (12-6). They have won four straight.
Wheelersburg averages 25 points per game and yields 15.