Wheeling Park paid homage to their senior class of Noah Short, Trey Kocher, Xander Ackley, AJ Seals, Coldin Burkhart, Jameson Maynard, Jack Klein, Cameron Bryan, Hunter Means, Kieran Moses, Jayden Woods-Davis, and Luke Miller in their final regular season home game before a postseason berth.

John Marshall’s last game of the year had them say farewell to a senior class of Isaac Swauger, Carter Adkins, Maverick Lemasters, Hayden Gaiser, Brooks Harrison, Luke Beaton, Kaden Bungard, Eugene Henry III, Landon Frazier, Gage Hercules, Tim Jackson, Hudson Markwas, Silas Summers, Allick Summers and Clay Howard.

“The coaches told them yesterday- our seniors we had this year were unbelievable,” John Marshall head coach Mark Cisar said. “I knew we’d come up here and play our butts off. Everybody expected us to come up here, they were going to blow us out- we left everything out on the field.

“A call here, a call there- I thought we were in [the end zone] on one, we didn’t get the call. That happens, it’s the name of the game, but my gosh, what an effort by them. We gave them everything they could handle, and they’re a really good team. I knew our kids would come and play extremely hard, and they showed that. They never gave up the whole game.”

Brennan Wack starred for Wheeling Park, breaking his own single-game rushing record, which he had notched earlier this season vs. Musselman. Wack ran for 302 yards to top his previous high-mark of 299. The junior ran in for four scores as Park scored five times on the ground in total.

“We’ve had to lean on him throughout the year, and he’s shown up, that’s for sure,” Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty said. “Tonight was another night where he made a huge difference. You can bottle him up one play, but then he breaks for 50, 60 yards with his speed and explosiveness. We’d like to not have to lean on him so much. That’s our job to get that fixed going into next week.”

Both teams navigated through turnovers Friday, John Marshall losing a fumble and throwing a pick while Wheeling Park had three interceptions.

For the Monarchs’ part, they approached this game with a brand-new look on defense.

“Our defensive coordinator this year, Griffin Yocum, was unbelievable,” Cisar said. “We came into this week, and we changed everything. I think tonight we ran five or six different defenses, I think at times we gave them fits not knowing what we were in.”

The makeover was effective at creating big plays for the Monarchs defense- but also made for some big plays on offense for Wheeling Park.

“I thought John Marshall did a nice job of game-planning and giving us a bunch of stuff defensively that we didn’t see,” Daugherty said. “Credit to them, they did a good job. A lot of it was gambling and bringing different blitzes and moving people around. At one moment it would work and then we’d pop a run. That was kind of what we told our guys- just stay the course, sooner or later they’re going to guess wrong.”

“We didn’t do a very good job of taking care of ourselves. We had some miscues throwing the ball, we let a kick return go back. If we don’t do those things, I think we’re okay. Credit to John Marshall, credit to their kids, they played hard, they coached hard. But credit to our kids too, things didn’t go perfect for us tonight, but our kids’ effort was there and they played hard.”

Wack scored on runs of 34, 64, 54 and one yard(s), while Jed Hunley had an interception on defense, snagging a pick to stop a third-quarter Monarchs drive in the red zone.

For the Monarchs, Zane Cubick, Hayden Gaiser, and Kaden Bungard all had interceptions. Quarterback Kayden ‘Diggy’ Knapp threw for 178 yards and two touchdowns, one to Maverick Lemasters (five catches, 58 yards) and one to Gaiser (five catches, 92 yards). Freshman Dalton Cooper ran for 119 yards and a score.

“Some of the younger guys really stepped up,” Cisar said. “Dalton Cooper the last two weeks has been unbelievable. Some of the young guys on the line played very well. Diggy Knapp played very well, made some big throws scrambling around, and some of our good young receivers played very well.”

Wack started the night’s scoring with a one-yard touchdown on Park’s first offensive possession, getting to the goal line after a 19-yard run the play prior. Jameson Maynard scored on a seven-yard sweep to put the Patriots ahead 14-0 after the first quarter.

Maynard exited the game after the first quarter with an apparent upper-body injury. The versatile two-way piece’s absence was felt Friday.

“It’s one thing when you practice and plan to not have somebody, but when you don’t practice and plan to not have somebody, and then all of a sudden they’re gone, and it’s the caliber of kid that Jaymo is- we’ll see how he does, we’re hoping he’s okay,” Daugherty said. “But it was a situation where we didn’t want to play him the rest of the evening.”

Lemasters got John Marshall on the board from one yard out on a fullback dive. Less than a minute later though, at the 5:22 mark of the second quarter, Wack popped a 64-yard run, twisting away from early contact and breaking away down the field.

The scoring didn’t stop there though. John Marshall’s Xavier Wells took the ensuing kickoff 90 yards almost untouched to the house to cut into Park’s lead, 21-12.

Wack blasted off for a 34-yard touchdown and Lemasters caught an 18-yard screen pass for a score to send the two teams into the locker rooms with the Patriots ahead by 10, 28-18.

It was Lemasters’ second touchdown of the game. The Monarch’s star made plays both ways Friday, with a rushing touchdown, receiving touchdown, and key tackle-for-loss on a third down in the fourth quarter.

“Maverick Lemasters, those guys don’t come around too often,” Cisar said. “Smartest guy on the team. I make the wrong call, he’s fixing me, telling me I called it wrong. Same way with defense. Unbelievable work ethic during the season and during the offseason. Unbelievable leader in the locker room, great team player. He’d be the guy at night who took the equipment off the bus and the guy who puts it on the bus. A guy like that is going to be very successful in life.”

“I’ve coached a decent amount of guys, he’s right there at the top. I told him yesterday, I can compare him to Jordan Barbina when I had him. He’s at Barbina’s level. He is. He could do it all- moved him to fullback, never said one word. Had him at fullback to block for the freshman. Unbelievable on defense, I’m going to miss being associated with a young man like that.”

Dalton Cooper scored on a one-yard touchdown plunge set up by an interception returned 68 yards by Bungard to Park’s one yard-line.

As was the case most of Friday though, when John Marshall made plays, Wack was there to answer. He burst through the line for a 54-yard score to put Park up 35-24 with 8:42 to play in the third.

It was the Patriots defense’s turn to make a play next, with Jed Hunley lifting off to snag an interception right at the goalline to snuff out a prolonged John Marshall drive with four minutes to play in the quarter.

Wheeling Park had multiple red zone stops, including Hunley’s interception and a goal line stand in the final seconds of the first quarter.

“Even when our defense, throughout the year, when they’ve bent a little bit, they’ve never really broken,” Daugherty said. “Go back to the game vs. Morgantown, just kept battling, kept battling, kept making them run plays. Sooner or later, a lot of the time high school offenses are going to make mistakes if you just keep making them run plays. We did a little bit of that, we hurt ourselves here and there, but I thought Jed Hunley’s interception was probably the play of the game in the second half; it kind of sealed the game at that point.”

John Marshall was desperate for a score to trim the deficit to a one-possession game, but was stopped twice in the fourth quarter before they did eventually connect for a touchdown, Knapp tossing a dart 10 yards over the middle to Gaiser, who survived a hit to come down with a touchdown catch. By then though, there was only 1:40 left in the game.

Wack toted the ball thrice to pick up a first down and ice the game.

Wheeling Park awaits the WVSSAC’s release of final playoff seedings on Sunday. The Patriots stood at No. 3 in Class AAAA heading into Friday. The No. 14 seed on Friday was Cabell-Midland (5-5)

John Marshall ends their year with a sub-.500 record but much to hold their heads high about, from the past year and looking into the future.

“I told them- you would never know we were 2-8,” Cisar said of his team. “We played a lot better than that. We really started getting going here lately. If we could have snuck into the playoffs here at 3-7, 4-6, whatever- we left some wins out there. But we started rolling here at the end of the year even though the wins didn’t show

“When you’ve got a bunch of guys ready to go to work full-tilt every day after getting knocked down the Friday before, they show up and continue to work, that’s a pleasure to be around. These guys are all going to be successful in life, these seniors set the example for the younger kids. I think this will carry over the next few years, they got to see ‘this is how you work. Even when things aren’t going right you come to work, head-down and grind it out.’ And we did.”

John Marshall’s Kayden Knapp races to escape pressure from Wheeling Park’s Cameron Bryan on Friday at Wheeling Island Stadium during the two teams’ regular season finale.